RFK Jr. suspends his campaign for president and endorses former President Donald Trump, and the Federal Reserve prepares to lower the base interest rate.

RFK Jr. says in court filing he's endorsing Trump

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a court filing Friday in Pennsylvania that he is endorsing Republican Donald Trump's White House bid.

The court filing cites "today's endorsement of Donald Trump for the office of President of the United States" in response to a legal challenge to keep him off of Pennsylvania's ballot; Kennedy's campaign also asked to remove him from the Pennsylvania ballot.

Kennedy was set to make an announcement about his campaign's path forward in Phoenix later Friday. His announcement comes one day after his campaign withdrew from Arizona's ballot, signaling that he was potentially mulling an end to his presidential campaign.

Rumors about Kennedy's possible exit from the race and potential endorsement of Trump began swirling earlier this week when his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, said in an interview that their campaign was deciding whether to stay in through the November election or drop out and align themselves with the Republican ex-president.

In an episode of the Impact Theory podcast posted Tuesday, Shanahan said if Kennedy presses on and receives 5% of the popular vote, “we actually establish ourselves as a party” and become eligible for future public campaign funds. But, she added: “We run the risk of a Kamala Harris and (Minnesota Gov. Tim) Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump.” 

Powell: 'The time has come' for the Fed to cut interest rates

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said in a highly anticipated speech on Friday that "the time has come" for the central bank to cut interest rates amid a cooling job market and dramatically lowered inflation.

"The time has come for policy to adjust," Powell said at the Federal Reserve's annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo. "The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks."

"The labor market is no longer overheated, and conditions are now less tight than those that prevailed before the pandemic," Powell said.

He did not give a timeline for when cuts would begin. Experts expect at least a quarter-point cut to be announced at the Fed's mid-September meeting.

But importantly, his comments signaled that he believes that the inflation that has ravaged American families over the last four years is largely under control and is continuing to fall.

"My confidence has grown that inflation is on a sustainable path back to 2%," Powell said.

The Fed chair also said that rate cuts should maintain the economy's growth and sustain hiring, which slowed last month. Continued growth could boost Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, even as most Americans say they are dissatisfied with the Biden-Harris administration's economic record, largely because average prices remain far above where they were before the pandemic.

Orange County Canvassing Board sends District 1 race to a runoff

The Orange County Canvassing Board has declared that the race for the County Commission District 1 seat will go to a runoff after neither of the top two candidates, who were separated by only two votes, crossed the 50% plus-one threshold to win the seat.

As the Orange County Canvassing Board deliberated, the public watched them sort through some spoiled and cured ballots.

According to the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office, the final vote total left candidate Austin Arthur with 14,060 votes, and Nicole H. Wilson with 14.062. Neither got more than 50% of the vote thanks to 15 votes for write-in candidates.

Because neither candidate received more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election between Arthur and Wilson will take place in November.

“I want to thank our entire election team of more than 2,200 people for all of their hard work throughout this process as we ensured every possible vote that could be legally counted was counted,” said Orange County Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean in a statement. “The canvassing board serves a critical function in giving the voting public a transparent view of how votes are counted after every election.”