What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, as always.

First, a story on the 28 people injured at a fireworks display. From APNews

“More than two dozen people were injured when a wood platform holding live fireworks tipped over, sending the pyrotechnics into a crowd at an annual 4th of July show northwest of Los Angeles, authorities said Friday.

Between 8,000 and 10,000 revelers were settling into their seats for the fireworks extravaganza at a Simi Valley park Thursday night when the spectacle of lights that were supposed to be launched in the sky never took off. A bright plume of red and white bursts spread across the ground, injuring 28 people and sending others fleeing for safety.”

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Things are escalating in Egypt as Morsi supporters attack those celebrating his ouster. From TheNYTimes

“Egypt’s bitter split over who should be ruling the country exploded into violent clashes in the streets of Cairo and elsewhere on Friday as masses of demonstrators celebrating the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi battled crowds of Islamists who wanted him reinstated.”

“The mayhem capped a day full of massive and defiant protests by Islamists demanding that Mr. Morsi be returned to power. At least four people were killed and many were wounded when security forces fired into a protest near the officers’ club of the powerful Republican Guard, where many believed Mr. Morsi was detained.

With clashes breaking out late into the night, it was impossible to estimate the full extent of casualties and damage. But early Saturday, security officials said at least 30 people had been killed nationwide and hundreds wounded, many of them in Cairo.”

Meanwhile the Obama admin is advocating for Morsi and his supporters to be included. He always sides with the Islamists. From Bloomberg

“The Obama administration’s call for an “inclusive” political process in Egypt with a role for the Muslim Brotherhood has been overshadowed by deadly clashes between security forces and supporters of the Islamist group.

Violent protests yesterday in Cairo and elsewhere over the military’s ouster of President Mohamed Mursi raised doubts about prospects for an eventual accommodation that would allow the Brotherhood that supports him to compete in new elections.

While President Barack Obama’s administration has stopped short of condemning the July 3 military takeover, it has called on Egyptian leaders to pursue “a transparent political process that is inclusive of all parties and groups,” including “avoiding any arbitrary arrests of Mursi and his supporters,” Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said July 4 in a statement.

The administration has urged the Egyptian military to stop using heavy-handed tactics, according to two U.S. officials who asked not to be identified commenting on private communications. They said the administration is concerned that some in the military may want to provoke the Islamists to violence and provide a rationale for crushing the movement once and for all.”

Oh no, we can’t have that, can we? 🙄

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And the next bunch are on the just released jobs report. Obama would like you to know that it proves the recovery act worked, or something. From TheWashingtonExaminer

“It’s to be expected. Every month the White House claims that the economy is improving despite evidence to the contrary. On Friday, Alan Kreuger, chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said, “In the four years since the recession ended in June 2009, the economy has added 5.3 million jobs, thanks to the resilience of the American people and policies like the Recovery Act, which helped bring the recession to an end and put us on the path to recovery.”

That rosy outlook disregards the numbers behind the jobs report. While the media reports that 195,000 jobs were added in June and that is better than expected, they neglect to mention that if the economy added 195,000 jobs a month consistently, it would not return to pre-recession employment levels until 2021, according to a nifty interactive chart developed by the Brookings Institute.”

“Furthermore, the rest of the jobs report is even worse. The reported unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.6 percent despite the increase in jobs, but the real unemployment rate, the U-6 rate (which is the total unemployed, including all part-time workers) jumped from 13.8 percent in may to 14.3 percent in June. The unemployment rate looks worse when broken down into demographics:”

A closer look at the numbers only makes it look worse. From Breitbart

“The release of the June Jobs’ Report Friday was something of a relief for the markets. The Labor Department reported that the economy gained 195,000 jobs in June, which beat economists’ expectations. The Department also reported that the economy gained 70,000 more jobs in April and May than it originally estimated. The report, however, also provides clear evidence that the nation is splitting into two; only 47% of Americans have a full-time job and those who don’t are finding it increasingly out of reach.

Of the 144 million Americans employed last month, only 116 million were working full-time. Friday’s report showed that 58.7% of the civilian adult population of 245 million was working last month. Only 47% of Americans, however, had a full-time job.”

Even more details here, from ZeroHedge

“As a reminder: jobs have quantity and quality components. The quantity component was good enough to convince the 10 Year the taper is imminent (if not stocks, which continue to trade dislocated from any and all fundamentals). But how about the quality? In a word: not good. In June, the household survey reported that part-time jobs soared by 360,000 to 28,059,000 – an all time record high. Full time jobs? Down 240,000.  And looking back at the entire year, so far in 2013, just 130K Full-Time Jobs have been added, offset by a whopping 557K Part-Time jobs. And there is your jobs “quality” leading to today’s market euphoria (if only for now).”

Summer of Recovery II anyone?

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