Today’s briefing is sponsored by America’s Power.
This is an exciting day for InsideSources. We will be hosting our first in a series of “Road to 2016” forums. Our first, sponsored by America’s Power, will be held today in Des Moines, Iowa, and it will feature Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Governor Rick Perry of Texas, Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Congressman David Young of Iowa.
You may RSVP to attend the event HERE.
Energy
Bloomberg Gives $30M to Shut 50% of Coal Plants by 2017 – ‘Thousands’ of Jobs Killed, Trade Group Says
CNS NEWS
Penny Starr
At a press briefing at the Sierra Club in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg […] announced that he is contributing $30 million to the Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign, which is designed to shut down the nation’s coal plants. … But Jason Hayes, associate director of the American Coal Council, said that Bloomberg’s claim of the benefits of stopping coal production ignores the cost to tens of thousands of American workers. … According to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, at the end of 2012 there were 557 coal-fueled power plants in the United States. By 2015, over 90 percent of U.S. coal-fueled electric generating capacity will have installed clean coal technologies and other advanced emission controls to reduce harmful emissions, according to ACCCE.
Obama Adviser During Recession Is Given New Challenge: Climate Change
NEW YORK TIMES
Coral Davenport and Julie Hirschfeld Davis
These days the crisis atmosphere is gone and unemployment is at 5.5 percent, but Mr. Deese is still running the economic numbers at the White House on a different kind of crisis that is preoccupying the president. Mr. Deese’s job as Mr. Obama’s senior adviser in charge of climate policy is to push the president’s ambitious environmental agenda to governors, industry executives and international negotiators — while under daily political attacks from Congress and the coal industry.
Technology
U.S. Agencies Block Technology Exports for Supercomputer in China
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Don Clark
U.S. officials are blocking technology exports to facilities in China associated with the world’s fastest supercomputer, a blow to Intel Corp. and other hardware suppliers that adds to the list of tech tensions between the two countries. Four technical centers in China associated with the massive computer known as Tianhe-2 were placed on a U.S. government list of entities determined to be acting contrary to U.S. national security or foreign-policy interests.
Finance
Study: Tax compliance costs top $230b
THE HILL
Bernie Becker
U.S. taxpayers spent roughly $233.8 billion in 2014 complying with the tax code, according to a new study, a figure larger than the economy of Ireland, Portugal or Pakistan. The national taxpayer advocate, an in-house IRS watchdog, has estimated that taxpayers spend some 6.1 billion hours a year on tax compliance.
Fed Divided on June Rate Increase, but Soft Data May Prove Deciding Factor
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jon Hilsenrath and Ben Leubsdorf
Federal Reserve officials were divided at their March policy meeting on whether they might raise interest rates in June, and recent soft economic data could make a midyear move even less likely. Minutes of the Fed’s March 17-18 policy meeting, released by the central bank Wednesday with the regular three-week lag, showed some officials wavering about moving to raise credit costs too quickly. Inflation has been running below the Fed’s 2% objective for nearly three years and some officials saw this trend persisting, citing falling energy prices and a strong U.S. dollar, which lowers the cost of imported goods.
Wall St. Is Told to Tighten Digital Security of Partners
NEW YORK TIMES
Matthew Goldstein
A survey of 40 banks found that only about a third require their outside vendors to notify them of any breach to their own networks, which could in turn compromise confidential information of the bank and its customers. Fewer than half the banks surveyed said they conducted regular on-site inspections to make sure the vendors they hire — like data providers, check-processing firms, accounting firms, law firms and even janitorial companies — are using adequate security measures. About half require vendors to provide a warranty that their products and data streams are secure and virus-free.
Fiorina: Abolish Wall Street reform law
THE HILL
Kevin Cirilli
“We should get rid of Dodd-Frank and start again,” Fiorina told The Hill. Fiorina argues the law will do little to prevent another financial crisis and has instead introduced regulations that are holding back the economy. “Let’s start by making sure that the 26 regulatory agencies that were supposed to be overseeing the financial system, that were supposed to be predicting the financial crisis — 26 of them all missed it. We haven’t even started to look at that problem,” she said.
Politics
Rand Paul Faces Foreign-Policy Challenge as He Looks to 2016
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Janet Hook and Beth Reinhard
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has long advocated negotiating with Iran over its nuclear-weapons program. Then, last month, he was among the Senate Republicans who signed a letter warning Iran that the next president could discard any nuclear deal. The shift points to one of the biggest challenges of Mr. Paul’s newly minted presidential campaign: finding his foreign-policy footing amid mounting instability abroad, while preserving support from libertarians and young people drawn to his antiwar, antiestablishment record.
Senate Democrats seek to soften Iran bill
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Geoff Dyer
Senior Democrats in the Senate are trying to water down a high-profile Iran bill that the White House fears could scupper the final stages of nuclear negotiations with Tehran. Democratic senators started putting forward amendments on Wednesday to the Iran bill, which has become a high-stakes political confrontation between Congress and the White House over the Obama administration’s main foreign policy priority.
Tsarnaev guilty on all 30 charges in Boston bombing
USA TODAY
Jeffrey MacDonald
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty Wednesday on all 30 federal counts in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing case and faces a possible death sentence.
When everything is a crime
WASHINGTON POST
George Will
Now comes “Rethinking Presumed Knowledge of the Law in the Regulatory Age” (Tennessee Law Review) by Michael Anthony Cottone, a federal judicial clerk. Cottone warns that as the mens rea requirement withers when the quantity and complexity of laws increase, the doctrine of ignorantia legis neminem excusat — ignorance of the law does not excuse — becomes problematic. The regulatory state is rendering unrealistic the presumption that a responsible citizen should be presumed to have knowledge of the law.
Former Nevada Attorney General Cortez Masto Will Run for Reid’s Senate Seat
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said Wednesday that she will run for Harry Reid’s Senate seat, less than two weeks after the Democratic leader said he won’t seek a sixth term. Ms. Cortez Masto, a 51-year-old Democrat who has been praised by Mr. Reid, said she left her new job as the executive vice chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education on Tuesday.
