California's Democratic governor signed a law Tuesday requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns to appear on the state's primary ballot, a move aimed squarely at Republican President Donald Trump.

While aimed at Trump, the law also applies to candidates for governor. Newsom said California's status as one of the world's largest economies gives it "a special responsibility" to require tax returns from its prospective elected officials.

"These are extraordinary times and states have a legal and moral duty to do everything in their power to ensure leaders seeking the highest offices meet minimal standards, and to restore public confidence," Newsom wrote in his signing statement.

Courts will likely have the final say.

The bill's author, Democratic state Sen. Mike McGuire, said lawmakers made sure the law only applies to the state's primary ballot because the state Constitution says the state Legislature does not control access to the general election ballot.

At: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/California-governor-signs-bill-on-presidential-14259433.php

California Governor Gavin Newsom to President Donald Trump: No tax returns, no spot on the CA primary ballot.

Arizona state Sen. Sylvia Allen is facing criticism, following recent comments she made about immigration, white birth rates, the "browning" of America, feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment.

During a speech to Republicans earlier this month, Allen said America would "look like South American countries very quickly" - and warned that immigrants were "flooding" the United States at a rate that didn't allow for them to "learn the principles of our country," according to audio published by the Phoenix New Times on Friday.

"We have a right in our country to have people come in an organized manner so we know who's coming, so we can provide jobs for them, so we can provide education for them and health care and all these things people need," she said.

"We can't provide that if people are just flooding us and flooding us and flooding us and overwhelming us."

In her comments, Allen noted declining white birth rates compared to Hispanic birth rates, saying it was an issue "because of immigration."

She referred to a "browning of America."

At: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2019/07/26/arizona-sen-sylvia-allen-criticized-remarks-immigrants/1841526001/

State Representative Sylvia Allen: Obsessed with the "browning of America."

She represents Snowflake, AZ.

Former President Obama tweeted Saturday that he is "proud of" how former staffers of his administration are "continuing to fight for an America that's better" after they penned an op-ed blasting President Trump for his "poisoning of our democracy."

"I've always been proud of what this team accomplished during my administration," he tweeted with a link to the op-ed, which was published by The Washington Post on Friday.

"But more than what we did, I'm proud of how they're continuing to fight for an America that's better," he continued.

The op-ed, titled "We are African Americans, we are patriots, and we refuse to sit idly by," was penned by 149 African American alumni of the Obama administration in support of congresswomen of color who were recently attacked by the president and told to "go back" to their home countries.

At: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/obama-says-hes-proud-of-former-staffers-who-slammed-trump-for-poisoning-of-our-democracy-in-fiery-op-ed/ar-AAEX4y2

Former President Barack Obama: Standing up for those who stood up.

Growth decelerated in the second quarter, but not by as much as Wall Street thought, as tariffs and a global slowdown weighed on the U.S. economy, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

GDP increased 2.1%, down from the first quarter’s 3.1% and the weakest increase since Q1 of 2017 when President Donald Trump took office. GDP grew 2.3% from the same time last year, and 2.5% so far this year.

Dow Jones Q2 estimates were for 2% growth.

However, the underlying numbers in the report seemed to take steam out of the recession fears that have been much of the talk among economists and policymakers at the Federal Reserve.

Personal and business spending grew at a 4.3% annual rate - led by durable goods, which surged at a 12.9% rate after two weak quarters.

Fixed private investment (construction, machinery and software) slid 0.8%, led by a 10.6% fall in non-residential construction. Residential construction slid 1.5% - the sixth-straight quarterly decline in homebuilder activity.

A 38.2% slowdown in inventory accumulation resulted in a 5.5% drop in total private investment.

Real exports fell 5.2%, largely the result of sharply lower shipments to China amid the most serious trade dispute with the Asian giant since the post-war upheaval years.

Government grew at a 5% clip, led by a 15.9% jump in non-defense federal purchases.

At: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/26/us-gdp-second-quarter-2019.html

A modernist dealership awaits customers in North Carolina.

A 15.9% annualized jump in motor vehicle and parts sales (after a 10.2% drop in the first quarter) helped propel private consumption by 4.3%.

But declines of 5.5% in private investment and 5.2% in exports resulted in an anemic 2.1% GDP reading for the quarter, the slowest in two years.

A 71-year-old man in Tennessee will probably die in the coming days.

He made two final requests of his son, Jessie Goodman. He wanted his funeral at Lee’s Chapel Baptist Church in Sweetwater, TN, which was the first church he ever attended, and he wanted Jessie to sing the hymn “The Anchor Holds” at the service.

Simple enough… until Pastor Jay Scruggs found out Jessie was in a same-sex relationship. Now Scruggs is refusing to hold the funeral — for the straight father.

“As long as I was going to take part in any way, he (Jessie’s father) could not have his service there,” said [Jessie] Goodman.

Goodman says the church’s pastor, and some of its members, don’t want him or his fiance [Brandon Smitty] to be involved in the service because they’re gay.

At: https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/07/25/baptist-church-to-dying-man-you-cant-have-a-funeral-here-since-your-son-is-gay/

Jessie Goodman (right) and his fiancé Brandon Smitty.

Goodman's ailing father is being refused his dying wish by the local pastor, who objects to his son's same-sex relationship.

The quarterly Emerging Market Economy Scorecard published today by Bloomberg showed Argentina overtaking Turkey as the most vulnerable to external shocks among the 20 leading emerging economies surveyed.

Five major parameters were measured: current account balance; short-term external debt; hard-currency reserves; inflation; and "government effectiveness."

Argentina scored lowest on inflation, which reached 55.8% in June (compared to government projections of 20%); and on its short-term external debt, which reached 40.5% of GDP.

The country's balance of payments deficit (3.5% of GDP in the first quarter) is now made up entirely of foreign debt interest outlays, which have ballooned from $5.1 billion in 2015 (0.8% of GDP) to at least $20 billion this year (4.5% of GDP).

Argentina's current account deficit reached 5% of GDP in both 2017 and 2018, cutting off Argentina's access to foreign credit markets on growing fears of a future default.

The crisis forced the central bank to raise base interest rates from 27% in April 2018 to 59% currently to discourage capital flight, and to turn to the IMF for a record, $57 billion bailout.

The ensuing recession - the second since Mauricio Macri took office in 2015 - has led to a 5.8% fall in GDP, a 24.6% collapse in fixed investment, and 291,000 registered job losses as of May.

Including massive bond debts taken on by Macri in 2016-18, the next administration (2019-23) faces around $150 billion in foreign debt payments.

The 20 countries surveyed in the Bloomberg scorecard include 35% of the world's economy, and 55% of the world's population.

At: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-24/emerging-markets-less-at-risk-from-turkey-this-time-round-chart

Argentine President Mauricio Macri entertains U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the latter's visit to Buenos Aires earlier this week.

Macri enjoys staunch support from President Donald Trump, who reportedly ordered both Pompeo and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to facilitate Macri's unlikely re-election (he's behind in most polls) and the IMF to rubber-stamp all loans to Argentina until the October elections.

Critics warn that Trump's bailout is setting the stage for a likely default by Argentina by 2022, should the IMF refuse to renegotiate the debt with Macri's successor.

Source: CNN

Attorney General William Barr directed the the federal government Thursday to resume capital punishment after nearly two decades and has directed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule the execution of five inmates after adopting an updated execution protocol.

Barr has directed the head of the Bureau of Prisons to execute "five death-row inmates convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable in our society — children and the elderly," according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

At Barr's direction, the Bureau of Prisons has adopted the Federal Execution Protocol Addendum which "replaces the three-drug procedure previously used in federal executions with a single drug—pentobarbital," the Justice Department announced.

The Federal Government has not used the death penalty since 2003.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/25/politics/justice-department-capital-punishment-barr/index.html

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Attorney General Bill Barr: Wondering if the new policy will apply to him someday?

Before you head to the beach this summer, you might want to double-check the water conditions.

Last year, nearly 60% of 4,523 beaches tested across the United States demonstrated unsafe water pollution levels on at least one day, according to a report released Tuesday by the nonprofits Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group.

These 2,627 beaches had bacteria levels that exceeded the US Environmental Protection Agency's "Beach Action Value" threshold, which it recommends states use to provide an early alert to beachgoers who may be particularly sensitive to contaminants.

On the higher end of the scale in the new report, Inner Cabrillo Beach in Los Angeles County had 85 potentially unsafe days out of 175 days sampled. By contrast, Bethany Beach in Delaware's Sussex County tested potentially unsafe on one of 33 sampled days.

At: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/health/us-beaches-pollution-study-trnd/index.html

Crowds enjoy the Laguna Beach boardwalk and main beach, where post-rainfall beach closures have become increasingly common due to polluted runoff.

Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren highlighted burgeoning debt levels and recent declines in manufacturing as factors making the U.S. economy vulnerable to a downturn.

The point previews a line of attack Donald Trump’s opponents will use to pierce the aura of a record-long expansion and half-century low in unemployment.

In a blog post Monday titled “The Coming Economic Crash - And How to Stop It,” the Massachusetts senator said she sees “serious warning signs” similar to the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

In addition to the economic weaknesses, Warren cited the inverted Treasury-yield curve and a poll of analysts as backing the idea that a recession is likely on the way.

Warren flagged as dangerous increases in household debt from student loans, credit cards and auto loans, along with rises in riskier corporate debt.

The senator also highlighted last week’s data from the Federal Reserve showing manufacturing has contracted in the U.S. for the past two quarters, “despite Trump’s promises of a manufacturing ‘renaissance.’"

At: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-22/warren-economic-crash-call-spotlights-line-of-attack-on-trump

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has reaped criticism from the business press for her recent warning that current policy could soon lead to another financial crash.

Because, after all, when have GOP policies ever crashed in the past.

César Pelli, the Argentine designer behind the iconic Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia, has died aged 92, marking the passing of one of the contemporary architectural greats.

Pelli established himself as a visionary and educator, making a name for himself in the United States where his main studio was based in the Yale University campus.

Born in San Miguel de Tucumán, in northwestern Argentina, in 1926, Pelli studied architecture at the University of Tucumán. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1952 to attend the University of Illinois School of Architecture, where he received his master's degree in 1954.

He became partner for design at Gruen Associates in Los Angeles in 1968, and many of Pelli's earliest works in the U.S. were in Southern California - including the the Lawrence Welk Plaza building in Santa Monica, CA (1969-71); the San Bernardino City Hall (1972); and the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood (1975).

In 1977, Pelli became dean of Yale University’s School of Architecture and founded Cesar Pelli & Associates - since renamed Pelli Clarke Pelli, and which lists offices in New York, Abu Dhabi, San Francisco, Tokyo and Shanghai.

His most famous works include:

·World Financial Center, in Manhattan (1982-88)
·Norwest Center, in Minneapolis (1986-88)
·Carnegie Hall Tower, in Manhattan (1987-91)
·Key Tower, in Cleveland (1988-91)
·777 Tower, in Los Angeles (1988-91)
·One Canada Square, in Canary Wharf, London (1988-91)
·Bank of America Center in Charlotte, NC (1989-92)
·Terminals B and C at Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC (1993-97)
·Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1993-96) - at the time the tallest buildings in the world
·International Finance Centre, in Hong Kong (2000-03)
·Gran Torre Santiago, Chile (2006-12)
·and Abenu Harukas, in Osaka (2010-14)

He also designed four office buildings in his native Argentina, in downtown Buenos Aires: República (1994-96); BankBoston (1998-2001); YPF (2005-08); and Banco Macro (2013-16).

Pelli was named one of the ten most influential living American Architects by the American Institute of Architects in 1991.

At: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-cesar-pelli/csar-pelli-argentine-architect-behind-the-petronas-towers-dies-aged-92-idUSKCN1UE2RM

Argentine-American architect César Pelli (1926-2019) in his Yale studio.

He once remarked that "one of America's strengths has always been its openness to the new: both new ideas and new people."