tyb
JBA Departures
SAM867 USAF G5 ne
BOXER55 (5:5) USAF Clipper east to Atlantic City INt'l, NJ for fly bys
PAT007 US Army C-560 west
Dutch Air Force NAF11 G4 nw from Tel Aviv, Israel-Ben Gurion Int'l Airport
High Court Accepts POTUS Appeal, Keeps Mueller Materials Sealed
The U.S. Supreme Court all but guaranteed House Democrats won’t get pre-election access to confidential materials from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, agreeing to hear a Trump administration appeal likely to extend a legal fight into next year. The justices said they will review a lower court order that would require the Justice Department to turn over redacted parts of Mueller’s 448-page report, along with underlying grand jury transcripts and exhibits. The Supreme Court will consider the case in the nine-month term that starts in October.
The House Judiciary Committee sought the records as part of its impeachment inquiry last year. President Donald Trump was impeached on different grounds by the Democratic-controlled House before being acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Democrats say the materials would help them determine whether Trump committed impeachable offenses by obstructing the FBI’s and Mueller’s investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mueller found 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice but stopped short of determining whether Trump had engaged in obstruction.
The administration argues that a federal trial judge lacked power to unseal the information. Grand jury materials are normally sealed, but federal rules let a judge authorize disclosure for “judicial proceedings.” The key legal question is whether that includes House impeachment inquiries. A federal appeals court ruled that impeachment proceedings qualified, saying courts had let lawmakers see grand jury materials during the impeachment inquiries of Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
The Supreme Court in May stopped the appeals court decision from taking effect until the justices decided how to handle the case. Today’s order extends that hold until the high court rules. Had the Supreme Court rejected the appeal, as the Judiciary Committee urged, the materials could have become public before the November election. The Judiciary Committee can release any information it receives with a majority vote.
The case is Department of Justice v. House Committee on the Judiciary, 19-1328.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-02/high-court-accepts-trump-appeal-keeps-mueller-materials-sealed
June Employment Report: 4.8 Million Jobs Added, 11.1% Unemployment Rate
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 4.8 million in June, and the unemployment rate declined to 11.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. These improvements in the labor market reflected the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed in March and April due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. In June, employment in leisure and hospitality rose sharply. Notable job gains also occurred in retail trade, education and health services, other services, manufacturing, and professional and business services.
…
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for April was revised down by 100,000, from -20.7 million to -20.8 million, and the change for May was revised up by 190,000, from +2.5 million to +2.7 million. With these revisions, employment in April and May combined was 90,000 higher than previously reported. In June, the year-over-year change was -12.957 million jobs.
Total payrolls increased by 4.8 million in June.
Payrolls for April and May were revised up 90 thousand combined. The Labor Force Participation Rate increased to 61.5% in June. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force. Cap#2
This was well above consensus expectations of 3,070,000 jobs added, and April and May were revised up by 90,000 combined.
https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2020/07/june-employment-report-48-million-jobs.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EDJI
U.S. Treasury agrees on loan terms with American, four other airlines
The U.S. Treasury said on Thursday it has agreed on terms for government loans with five U.S. carriers, including American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O). The Treasury said it had signed letters of intent with American, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines (HA.O), SkyWest Airlines (SKYW.O), and Spirit Airlines (SAVE.N) under a $25 billion emergency loan program created by Congress in March. American said on Thursday it expects to close on a $4.75 billion Treasury loan in the third quarter on top of $5.8 billion in payroll assistance it was previously awarded.
American Chief Executive Doug Parker and President Robert Isom warned employees on Thursday that it may face significant over-staffing as it tries to win voluntary departures.
“We currently anticipate having 20 to 30% — or more than 20,000 — more team members on payroll than we need to operate our schedule this fall,” they wrote in an employee memo. “To be clear, this doesn’t mean 20,000 of our team members will be furloughed in October, it simply means we still have work to do to right-size our team for the airline we will operate.” Treasury separately awarded airlines $25 billion in payroll assistance bailouts with most of the aid in the form of grants that does not need to be repaid.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement that “conversations with other airlines continue, and we look forward to finalizing agreements as soon as possible.” Airlines have until Sept. 30 to decide whether to take the loan. Like the payroll assistance funds, the loans come with a ban on stock buybacks and paying dividends and set limits on executive compensation.
Hawaiian Airlines, which was awarded $292 million in payroll assistance, had sought an additional $364 million Treasury loan. Spirit was awarded $335 million in payroll assistance and said it was eligible for $741 million in Treasury loans. SkyWest received $438 million in payroll assistance.
Airlines have warned that a recent spike in U.S. coronavirus cases could dampen travel demand that is still off around 75% from last year but has rebounded significantly over April lows. Airlines can furlough or eliminate jobs starting Oct. 1.
Last week, six U.S. aviation unions told lawmakers another $32 billion in payroll aid is needed to keep hundreds of thousands of workers employed through March 31.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-airlines/u-s-treasury-agrees-on-loan-terms-with-american-four-other-airlines-idUSKBN2431X2
RAF SNPSHT1 Bombardier Sentinel R1 out of RAF Waddington with some SIGINT runs.
The Sentinel R.Mk 1 provides long-range, wide-area battlefield surveillance, delivering critical intelligence and target tracking information to British and coalition forces. The aircraft has been operationally deployed in support of operations in Afghanistan, Libya and Mali, and is currently deployed in support of British and Coalition operations in Iraq and Syria. Using its powerful multi-mode radar, the Sentinel’s mission crew identifies, tracks and images numerous targets over great ranges, passing the information in near real time to friendly forces. A team of intelligence imagery analysts from 1 Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) Wing backs up the Sentinel crews, conducting in-depth forensic analysis of collected data, and using it to generate intelligence products for time-critical dissemination to commanders and decision makers, enabling them to execute current operations and plan future strategies.
https://www.raf.mod.uk/aircraft/sentinel-r1/