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Recode Daily: The internet is ready for Thursday’s net neutrality vote to be over

Plus, an upset in Alabama, San Francisco mayor Ed Lee was a friend to Silicon Valley, Steve Bannon’s dirty-tricks campaign against Twitter, and Santa’s brand book.

Patrick Gorski / NurPhoto / Getty Images

Alabama elected Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate — the first time the state has elected a Democrat to that seat in decades. Pundits argue that Jones’ defeat of Roy Moore is a repudiation of both Donald Trump, who endorsed Moore, and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who invested heavily in Moore’s candidacy. [New York Times]

You’ve read about it a lot in this newsletter — the FCC will finally vote on net neutrality tomorrow. In the last days and hours before the vote, protests mostly moved off the streets and online — Reddit, Etsy and Kickstarter were among the sites warning against FCC chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal to roll back the Obama-era regulations. The biggest tech companies, including Facebook, Google and Microsoft were less vocal — perhaps because they are facing more hostility and regulatory battles with Washington, D.C., than in past years. Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell says we should all calm down. [The New York Times]

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who had a close relationship with the tech industry, died yesterday morning of a heart attack at age 65.Board of Supervisors President London Breed has been sworn in as acting mayor. The city’s first Asian-American mayor, Lee had been in office since 2011; he was reelected in 2015 and quickly positioned himself as an advocate to attract and keep companies like Twitter in the city. Silicon Valley sent condolences via Twitter, including expressions from Marc Benioff, Jack Dorsey and Max Levchin. [Meghann Farnsworth / Recode]

Apple is investing $390 million into Finisar, a high-tech manufacturer, which will re-open a plant in Texas. The two companies say the investment will create 500 jobs at the facility, which will make chips for iPhone Xs and Air Pods. [CNBC]

The Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino is testing a microwave-powered weapon-sensing device among its surveillance tactics.Marketed by a Canadian security outfit, the Patscan Cognitive Microwave Radar combines short-range radar with machine-learning algorithms to scan individual guess for guns, knives and bombs in real time, without making them walk through metal detectors and other buzzkill tactics. [Robbie Gonzalez / Wired]

Top stories from Recode

Twitter will now let you publish an entire tweetstorm all at once.

Rant away!

Anyone can now build augmented reality face masks inside Facebook.

Facebook is opening up its AR platform to everyone.

Homeis wants to be a social network for urban immigrants.

But the company hates the word “immigrants.”

Building a restaurant business on the shoulders of the delivery industry is a recipe for disaster.

If one of the best-run restaurant groups in the country walks away with a 12-percent margin, imagine how your local restaurant is doing.

This is cool

Feeling Christmassy yet? This will cure you.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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