| By Derek Caney (@stax920)
Olympic organizers in Rio simply cannot catch a break. An impeached president. A shaken economy. A mosquito-borne virus. Athletes getting robbed. The latest? A soldier killed a jaguar that was part of an Olympic torch ceremony in the Amazon city of Manaus. Apparently, he escaped at some point after the event and approached the soldier despite being tranquilized. The jaguar, that is. We're pretty sure the soldier was as sober as a judge. "We guarantee that there will be no more such incidents at Rio 2016," the local organizing Olympic committee added, which, of course, is very reassuring.
Jaguar Juma is pictured during the Olympic Flame torch relay in Manaus, Brazil, June 20, 2016. REUTERS/Marcio Melo
Digits of the day: $2.8 billion Elon Musk's Tesla Motors offered to buy solar installation firm SolarCity for $2.8 billion. SolarCity's largest shareholder is – Elon Musk. He's betting that Tesla can be something of a one-stop shop for all of your clean energy needs: electric car, home battery and solar systems. Wall Street wasn't so thrilled. Shares got pummeled 13 percent on the news. SolarCity has more than $6 billion in debt and other liabilities. Musk pledged to recuse himself from the shareholder vote to approve the deal. So did his first cousin Lyndon Rive, SolarCity's CEO.
Senators are expected to vote on a compromise gun control bill as early as this week, after the Republican-led Senate failed to advance four gun measures following last week's mass shooting in Orlando. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would schedule a vote on a bill by fellow Republican Senator Susan Collins that would prevent about 109,000 people on "no-fly" and other surveillance lists from purchasing guns.
Around the country - "Repeal Obamacare," exhorts House Speaker Paul Ryan – except his alternative has provisions that look strikingly familiar, such as prohibiting people with pre-existing conditions to be denied coverage and permitting children to stay on their parents' coverage until age 26. It also caps the tax deductibility of employer-based plans, similar to Obamacare. The Ryan plan recycles long-held Republican proposals like allowing consumers to buy health insurance across state lines, expanding the use of health savings accounts and giving states block grants to run the Medicaid program for the poor.
- The U.S. recall system for cars and trucks is under fire following the death of "Star Trek" actor Anton Yelchin, who was crushed to death by a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Yelchin was killed when his SUV rolled backward in the steep driveway of his Los Angeles home and pinned him against a brick wall and a fence. We don't know whether the specific recall defect, which can cause the vehicle to roll away after a driver exits, led to Yelchin's death.
- The three people who were arrested for hauling an arsenal of loaded weapons into New York City said they planned to rescue a young girl from a drug den, police said. Authorities believe the incident isn't related to terrorism. After pulling the car over for a cracked windshield, police recovered five pistols, an AR-15 assault rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun, as well as a small amount of marijuana and a marijuana pipe.
Around the world - North Korea launched what appeared to be an intermediate-range missile on Wednesday to a high altitude in the direction of Japan before the missile plunged into the sea, military officials said. The test represents a technological advance for the isolated state after several failures.
- Brexit Watch: Britons have a 75 percent chance of voting to remain in the European Union, according to betting markets. That's up from 70 percent on Monday. It's also its highest probability since June 1. To review: Brexit opponents say Britain's economy – indeed, the entire global economy – could collapse if Britain leaves the EU. Supporters say lots of immigrants will flood into Britain if the country remains.
- There's still work to be done against Islamic State, U.S. officials say, despite gains in Iraq and Syria. While recent Islamic State defeats have erased its image of invincibility, they threaten to give it greater legitimacy in the eyes of disaffected Sunni Muslims because Shi'ite and Kurdish fighters are a major part of the campaign against it, some U.S. intelligence officials argue.
Around Wall Street - Global investors are dusting off studies of the 1930s as fears of protectionism, nationalism and a retreat of globalization, sharpened by this week's Brexit referendum, escalate anew. In a paper entitled "1937-38 redux?", Morgan Stanley economists detail the mistakes that saw monetary and fiscal policy tightened too quickly once a recovery from the 1929 stock market crash and subsequent Depression started in 1936.
- Samsung is looking to make its move into the online payments market in the United States, pitting it against ApplePay. But Samsung is taking a different tack than its rival by using its online pay service to boost sales of its phones and other hardware. ApplePay, by contrast, charges banks a fee for each transaction.
- Sanjay Valvani, a hedge fund manager at Visium Asset Management LP who was criminally charged last week in a major insider trading case, was found dead in an apparent suicide.
Today's reason to live Rhett Miller – Most In The Summertime |
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