Photo: Science Photo Library RF
1 Trump Trial: Day Two
It was a more successful day in court for the jury selection process yesterday in former President Donald Trump’s criminal “hush money” trial in New York. While over 50 potential jurors were eliminated on day one, seven jurors were seated yesterday. The complete jury will consist of 12 jurors and six alternates, leaving nine more jurors to be seated before the trial can begin. After yesterday’s success, it’s thought that the trial could start in earnest next week. The jurors seated so far include a salesman, an oncology nurse, an attorney in corporate law, another attorney in civil law, an IT consultant, a teacher, and a software engineer. Several of the potential jurors were dismissed after questioning about social media, with both the prosecution and defense pointing to posts on the accounts of various members of the jury pool to illustrate what they thought was an inability to remain impartial. One interesting fact from the jury selection yesterday was that nine of the 23 potential jurors who answered the questionnaire provided by the court listed TikTok as a source of news.
2 Fed Chair Jerome Powell Cautions That Interest Rates May Stay High Until Late This Year
While talking yesterday during a panel discussion at the Wilson Center in Washington, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell changed his tune on interest rates. During the last Fed meeting last month, Powell predicted that interest rates would be cut at least three times this year, but his comments yesterday that any cuts that come in 2024 will happen late in the year. Talking about inflation, Powell said yesterday that “Recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence” that it’s falling, and added “If higher inflation does persist, we can maintain the current level of interest rates for as long as needed.” On March 7th, Powell told a Senate committee that the Fed was “not far” from gaining the confidence it needed to cut rates, but recent government data isn’t giving the Fed the excuse it’s looking for. Year-over-year inflation rose to 3.5-percent in March, retail sales jumped last month, and the core price index also rose sharply for the third month in a row. Wall Street traders had expected back in December to see as many as six quarter-point rate cuts this year, but now expect only two.
3 Whistleblower: Boeing Should Stop Production Of 787 Dreamliner Due To Safety Issues
A Boeing engineer who turned whistleblower is saying that the company’s 787 Dreamliner is unsafe to fly and could “drop to the ground” in flight if the problems aren’t dealt with. “NBC Nightly News” asked Sam Salehpour if he would let his own family fly on a 787, and he replied, “Right now, I would not.” Salehpour is expected to testify before a Senate subcommittee today. Boeing has had one bad news story after another recently involving malfunctions and problems with its planes, and responded to the claims yesterday by saying that the company is “fully confident in the 787 Dreamliner.” Salehpour’s attorney, Lisa Banks, told NBC News yesterday that she’s heard from around six “additional would-be whistleblowers at Boeing who have reported the same kinds of issues that Sam has raised.”