NANCY PELOSI is Speaker of the House (Wikipedia photo).

After nearly 20 years as leader of Democrats in the House of Representatives – including several stints as Speaker of the House – Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday that she would not seek a position of leadership in the House.

The new House will have a Republican majority and Kevin McCarthy has been chosen to be the new Speaker, succeeding Pelosi.

She will remain in Congress having been re-elected in her California district.

“For me. the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect,” she said, according to the Associated Press.

Lake – as she predicted – won’t concede

Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, is refusing to concede the election to Democrat Katie Hobbs.

The official count by the state secretary of state – a Republican – is that Hobbs had outpolled Lake by about 77,000 votes.

Lake had said before the election that she expected widespread election fraud, and has been a denier of President Joe Biden’s 2022 victory over former president Donald Trump.

Also in the News…Elon Musk, the controversial new owner of the Twitter social media firm, has given  workers an ultimatum to be willing to work “extremely hard core” and “long hours” or be fired. Hundreds of resignations have already been reported.

Sports: Judge over Ohtani as AL MVP

Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, who set a new American League home run record of 62, was announced as AL Most Valuable Player for 2022 on Thursday.

The Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani, who had an historically impressive two-way season, was a distant second.

In the National League, Paul Goldschmidt of the St. Louis Cardinals was the MVP.  Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers finished fourth and fifth in the voting.

Weather: Sunny and breezy

The forecast for the West Orange County area for the weekend shows daytime highs in the mid-70s with some strong winds at times. The National Weather Service is calling for a daytime high of 69 on Friday with an overnight low of 48.

Saturday should see winds of 20 to 25 miles an hour, with gusts up to 35 mph. Sunday will see the winds abated, with a daytime high of 74, with a nighttime low of 49.