1. Meeting with the North Koreans is back on after a visit from a North Korean envoy
— A North Korean spy delivered a letter to President Donald Trump and the June 12th summit on denuclearization and ending the Korean War is happening.
— A debate seems to be raging over who is paying for Kim Jung-un’s hotel room, “the prideful but cash-poor pariah state” can’t afford it.
2. Alabama Education Association is playing in Republican primaries again
— The group has spent $604,500 on Republican campaigns so far. These may not be direct donations but can also take the form of mailers in favor of candidates.
— ALGOP rules state that the money is strongly discouraged because the NEA and the AEA are Democrat functionaries.
3. Ugliness, lies, and lawbreaking are hitting the Attorney General race
— It is suspected that an aide to candidate Alice Martin is behind a couple of dirty tricks that have been launched in the race. Claire Austin is thought to have worked with a group that is attacking Steve Marshall with made up ties to the Poarch Creek Indians.
—A group called “Fair Play Alabama” is based in Warrior, Alabama, and the guy who lives at the address for the group says about it: “… you should talk to Claire” who has been previously linked to a smear website against Troy King.
4. Unemployment rate is at an 18-year low
— 223,000 jobs were added in May; this dropped the unemployment rate to 3.8 percent, pay is up 2.7 percent year over year, and black unemployment is also at a record low at 5.9 percent.
— Although this shows no signs of slowing, some economists are worried that Trump’s tariffs could cause issues with the economy.
5. “Roseanne” could be back, without Roseanne
— About 200 people lost their jobs when ABC ended the hit-show after the show’s namesake sent a racist tweet.
— Talk of a reboot could be a bit early and some are concerned that Roseanne would make money from the show’s relaunch.
6. No, the report on deaths in Puerto Rico is not accurate and everyone knows this
— The controversial report by the New England Journal of Medicine says that the death toll is actually almost 5,000.
—The irresponsible reporting on the story has angered many, but it is all based on an estimate of the number of people dead based on extrapolating a small survey to the total population and not any actual numbers.
7. Turns out Trump lied again, this time about Don Jr.’s meeting with Russians.
— The revelation that Trump knew about the meeting, knew about the statement lying about the meeting, and knew it was all a lie, is nothing new but continues to destroy this administration’s credibility.
— Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani’s defense of this ,”Our recollection keeps changing”, is absurd. He also told the Huffington Post that Trump could kill Comey and not be indicted.