CBS News
Volcanic eruption in Indonesia forces hundreds to evacuate
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Recount triggered in Pennsylvania Senate race as McCormick heads to D.C., Casey declines to concede
Sen. Bob Casey is not giving up on retaining his U.S. Senate seat. The three-term Democrat is currently locked in a tight race with Dave McCormick, trailing the Republican by just over 29,000 votes as of 4 p.m. Wednesday. CBS News has not issued a projection in the race.
Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced Wednesday afternoon that unofficial results in the race have triggered a statewide recount.
That’s because vote totals for McCormick and Casey are within a 0.5% margin, which triggers a statewide recount under state law.
According to the Department of State, Casey received 48.5% of the vote with 3,350,972 votes and McCormick had 48.93% with 3,380,310.
Counties must begin the recount by Nov. 20, the announcement says. The recount will cost about $1 million in taxpayer funds, the Department of State says.
Casey has not made a public appearance since his election night watch party in Scranton, but he posted a video on his social media accounts Tuesday.
“The American democratic process was born in Pennsylvania, and that process will play out,” he said in the video on X.
Meanwhile, McCormick is moving forward. The businessman declared victory during a speech in Pittsburgh Friday, and he has spent this week in Washington going through the Senate orientation process.
“The people have spoken. There’s a clear, clear victory,” McCormick said last week.
CBS News Philadelphia reached out to both campaigns Wednesday, but neither made the candidates available to speak.
Casey’s campaign has said it’s been waiting for outstanding votes from around the state, from mail-in ballots to overseas and military votes and provisional ballots. In Philadelphia, the state’s largest county and one where Casey has garnered more than 78% of the vote, commissioners say the number of votes left out there is running thin.
“We had about 20,000 provisional ballots to start with. We’ve already counted 11,000 of those,” city commissioner Seth Bluestein said Wednesday.
Bluestein told CBS News Philadelphia the election board wrapped up voting on outstanding mail-in votes Wednesday. He says a few thousand could not be counted for various reasons, mostly a lack of a signature or secrecy envelope.
As for the remaining provisional ballots, Bluestein said the board will take those up on Friday. But he warned, “most of those will probably end up not getting counted.”
According to a statement from the Pennsylvania Department of State, Casey’s campaign did not waive an automatic recount by noon on Wednesday.
The Department of Stats says there are about 60,366 uncounted provisional ballots and 20,155 uncounted mail-in and absentee ballots. That includes ballots for which officials still need to determine eligibility or validity.
A deadly E. coli outbreak linked to slivered onions on McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers has sickened 104 people in 14 states, federal health officials said in an update on Wednesday.
At least 34 people have been hospitalized, and four developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious condition that can cause kidney failure. An 88-year-old man who resided in Grand Junction, Colorado, died, as previously reported. The illnesses began at the end of September, and the most recent onset of illness occurred as of October 21, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
McDonald’s in late October said its Quarter Pounders — without slivered onions — would return to the menus of hundreds of its impacted restaurants after testing ruled out beef patties as the source of the outbreak.
The hamburger chain pulled the burgers from restaurants in several states after the outbreak was announced.
The FDA and Colorado officials have collected onion and environmental samples from McDonald’s stores and distribution centers. One sample of recalled onions tested positive for E. coli, but did not match the outbreak strain.
Onion supplier Taylor Farms recalled yellow onions in the wake of the outbreak, and McDonald’s has reintroduced slivered onions from a different supplier.
“There does not appear to be a continued food safety concern related to this outbreak at McDonald’s restaurants,” the FDA stated.
It usually takes three to four weeks to determine if a sick person is part of an outbreak. Most people infected with the toxin-producing E. coli experience severe stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting. Most recover without treatment after five to seven days.
People are advised to call their health care provider if they ate a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder and have severe E. coli symptoms.
23andMe, the struggling ancestry tracing company, continues to spiral, raising questions about its business prospects and what could happen to its sensitive customer genetic testing data.
23andMe on Tuesday announced it is slashing 40% of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan. The move comes after its entire board resigned in September. Its stock price has since plunged, prompting speculation that the company could be acquired by another buyer and sparking concern among customers about the security of their genetic information.
CEO Anne Wojcicki has said she intends to take the company private and is not considering third-party takeover proposals.
Customer data collected from its genetic testing tools makes up the company’s most valuable asset. Because 23andMe is not a health care company, health privacy laws don’t apply, raising questions about what the business might opt to do with its 15 million users’ personal genetic data.
Under 23andMe’s current user agreement, users must opt-in to allow the company to share their personal DNA or data. The agreement states that if the company is acquired, customers’ data may be accessed or sold as part of such a transaction.
23andMe told CBS MoneyWatch correspondent Kelly O’Grady that while there are no plans for a sale, the current privacy agreement would apply.
Meanwhile, at least 11 states have passed privacy laws that would require customers’ consent before their genetic data is transferred.
Still, experts say a new owner could change 23andMe’s privacy terms following a sale, potentially putting the onus on consumers to push back against any move to share their data.
23andMe said that roughly 80% of its customers consent to participate in the company’s research program, which it said has generated more than 270 peer-reviewed publications uncovering new genetic insights into disease. Any data that shared is anonymized and cannot be traced back to individual customers, according to the company.
Still, users can can take additional steps to protect their data, including deleting their 23andMe accounts — a process that is automated and straightforward.
“If, at any time, you are no longer interested in participating in our Services, you may delete your 23andMe account directly within your Account Settings,” the company states on its website.
That requires you to log in to your account and submit a request. The company then emails you a data deletion request confirmation, which you must verify.
“They’ll get rid of your sample, they’ll delete all of your personal information and they will close the account,” O’Grady said.
23andMe, which went public in 2021, has struggled to generate profits, with most buyers of its saliva-based testing kits only needing to make a single purchase. The company reported a net loss of $667 million for its last fiscal year, more than double the loss of $312 million for the year prior.
23andMe posted another loss in quarterly earnings released Tuesday. The company reported a net loss of $59.1 million for the 2025 fiscal year’s second quarter, compared to a loss of $75.3 million for the same year prior.
Kelly O’Grady and
contributed to this report.
