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Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security.

As "America's Future Now!" Prepares To Convene, Progressives Take Stock

Robert Borosage previews AFN! conference with call for independent progressive movement, in Politico oped: "... it is time for labor and other progressive movements to re-engage our own base, to mobilize independently and challenge the limits of the current debate. The right seeks revival with a more zealous version of the market fundamentalism and bellicose cowboy interventionism that led this country off the cliff. They must be confronted, the bankruptcy of their ideas exposed. At the same time, conservative Democrats and compromised administrators must learn once more the temper of their own activists. Those who are standing in the way must understand that they will not be given a free pass."

BREAKING: Little Private Sector Job Growth In May

Temporary Census hiring gooses May job numbers. Bureau of Labor Statistics: "Total nonfarm payroll employment grew by 431,000 in May, reflecting the hiring of 411,000 temporary employees to work on Census 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Private-sector employment changed little (+41,000). Manufacturing, temporary help services, and mining added jobs, while construction employment declined. The unemployment rate edged down to 9.7 percent ... The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons ... declined by 343,000 in May."

"Private payrolls grew at the slowest pace since the start of the year." notes AP.

"Another area of weakness was in jobs for state and local governments, which are grappling with budget cuts. They shed 22,000 workers in May." reports NYT.

Unemployment rate not budging because of 2.4M "missing workers" slowly re-entering potential work force. NYT: "Now many of them are beginning to look for work again, encouraged by four consecutive months of job growth and reports of a strengthening economy. But the initial return to the labor force may prove dispiriting, since so many people are already chasing too few jobs."

State budgets hitting bottom, at further risk without aid from feds. Stateline: "States have already closed $170 billion in budget gaps since fiscal 2009 but are looking at another $127 billion in gaps between now and fiscal 2012. ... those gaps could widen even more if Congress doesn’t provide an additional $24 billion in health care funding that many states are banking on..."

States lobbying Senate to include health care funding that House dropped from its jobs bill. CQ: "But prospects are dim after House Democrats had to scale back an extension of special unemployment benefits and remove several provisions, including the extra federal Medicaid funding, to win over party moderates concerned about the deficit. A similar reluctance to spend money on any program not paid for by an offset is likely to be even more intense in the Senate."

Program to aid workers displaced by trade overloaded with applicants. McClatchy: "The improved benefits, combined with a larger number of eligible workers and a sour economy, led TAA applications to nearly double, from 2,471 in 2008 to 4,892 in 2009 ... Labor Department figures show that the average processing time has been cut to 75 days as of Wednesday. That's still about twice the desired time, however."

Senate Energy Bill May Pass Next Month, But What Will Be In It?

Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid calls for "comprehensive energy bill" by July, but no decision yet on whether to include carbon cap. The Hill: " Reid’s letter did not specify if the comprehensive energy bill would include language to curb carbon emissions ... Some Democrats, such as Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), have argued for bringing an energy-only reform bill to the floor. He has suggested that colleagues could then try to attach an amendment addressing the emission of gases linked to global-warming ... Liberals, led by Kerry, want climate change legislation included in the comprehensive energy reform bill before it reaches the floor. Reid has said he would meet with his committee chairmen next week [and] would then convene a meeting of the entire caucus during the week of June 14 to talk about it."

Enviros worry that power companies aren't serious about passing a compromise climate bill, but industry may accept a new compromise plan. Greenwire: "EEI, the trade group representing investor-owned utilities, played a critical role alongside some of its member companies in driving last June's passage of a House climate bill. And the industry got many of its demands met in the Kerry-Lieberman proposal unveiled last month ... [But] the trade group hasn't organized a coordinated fly-in since Dec. 1, 2009 ... in the hunt for 60 votes, key players on and off Capitol Hill are talking about legislation that just puts limits on the utility sector ... a handful of utility industry officials say they won't knock down the idea ..."

Conservatives Getting Drilled, Baby, Drilled

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal urges WH to drop moratorium on deepwater drilling to save jobs. HuffPost quotes WH response: "A repeat of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill would have grave economic consequences for regional commerce and do further damage to the environment ... workers unemployed because of the 6-month moratorium would be eligible for unemployment assistance. The proposal would also create jobs for cleanup, restoration, renovation and recovery. And the Small Business Administration is currently offering economic injury loans to impacted businesses on the Gulf Coast."

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who has encouraged Mississippi residents and visitors to frolic in the oil-tainted waters off the states coastline, has close ties to big oil. Climate Progress: "... Barbour’s election to his current office owes directly to his friends in the fossil fuel business — oil and gas companies provided $1.8 million dollars in contributions when Barbour ran for Governor. While Barbour shilled for BP during the first weeks of BP’s oil crisis, Mississippi’s oily beaches may force him to reconsider his pro-BP posture."

BP may not want you to see the oil-covered animals in the Gulf, but images are getting out. ProPublica's picture of the day: an oil-covered turtle. Digby on the images on oil-drenched pelicans: The sight of these beautiful Pelicans struggling mightily to breath through this oil is so horrifying it's almost impossible to watch. Has everyone read the book A Clockwork Orange? Remember the scene where Alex was forced to watch violence with his eyes propped open? I'd think maybe all those people who gleefully chanted 'drill, baby, drill' as a tribal chant would benefit from a little of that aversion therapy."

"Drill, Baby Drill" not much of a slogan for 2010. Bloomberg: "Republicans’ embrace of offshore oil drilling and their skepticism of “big” government may hamper the party’s efforts to gain politically from President Barack Obama’s handling of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico."

W. Post reports this AM on latest BP attempt: "A top official with oil giant BP said Friday that the containment dome placed over a damaged Gulf of Mexico well should capture 'the vast majority' of leaking oil, though some seepage will continue even in a best-case scenario."

BP will likely still make money from salvaged oil. McClatchy: "If the current containment effort works — and BP and the government say they're optimistic that it will — the oil giant will salvage much of the oil that's now spewing from the crumpled pipes on the ocean floor. That captured oil, McClatchy estimates, could generate more than $1.4 million in revenue for BP each day ... The people who own the deepwater site that's leased to BP — U.S. taxpayers — could see a more modest windfall. The Treasury could be due as much as $328,125 in royalties daily, or $19 million total over 60 days. Further, under its lease BP also must pay royalties on the oil lost in the spill, which would mean another $13.5 million."

Relief well drilling proceeding normally. NYT: "The two wells, aimed at the bottom of the runaway well that has spewed millions of gallons of oil into the gulf, represent the most conventional solution to the disaster and the one that experts say is all but certain to succeed ... but because drilling gets slower as a well gets deeper, [the first well] is not expected to be finished before August."

Shallow-water drilling permits rescinded. Houston Chronicle: "Federal regulators on Thursday rescinded two new offshore drilling permits — less than 24 hours after authorizing them — as part of a temporary halt to oil and gas exploration in shallow Gulf of Mexico waters. Oil and natural gas producers drilling in 500 feet or less of water will be able to resume operations once they resubmit exploratory plans and comply with new safety standards the Interior Department is set to begin advancing soon."

Cleaning fluid suspected by feds in Gulf worker illnesses. McClatchy: "If true, the cause of the illness contradicts claims by BP's CEO, Tony Hayward, who claimed the illness may be unrelated to the spill and instead could be the symptoms of food poisoning.

Spill scuttles Indonesia trip for the second time. AP: "...Obama was to depart on a week-long trip to both countries, along with a quick stop in Guam, on June 13 ... Gibbs said Obama planned to meet with both leaders [from Indonesia and Australia] separately on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting, which is to be held near the end of June in Canada."

Breakfast Sides

Influential Fed governor Daniel Tarullo shares WH view that tougher regulation, not smaller bank size, is the best way to reform. NYT: "...for now, the Fed and the Obama administration are siding with Mr. Tarullo’s approach, which sees breaking up banks only as a last resort ... Mr. Tarullo is also crucial in talks over the updating of the international rules that set out the minimum levels of capital large banks must hold. How those requirements, known as the Basel standards, are determined and enforced, will have a big effect on global financial stability."

Embattled credit agency Moody's criticizes Wall St. reform bill as too weak on "too-big-to-fail". HuffPost's Shahien Nasiripour: "Though Moody's noted that the Senate bill makes them expect that government support will be less forthcoming, 'there remains considerable uncertainty as to whether resolution powers could effectively allow for the failure of a large institution without adversely affecting other institutions,'..."

Don't let the revolving door hit you on the way out. W. Post: "More than 1,400 former members of Congress, Capitol Hill staffers or federal employees registered as lobbyists on behalf of the financial services sector since the start of 2009, according to an exhaustive new study issued Thursday."

TNR's Jonathan Cohn challenges NYT story that attacked data White House used to argue for health care reform: "[The reporters] are right to highlight some of the ambiguities in the Dartmouth research--and the extent to which its more evangelical promoters gloss over them. But the fundamental argument of reform is not ... that cheaper care is better care. The argument is that cheaper care can be better care--or, at least, equally good care. And the evidence for that proposition is pretty overwhelming."

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