The COVID-19 mRNA-based vaccines that saved 2.5 million lives globally during the pandemic could help spark the immune system to fight cancer. This is the surprising takeaway of a new study that we and our colleagues published in the journal Nature. read more
Former special counsel Jack Smith wants to testify in open hearings before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees about his investigations of President Donald Trump.
In just over a week, nearly 42 million people in the U.S. who get federal food assistance are in danger of seeing their benefits disappear because of the ongoing federal shutdown. read more
U.S. consumer prices increased slightly less than expected in September as a surge in the cost of gasoline was partially offset by a sharp moderation in rents, keeping the Federal Reserve on track to cut interest rates again next week. Consumer inflation last month also was restrained by a slowdown in the pace of price increases for airfares, hotel and motel rooms as well as cheaper used cars and trucks, the report from the Labor Department showed on Friday. But tariffs on imports continued to raise prices for apparel, appliances, furniture and bedding, and sporting goods.
The 10,000 U.S. troops now operating in the Caribbean were sent to interdict drug boats. read more
@#15 ... Do you have a long list of his pet projects the non-crippled US government stopped him from doing? ...
For starters, I doubt if Pres Trump's shutdown is halting any of his pet projects.
Indeed, his comments that he seems to want to eliminate projects in blue states seem to run counter to that view.
Here's what happens to the Hudson River tunnel project linking N.J. and N.Y.C. now that Trump terminated' it
www.nj.com
... Trump reiterated the termination in a video where he spoke to reporters about Gateway on Air Force One on Oct. 19, saying "right now there is no funding" because "it's up to me." ...
Trigger Hippy - Rise Up Singing (live) (2016)
www.youtube.com
Featuring Joan Osborne of "One of Us" in which she mused
...
And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make His way home?
...
@#2 ... Hard to believe since Trump fired the commissioner of labor statistics. ...
I'm not there yet.
These numbers look believable to me. (don't look at the headline, look at the details in the Reuters article)
They were released based upon the work of the good people in BLS who do this work.
The details in #1 seem to be reasonable.
Going forward, however, well, that may be a whole different story. One in which your skepticism may be warranted.
And, I will also take this opportunity to state that the Fed has been concerned recently more about the job market than inflation.
Stated differently, we need the statistics about the job market.
For some odd reason this happened ...
Flying Blind: ADP Stops Giving the Fed Access to Its Private Jobs Data
mishtalk.com
... After a speech by Fed Governor Chris Waller in August, ADP stopped giving the Fed data.
Lost Access
The data in question is not the public data from which I produce monthly charts such as the lead chart.
Rather, the Fed lost access to proprietary subsets.
The Wall Street Journal reports Fed Lost Access to Private Jobs Data Ahead of Government Shutdown
... Federal Reserve officials, who are unable to receive U.S. economic statistics because of the continuing government shutdown, recently lost access to a separate measure of employment data from a third-party provider.
Since at least 2018, payroll-processing company ADP has provided the Fed with access to a data set that includes anonymized information on employment and earnings for millions of workers. The data, which covers 20% of the nation's private workforce, had been available to the Fed with a roughly one-week delay"making it both a timely and comprehensive gauge of job-market conditions.
ADP stopped providing its data to the Fed shortly after a speech by Fed governor Christopher Waller in late August drew attention to the central bank's longstanding use of its weekly payroll data, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Fed's data-sharing relationship with ADP has been public for years. Minutes of Fed policy meetings as recently as 2023 included generalized descriptions of the central bank's analysis of ADP data similar to Waller's August speech. ...
Another view ...
'Mind-boggling' poker fraud used X-ray tables, high-tech glasses and NBA players
www.bbc.com
... Celebrities, professional sports stars and wealthy gamblers sat at a table hoping to win big in a game of Texas Hold 'Em.
But they didn't know it was nearly impossible.
They were "fishes" allegedly being targeted by the mafia in an elaborate poker gambling scheme that included X-ray card tables, secret cameras, analysers in chip trays and sunglasses and contact lenses that could read their hand. ...
Not just Alaska ...
Trump plans to open almost all of coast to offshore drilling
www.union-bulletin.com
... The Trump administration is readying a proposal to open almost all U.S. coastal waters to new offshore oil drilling despite opposition from state governors and the president's previous efforts to close off some of the territory.
The draft plan for selling oil leases includes waters near the southeast U.S. that President Donald Trump tried to close off while campaigning for reelection five years ago, a nod to Republican allies worried about the risk of spills fouling beaches and their tourism-tied economies.
Documents detailing the expansive Interior Department proposal were reviewed by Bloomberg News. It isn't clear that the drafted plans have been presented to Trump for his approval; they could change before they are published.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department said the agency won't comment on deliberative information, but added that it "has been clear that there is a national energy emergency and all options to combat that crisis and win the AI race against China are on the table." ...
Another fun tune to soothe your soul ...
Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Tiger Rag (1977)
www.youtube.com