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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index is a metric the Federal Reserve cares about: “Americans hoping for some relief on inflation suffered a setback in February, as new data showed underlying price pressures intensifying even before the latest escalation in President Trump’s trade war and consumers pulled back on spending.”
* In related news: “Renewed inflation fears, plummeting consumer confidence and rising doubts about the payoff from artificial intelligence touched off a fresh round of heavy selling in stocks Friday.”
* A discouraging ruling: “A federal appeals court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump to fire members of executive branch boards that oversee federal employee grievances and labor disputes across the nation.”
* An encouraging court order: “A federal judge in Washington put a temporary hold on the Trump administration’s plans to cull the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s workforce and effectively shutter the agency. Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday applied a preliminary injunction blocking the CFPB from firing workers and requiring it to bring back some terminated employees.”
* A welcome reversal: “The Trump administration reversed its decision to terminate a U.S. initiative that documented alleged Russian war crimes on Thursday following reporting by The Washington Post and other media outlets, according to U.S. officials and congressional aides familiar with the matter.”
* Another welcome reversal: “Reversing course, the Trump administration on Thursday restored funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a federally financed news organization born out of American efforts to counter Soviet propaganda during the Cold War.”
* A Trumpified EPA: “The Biden administration required coal- and oil-burning power plants to greatly reduce emissions of toxic chemicals including mercury, which can harm babies’ brains and cause heart disease in adults. Now, the Trump administration is offering companies an extraordinary out: Send an email, and they might be given permission by President Trump to bypass the new restrictions, as well as other major clean-air rules.”
* I’ve followed Judge William Pryor’s career for a very long time, and it’s good to see him take a principled position: “A conservative federal appeals judge who President Donald Trump considered a potential candidate for a U.S. Supreme Court nomination during his first term said impeaching judges was not the way to address court rulings with which parties disagreed. Chief U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor of the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in an podcast interview released on Thursday threw his support behind Chief U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts’ statement last week rebuking Trump for calling for a judge’s impeachment.”
* Fresh concerns about the future of the USPS: “The longest-serving Republican on the U.S. Postal Service’s governing board resigned Thursday, giving President Donald Trump additional leverage to control the nation’s mail service.”
* An unfortunate breakthrough in Utah: “Utah became the first state in the nation to ban pride flags from all public schools and on all government property after Gov. Spencer Cox allowed a bill prohibiting the display of any non-sanctioned flag to become law without signing or vetoing it. It will go into effect May 7.”
* Another unfortunate breakthrough in Utah: “Utah just became the first U.S. state to ban fluoride in public water systems. Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed a bill into law on Thursday that prohibits any person or government entity from adding the mineral, which can prevent tooth decay, to water systems in the state.”
* There sure are a lot of prominent election deniers getting prominent gigs in the administration: “President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday that he has selected Brandon Beach to serve as the next U.S. treasurer. ... In the role, Beach will oversee the U.S. Mint and Fort Knox. Beach is a Republican state senator in the Georgia legislature. He was among the Georgia Trump allies who called for a special session to potentially invalidate Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.”
Have a safe weekend.