FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 8, 2021 file photo, A man walks out of a Marc's Store in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. With viral cases declining, consumers spending again and more businesses easing restrictions, America's employers likely delivered another month of robust hiring in April, reinforcing the economy's steady rebound from the pandemic recession. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)
“Rising vaccination rates, eased restrictions and substantial federal stimulus have together helped boost consumer spending on goods and services. But in industries like manufacturing, hospitality and construction, employers are having a hard time finding workers, despite there being more job openings now than before the pandemic hit in March 2020. Millions of adults say they haven't sought work out of Covid fears, while some parents say a lack of child care prevents them from returning to work as some schools continue to operate remotely. Others say that enhanced federal unemployment benefits, which expire in September, are robust enough that they can wait for the right job opportunity. Overall, there were about four million fewer people in the U.S. workforce in March of 2021 compared with last year, meaning that even as hiring accelerates, millions of potential job seekers are remaining on the sidelines. A survey from the jobs site ZipRecruiter found that fewer people felt financial pressure to take the first job offer they received than in 2018. ‘The pandemic has changed people’s motivations,’ said ZipRecruiter economist Julia Pollak. ‘Employers may need to be patient, as vaccines are still being rolled out, and may have to become more flexible in order to find workers.’” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“WASHINGTON (AP) — With viral cases declining, consumers spending again and more businesses easing restrictions, America’s employers likely delivered another month of robust hiring in April, reinforcing the economy’s steady rebound from the pandemic recession.
Economists have forecast that the nation added 975,000 jobs last month, according to a survey by FactSet, after adding 916,000 in March, and that the unemployment rate slipped from 6% to 5.8%. The size of such job gains was essentially unheard-of before the pandemic.
The government will issue the April jobs report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Friday.
Yet most of the hiring represents a bounce-back after tens of millions of jobs were lost when the pandemic flattened the economy 14 months ago. Even if economists’ estimate for April hiring proves accurate, the economy would remain about 7 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic level.
At the same time, optimism about a sustained recovery is rising. Americans are, on average, flush with cash, thanks in part to $1,400 stimulus checks that have gone to most adults and to savings that many affluent households managed to build up during the pandemic. Fueled by that extra money, Americans are buying more homes and cars, boosting restaurant and retail sales and filling more airline seats.
And most economists expect outsize job growth to continue in the coming months as vaccinations are widely administered and trillions in government aid spreads through the economy. Even if another uptick in COVID-19 cases were to occur, analysts don’t expect most states and cities to reimpose tough business restrictions. Oxford Economics, a consulting firm, predicts that a total of 8 million jobs will be added this year, reducing the unemployment rate to a low 4.3% by the final three months of 2021.” Read more at AP
“Hours after Florida installed a rash of new voting restrictions, the Republican-led Legislature in Texas pressed ahead on Thursday with its own far-reaching bill that would make it one of the most difficult states in the nation in which to cast a ballot.
The Texas bill would, among other restrictions, greatly empower partisan poll watchers, prohibit election officials from mailing out absentee ballot applications and impose strict punishments for those who provide assistance outside the lines of what is permissible.
After a lengthy debate that lasted into the early morning hours on Friday, the State House of Representatives passed the measure in a 81-64 vote, largely along party lines, at about 3 a.m., following a flurry of amendments that had been spurred by Democratic protests and a Democratic procedural move known as a point of order.
The new amendments softened some of the initial new penalties proposed for those who run afoul of the rules and added that the police could be called to remove unruly partisan poll watchers. Other amendments added by Democrats sought to expand ballot access, including with changes to ballot layout and with voter registration at high schools. But those amendments could be knocked off by a potential conference committee.
The bill will soon head to the Republican-controlled Senate following a third reading in the House. Gov. Greg Abbott has been supportive of the current voting bills in the legislature….
Florida and Texas are critical Republican-led battleground states with booming populations and 70 Electoral College votes between them. The new measures the legislatures are putting in place represent the apex of the current Republican effort to roll back access to voting across the country following the loss of the White House amid historic turnout in the 2020 election.
Earlier on Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, with great fanfare, signed his state’s new voting bill, which passed last week. Held at a Palm Beach hotel with cheering supporters in the background, the ceremony showcased Mr. DeSantis’s brash style; the governor’s office barred most journalists and provided exclusive access to Fox News, a nose-thumbing gesture of contempt toward a news media he viewed as overly critical of the bill.
‘Right now, I have what we think is the strongest election integrity measures in the country,’ Mr. DeSantis said, though he has praised Florida’s handling of last November’s elections.
Ohio, another state under complete Republican control, introduced a new omnibus voting bill on Thursday that would further limit drop boxes in the state, limit ballot collection processes and reduce early in-person voting by one day, while also making improvements to access such as an online absentee ballot request portal and automatic registration at motor vehicle offices.
Iowa and Georgia have already passed bills that not only impose new restrictions but grant those states’ legislatures greater control over the electoral process.
Republicans have pressed forward with these bills over the protests of countless Democrats, civil rights groups, faith leaders, voting rights groups and multinational corporations, displaying an increasing no-apologies aggressiveness in rolling back access to voting.
The efforts come as Republicans in Washington are seeking to oust Representative Liz Cheney from her leadership position in the House Republican caucus for her continued rejection of former President Donald J. Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, and as Republicans at a party convention in Utah booed Senator Mitt Romney for his criticism of the former president.” Read more at New York Times
Contractors working for a group hired by Republican state senators examined ballots from the 2020 general election at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix this week.Credit...Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images
“Untrained citizens are trying to find traces of bamboo on last year’s ballots, seemingly trying to prove a conspiracy theory that the election was tainted by fake votes from Asia. Thousands of ballots are left unattended and unsecured. People with open partisan bias, including a man who was photographed on the Capitol steps during the Jan. 6 riot, are doing the recounting.
All of these issues with the Republican-backed re-examination of the November election results from Arizona’s most populous county were laid out this week by Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, in a scathing six-page letter.
Ms. Hobbs called the process ‘a significant departure from standard best practices.’
‘Though conspiracy theorists are undoubtedly cheering on these types of inspections — and perhaps providing financial support because of their use — they do little other than further marginalize the professionalism and intent of this ‘audit,’’ she wrote to Ken Bennett, a former Republican secretary of state and the liaison between Republicans in the State Senate and the company conducting it.
The effort has no official standing and will not change the state’s vote, whatever it finds. But it has become so troubled that the Department of Justice also expressed concerns this week in a letter saying that it might violate federal laws.” Read more at New York Times
“About 185 million Americans could be fully vaccinated by September, according to the latest vaccination models. That’s roughly 88% of the adult population, but experts say it's a race against time to fend off a winter surge as virus variants like the one driving the crisis in India become more prominent. Booster shots may also be needed in the coming months to keep up immunity. India reported 414,188 new Covid-19 cases today, a new daily high. Brazil has topped 15 million Covid-19 cases, but there’s some hope on the horizon after the government announced it will buy an extra 100 million Pfizer vaccine doses.” Read more at CNN
“WASHINGTON— Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) embraced former President Donald Trump and his supporters as critical to Republicans’ success at the ballot box, seeking to quiet critics who raised concerns about her voting record as she seeks a top position in party leadership.
Ms. Stefanik’s stance on Mr. Trump contrasts sharply with that of Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), the embattled chairman of the House Republican conference whom she is hoping to succeed. This week, House GOP leaders aired their frustration with Ms. Cheney, who has repeatedly criticized Mr. Trump over his baseless claims that the election was stolen from him. She has urged the party to distance itself from the former president.
In comments to Steve Bannon’s “War Room” broadcast on Thursday, Ms. Stefanik emphasized party unity and said Mr. Trump’s populist coalition of voters was key to winning back control of the House next year.
‘This is also about being one team,’ she said, adding that she was ‘proud to stand up for President Trump.’
Ms. Stefanik, who was sometimes critical of Mr. Trump when he was a candidate but then became an outspoken defender during his first impeachment, also joined with Mr. Trump and other Republicans in questioning the November election result. Ms. Stefanik objected to some Biden electors during the Jan. 6 session of Congress certifying President Biden’s victory that was interrupted by the pro-Trump Capitol riot.
In the interview Thursday, she also said she supported Arizona Republicans’ audit of ballots, saying extra review is needed to address constituents’ concerns, despite prior audits having confirmed Mr. Biden’s victory in the state.
She also said she had been a victim of ‘cancel culture’ when she was kicked off a Harvard University advisory board as a result of her claims of election fraud.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is expected to speak publicly Friday morning after she surprisingly announced late Thursday that she will not seek a second term. Bottoms, 51, announced she would not run for reelection during a private call, according to one report . After reports broke, she later confirmed her intentions with an open letter shared on Twitter and dearatl.com. Bottoms, an Atlanta native and the second Black woman ever elected mayor in the city, had previously announced she would be running for a second term.” Read more at USA Today
“The Alabama legislature gave final approval to a bill that would create a statewide medical marijuana program. But Gov. Kay Ivey has only committed to ‘thoroughly reviewing’ the legislation.” Read more at USA Today
“Millions of British voters were casting ballots Thursday in local and regional elections, and the choices of Scottish voters in particular could have huge repercussions for the future of the United Kingdom.
On what has been dubbed Super Thursday, around 50 million voters were eligible to take part in scores of elections, some of which had been postponed a year because of the pandemic that has left the UK with Europe’s largest coronavirus death toll.
At stake is the makeup of devolved governments in Scotland and Wales and the next mayors for England’s big cities, including London and Manchester. Thousands of council members, police commissioners, and other local authorities are also seeking seats. No elections were taking place in Northern Ireland.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Over the past few days, Rudy Giuliani’s allies have been shamelessly begging Donald Trump to cover his former personal attorney’s legal fees as a federal investigation into his conduct gets more and more serious. Now, a new report from Politico has laid out the extent of Giuliani’s cashflow problems. The site reports the Trump ally has gotten rid of ‘several staffers and independent contractors’ in recent weeks to help shrink his monthly outlays. The pressure has ramped up on Giuliani since federal agents raided his home and office last week, leaving him staring at a long and expensive legal fight. He’s already being sued for defamation by voting-machine company Dominion, and reportedly pays tens of thousands of dollars every month in alimony. In 2019, he butt-dialled an NBC News reporter and was heard complaining: ‘The problem is we need some money.’ Giuliani didn’t comment on Politico’s report.” [Daily Beast] Read more at POLITICO
“An Air Force veteran who prosecutors allege worked with Stephen K. Bannon — President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist — to defraud donors to a fundraising campaign for a U.S.-Mexico border wall has been indicted on new tax charges.
Brian Kolfage, a conservative activist who lost three limbs in Iraq and was the founder and public face of the ‘We Build the Wall’ fundraising campaign, was charged in federal court in Florida with filing a false tax return. In an indictment, prosecutors alleged that Kolfage claimed to the IRS in his 2019 tax return that he had a total income of just over $63,000 and did not report hundreds of thousands of dollars deposited into his personal bank account from ‘We Build the Wall’ and other sources.
Federal prosecutors in New York last year charged Bannon, Kolfage and two others with defrauding donors to the campaign, which was publicly supported by several of Trump’s allies and raised more than $25 million from hundreds of thousands of donors. In an indictment in that case, prosecutors alleged that the men lied when they said they would not take any compensation from the campaign.
Kolfage and Bannon had defended themselves against those allegations, asserting that the indictment was politically motivated and designed to undermine supporters of Trump, who touted a U.S.-Mexico border wall during his presidential campaign. In January, Trump pardoned Bannon, and Bannon has since been fighting to get the case against him formally dismissed. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan is seeking an ‘administrative’ termination of Bannon’s case, which would halt the prosecution against him for good but would not clear his name from the docket. Trump did not pardon Kolfage or the others charged.
Bannon was not charged in the new case, and the indictment makes no mention of him. His pardon covers only federal charges, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has been considering whether it might be able to make a state case against him.
A court hearing on the new charge against Kolfage is scheduled for May 27, court records show.” Read more at Washington Post
“DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Conservatives last week gobbled up a false news story claiming President Joe Biden planned to ration red meat. Colorado Rep. Rep. Lauren Boebert suggested Biden ‘stay out of my kitchen.’ Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted out a headline warning Biden was getting ‘Up in your grill.’
The news was wrong — Biden is planning no such thing — but it was hardly the first time the right has recognized the political power of a juicy steak. Republican politicians in recent months have increasingly used food — especially beef — as a cudgel in a culture war, accusing climate-minded Democrats of trying to change Americans’ diets and, therefore, their lives.
‘That is a direct attack on our way of life here in Nebraska,’ Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican, said recently.
The pitched rhetoric is likely a sign of the future. As more Americans acknowledge the link between food production and climate change, food choices are likely to become increasingly political. Already, in farm states, meat eating has joined abortion, gun control and transgender rights as an issue that quickly sends partisans to their corners.” Read more at AP
“President Biden has said his tax proposals would make big business and wealthy investors pay their fair share.
His package would also likely deliver a blow to American farm owners by limiting a longstanding tax break. The provision allows landowners to defer paying capital-gains tax when they sell investment property and put the proceeds toward the purchase of other real estate.
Farmers for generations have used the tax break to cheaply and quickly relocate farm operations to lands with better soil, diversify the crops they grow and consolidate land holdings. Some have used it when exiting the farming business at retirement. Farm owners in 2012 held 915 million acres, about 40% of the land in the continental U.S.
Farmers were hit four years ago when the Trump administration narrowed the use of this tax deferment, known as a 1031 like-kind exchange. The provision, named for a section of the tax code, used to apply to many types of personal property, including farm equipment and livestock. Farmers exchanged their old tractors and upgraded to newer and better ones without having to pay tax on their trade-ins.
The 2017 tax law under President Trump eliminated 1031 exchanges for everything but real estate.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“New York state tax officials are scrutinizing refund claims filed by nonresident tax filers who normally commute to jobs in New York but have been working remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tax lawyers said the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has begun auditing 2020 returns for people whose work habits shifted when their offices closed. The department gave auditors refresher training about out-of-state filers within the last several months, a person familiar with the matter said.
New York taxes the income of nonresidents if it is derived from New York sources, including wages paid to a commuter who worked from home out of convenience rather than necessity. Some nonresidents receive a credit on their home state’s income taxes that is proportional to New York’s taxation.
As an example of the so-called convenience rule, a professor at a college in New York City who spends two days a week doing research and writing from his home in Connecticut must pay New York taxes on his entire salary.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“A sixth-grade girl brought a gun to her Idaho middle school, shot and wounded two students and a custodian and then was disarmed by a teacher Thursday, authorities said.
The three victims were shot in their limbs and expected to survive, officials said at a news conference. Jefferson County Sheriff Steve Anderson says the girl pulled a handgun from her backpack and fired multiple rounds inside and outside Rigby Middle School in the small city of Rigby, about 95 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Yellowstone National Park.
A female teacher disarmed the girl and held her until law enforcement arrived and took her into custody, authorities said, without giving other details. Authorities say they’re investigating the motive for the attack and where the girl got the gun.” Read more at AP
“While the coronavirus pandemic stymied travel for most people—inside and outside of government—Donald Trump’s Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite was reportedly trotting the globe. According to USA Today, Braithwaite embarked on 22 foreign and domestic trips during his very short eight-month stint in the job, costing some $2.4 million. The most eyebrow-raising trip came in January, just a week before Joe Biden was sworn in as president, when Braithwaite reportedly flew to Wake Island, an atoll in the Pacific Ocean where the Navy says no U.S. Marines or sailors are stationed, at a cost of $232,000. According to the report, Braithwaite also spent than $24,000 on travel to the Army-Navy football game. During his eight months, Braithwaite reportedly took more trips than any other senior Pentagon civilian. However, he defended his journeys, saying that ‘it’s impossible to lead men and women deployed around the world from behind a desk in Washington.’” [Daily Beast] Read more at USA Today
“Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel on Thursday shrugged off the Biden administration’s support for suspending patents for coronavirus vaccines, saying drug firms in other countries would struggle to mass-produce a rival to the blockbuster vaccine that has made his company a household name.
Speaking during a first-quarter earnings call, the head of the Cambridge biotech said he ‘didn’t lose a minute of sleep’ after the administration said it would endorse the temporary waiver of patents to bolster vaccine production in developing nationsas a way tohasten an end to the pandemic.
Although biopharma executives and lobbyists for the industry said the waiver would undermine US innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, Bancel said the move ‘doesn’t change anything for Moderna.’” Read more at Boston Globe
“Biden’s patent waiver makes waves. The European Union is set to discuss U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to endorse a proposal to waive intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines at a summit in Portugal today. Any conclusions the bloc reaches during the two-day meeting could be an indicator of whether Biden will get the international support he needs to make his plan a reality.
So far, Europe has been divided on the move: While French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his support and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen seemed open to the proposal, German Chancellor Angela Merkel opposed it outright. ‘The protection of intellectual property is a source of innovation and this has to remain so in the future,’ said a spokesperson for the German government.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Police raid shocks Brazil. Human rights groups have condemned a deadly police raid on suspected drug-traffickers in a Rio de Janeiro favela. The operation killed 25 people, including one police officer, police said. The death toll from the raid is the highest since 2005, when 29 people were killed in northern Rio. Amnesty International condemned the ‘reprehensible and unjustifiable’ loss of life, while Human Rights Watch has called for an independent investigation, citing the 453 people killed by Rio police in the first three months of 2021. A Supreme Court ruling has prohibited such police actions during the COVID-19 pandemic except in ‘absolutely exceptional cases.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Ukraine’s president on Thursday that the United States strongly backed his country’s sovereignty against Russia’s military aggression but also warned that the embattled country was under threat from ‘internal forces,’ including powerful oligarchs who thrive on corruption.
Blinken also said that, despite Russia’s recently announced plans to withdraw many of the 100,000 troops it had built up along the border with Ukraine in an alarming show of force this spring, a clear military threat remained.
‘Russia has pulled back some forces, but significant forces remain on Ukraine’s border,’ Blinken noted. ‘And so Russia has the capacity on fairly short notice to take aggressive actions if it so chooses.’ Blinken added that the United States was ‘watching this very, very carefully.’” Read more at Boston Globe
“As India’s massive coronavirus wave spreads, neighboring Nepal is also quickly becoming overwhelmed. An average of 6,700 cases are now reported a day as of May 5, an increase from 1,100 just two weeks earlier. Even as the country faces its steepest coronavirus wave yet, it has kept its main tourist attraction, the Nepali side of Mount Everest, open to foreigners seeking to climb the world’s tallest mountain.
After the 2020 climbing season was canceled, this year a record number of 408 expedition permits have been issued for the peak, leaving climbers to work out rules to contain the spread of the virus. Now growing concerns of a coronavirus outbreak at the mountain cast doubt on the safety of climbers and locals after multiple people were evacuated from base camp and later tested positive for the virus.” Read more at Washington Post
“Employees of a pharmaceutical company in Indonesia have been arrested for their alleged role in a nasal swab reselling operation. Police say that up to 9,000 passengers at Kualanamu airport in Medan, North Sumatra may have been tested for COVID-19 with reused nasal swabs as part of the scam. Passengers, who must obtain a negative test before flying, had filed complaints over false positives, prompting an undercover investigation which allegedly uncovered the use of used test kits. Local media say the scammers made almost $124,800 by repackaging the swabs for resale.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Lives Lived: After finally convincing her male editors that a female journalist could handle big news stories, Lucinda Franks became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She died at 74.” Read more at New York Times