217K Jobs Created In May
NYT on the latest jobs report: "Almost exactly five years into the recovery, total payrolls have finally surpassed where they were before the recession. While the addition of nearly nine million jobs since hiring bottomed out in February 2010 is certainly good news, the number is still far from what is necessary to accommodate new graduates and millions of others who have entered the work force since payrolls last peaked in January 2008 at 138,365,000 jobs."
Republicans proven wrong on cutting off long-term jobless aid. New Republic's Danny Vinik: "Conservatives expected the expiration of unemployment benefits in December would spur the long-term unemployed to accept jobs they had previously rejected. Now that their benefits were gone, the argument went, these workers would have more incentive to accept jobs instead of mooch off the government ... that hasn’t happened ..."
Climate Rules Improve Odds Of Global Deal
Obama's climate regs well-received abroad. W. Post: "... with preparations underway for reaching a pact on post-2020 emissions at a summit scheduled for Paris in December 2015, international negotiators said the EPA measure would encourage other nations to step up efforts to curb greenhouse gases by greater amounts."
China will have to act in response, says NYT's Paul Krugman: "...China is enormously dependent on access to advanced-country markets — a lot of the coal it burns can be attributed, directly or indirectly, to its export business — and it knows that it would put this access at risk if it refused to play any role in protecting the planet. More specifically, if and when wealthy countries take serious action to limit greenhouse gas emissions, they’re very likely to start imposing 'carbon tariffs' on goods imported from countries that aren’t taking similar action."
Enviro groups organize in support. Grist: "... the Sierra Club, which has more than 2 million members, has built up an infrastructure that resembles the voter-turnout efforts of a presidential campaign, with field offices, phone banking, and tabling. 'We’re going to aim high and try to generate millions of comments,' says Melinda Pierce, the Sierra Club’s legislative director ... But green groups have to strike a delicate balance in figuring out exactly what to encourage their members and supporters to say. All of the big environmental organizations put out statements on Monday praising the rules, but many are actually underwhelmed by the targets EPA has set."
Northeast cut emissions while boosting economic growth. NYT: "The nine states already in the [cap-and-trade] program — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — have substantially reduced their carbon emissions in recent years. At the same time, those states have had stronger economic growth than the rest of the country ... Since 2009, the nine states have cut their emissions by 18 percent, while their economies grew by 9.2 percent. By comparison, emissions in the other 41 states fell by 4 percent, while their economies grew by 8.8 percent."
Breakfast Sides
BofA may pay $12B fine. WSJ: "Bank of America Corp. is in talks to pay at least $12 billion to settle civil probes by the Justice Department and a number of states into the bank's alleged handling of shoddy mortgages, an amount that could raise the government tab for the bank's precrisis conduct to more than $18 billion, according to people familiar with the negotiations. At least $5 billion of that amount is expected to go toward consumer relief—consisting of help for homeowners in reducing principal amounts, reducing monthly payments and paying for blight removal in struggling neighborhoods, these people said. As the negotiations with the government heat up, the bank is being pressed to pay billions more than the $12 billion it is offering."
Families stuck in Phoenix as immigration system overwhelmed. NYT: "Since Memorial Day weekend, about 1,000 women and children have been flown to Tucson from Texas, then driven by bus to Phoenix and dumped unceremoniously, weary and hungry, left to find their families scattered around the nation. Some minors will be housed at a naval base in California, and immigration officials are finding extra aircraft. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been ordered to coordinate efforts to contain the crisis."
Sens. Sanders and McCain strike bipartisan VA reform bill. W. Post: "[The bill] would authorize spending $500 million to hire more doctors and nurses, allow veterans to be cared for outside the overburdened system and give the next veterans secretary greater authority to fire employees for incompetence ... chances of passage are good given the public uproar over the scandal ... [It] would give veterans greater flexibility to seek medical care at facilities not run by VA if they are experiencing long wait times or live more than 40 miles from the nearest VA hospital or clinic ... The bill would authorize VA to sign leases for 26 major medical facilities in 18 states and Puerto Rico ..."
