* There’s a lot of chatter today about the release of the “Panama Papers.”
The hidden wealth of some of the world’s most prominent leaders, politicians and celebrities has been revealed by an unprecedented leak of millions of documents that show the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes…
Journalists from more than 80 countries have been reviewing 11.5m files leaked from the database of Mossack Fonseca, the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm…
Though there is nothing unlawful about using offshore companies, the files raise fundamental questions about the ethics of such tax havens – and the revelations are likely to provoke urgent calls for reforms of a system that critics say is arcane and open to abuse.
* The Supreme Court did something today that doesn’t happen very often…they released a unanimous decision.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled against challengers seeking to change the long-held interpretation of the principle of one person, one vote. Siding with a lower court, the 8-member high court held that total population could be used to draw electoral districts…
The challengers had argued the use of total population — which includes non-citizens, but also children and disenfranchise prisoners — to draw districts was unconstitutional because it diluted the political power of eligible voters. Civil rights advocates argued that the lawsuit was an attempt to increase the political power of white suburban and rural voters, who tend to vote Republican, at the cost of minority and urban communities, which have a larger share of non-eligible voters in their districts.
* The population at Gitmo is down to 89.
Two Libyans held at the US military prison in Guantanamo have been flown to Senegal, the Pentagon said.
Salem Abdu Salam Ghereby and Omar Khalif Mohammed Abu Baker Mahjour Umar are the first of a group of about a dozen inmates expected to be resettled, US media report.
The two transfers mean there are now 89 detainees left in Guantanamo. President Barack Obama has presented Congress with a plan to close the facility but faces stiff opposition.
* Here’s something that might surprise a lot of folks.
Whenever minimum wage increases are proposed on the state or federal level, business groups tend to fight them tooth and nail. But actual opposition may not be as united as the groups’ rhetoric might make it appear, according to internal research conducted by a leading consultant for state chambers of commerce.
The survey of 1,000 business executives across the country was conducted by LuntzGlobal, the firm run by Republican pollster Frank Luntz, and obtained by a liberal watchdog group called the Center for Media and Democracy…Among the most interesting findings: 80 percent of respondents said they supported raising their state’s minimum wage, while only eight percent opposed it.
* It sounds to me like Donald Trump still thinks he’s on a reality TV show.
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump told the crowd at a Monday campaign rally his events would be “boring as hell” if his onstage presence was less bombastic.
* Finally, here is a new release from Jacob Collier – a musician that Quincy Jones describes like this:
I have never in my life seen a talent like this… Beyond category. One of my favourite young artists on the planet – absolutely mind-blowing.
