Pelosi departs Taiwan, Kansas blocks abortion measure, Vin Scully dies

Headlines for Aug. 3, 2022:

Nancy Pelosi departs Taiwan – Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) left Taiwan in the early morning hours on Wednesday, ending a roughly day-long trip that included a meeting with Taiwan’s president. The House Speaker reaffirmed the United States would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan.

“Our delegation came here to send an unequivocal message: America stands with Taiwan,” Rep. Pelosi said in remarks given after a meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

In response to the trip, China banned some imports from Taiwan and announced multiple military exercises that are set to begin Thursday.

Primary Tuesday takeaways – Another Primary Tuesday has come and gone but the biggest result of the night didn’t come from a primary race. It came from a measure on the ballot in largely conservative Kansas. Voters in the state rejected a measure that would have allowed the state legislature to ban abortion. The vote was seen as the first political test for abortion rights in a post-Roe America.

“I’m super proud to be from Kansas tonight and I feel like my state just showed and boldly told me that they going to take care of me and my female friends and everyone that can get pregnant in the state of Kansas,” Kansas voter Allie Utley said Tuesday night. “We are protected tonight.”

Vin Scully dies at 94 – Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully has died at the age of 94 years old. Scully was the voice of the Dodgers both in Brooklyn and Los Angeles for 67 years, making him the longest tenured broadcaster with a single team in pro sports history.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) released a statement following the news of Scully’s death.

“Over his remarkable career, Vin consistently demonstrated the remarkable ability to improvise poetry, a true artist whose love for the game rang through every Dodgers broadcast,” Gov. Newsom said in the statement. “He was quite simply the greatest of all time, and will be sorely missed not just by his family and friends but by millions of baseball fans.”