Geoff Bennett:
President Trump has argued there is no inflation and has called Powell a fool for not lowering rates. While inflation is down, it still remains above the Fed’s 2 percent target.
The U.S. Supreme Court today backed a multibillion-dollar oil railroad expansion in Utah. The justices reversed a lower court decision the 88-mile project that would connect oil and gas producers to a national rail network. The case centered on whether a federal agency had done enough to consider the environmental impact of the expansion as laid out by a 1970 law.
In the court’s ruling, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote: “The goal of the law is to inform agency decision-making, not to paralyze it.” Environmental groups expressed alarm at the decision, calling it disastrous. The project could still face legal and regulatory hurdles.
Forecasters say the first named storm of the hurricane season is churning in the Pacific. Tropical Storm Alvin is located off the Western coast of Mexico with sustained winds of 40 miles an hour. It’s expected to weaken as it approaches the Baja Peninsula this weekend.
Meantime, the Western U.S. is bracing for a different kind of dangerous weather. That’s heat. The first major heat wave of the season is due to hit California and other Western states starting tomorrow. More than 15 million Americans are already under heat warnings and advisories, with temperatures expected to top 100 degrees in some places.
America’s envoy to Syria says the U.S. plans to declare that country is no longer a state sponsor of terrorism. Tom Barrack made the comments on his first visit to Damascus in his new role, where he raised an American flag outside the U.S. ambassador’s residence. The U.S. Embassy has been closed since 2012 after protests against then-President Bashar al-Assad led to years of civil war.
Though the embassy itself remains closed, Barrack’s visit and the raising of the flag are further signs of warming relations between the U.S. and Syria.
Washington, D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum reopened today more than a week after two Israeli Embassy employees were shot and killed as they left an event there.
