The Daily Valet. - 7/10/20, Friday

✔️ Big Decisions

July 10, 2020

Friday, July 10th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

The longer we stay home, the better our home audio systems need to be.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today's edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

The President Isn’t Above the Law

The public won’t see Trump’s taxes before election day, but he could face bigger problems

Supreme Court cases are complicated, but a few things are clear from what the court decided Thursday about President Trump’s financial records: State prosecutors in New York can subpoena years of the president’s tax returns. Congress, however could not (at least for now) see many of the same records, reports NPR.

According to the Washington Post, the two decisions could give Democrats more ammunition in their attempts to raise ethical questions about a president who has fought relentlessly to keep his financial records out of the public eye.

But it’s all but certain those financial records will be kept out of the public eye at least until after the November election. By law, documents subpoenaed as part of a grand jury investigation are secret, though they could later become public if used as evidence in a trial.

Trump is the only president in modern times who has refused to make his tax returns public. He didn’t embrace Thursday’s outcome as a victory and immediately attacked the outcome, “This is all a political prosecution,” he tweeted.

The majority decision was written by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., who was joined by the justices from the court’s liberal arm, along with Trump’s two nominees to the court—Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.

“No citizen, not even the president, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. And according to legal scholars, who spoke with the Boston Globe, the rulings will have far-reaching implications on future presidents and lawmakers.

↦ FYI: Trump maintains he won’t release his tax returns because of an audit by the IRS—a questionable position because there is no law preventing him from releasing returns that are under audit.

COVID Cases Continue to Soar in the U.S.

America’s Sun Belt has become the global virus capital

There is no country in the world where confirmed coronavirus cases are growing as rapidly as they are in the states of Arizona, Florida or South Carolina, reports New York Times.

The only countries with outbreaks as severe as those across the Sunbelt are Bahrain, Oman and Qatar—countries with large numbers of low-wage migrant workers who often live in cramped quarters, with subpar social services.

But, as The Atlantic points out, while the cases are soaring, average daily deaths are down 75% from their April peak. Of course, in the fog of a pandemic, every statistic tells a story, but no one statistic tells the whole truth.

For instance, expanded testing is finding more cases, milder cases, and earlier cases—but the positivity rate has more than doubled. And while deaths have largely plateaued, in Arizona, Florida and Texas, the surge is already happening—the seven-day average of deaths in those hot-spot states has increased 69% since early June, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

↦ What? A glass vial shortage could delay deployment of coronavirus vaccine.

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Unemployment Edged Lower Over the Last Week

Claims dropped to a near four-month low

Over 1.3 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week, a decrease of nearly 100,000 from the previous week. Which means at least 32.9 million people are now collecting unemployment checks in the United States, reports Reuters.

A record-setting 4.8 million jobs were created in June, pushing the unemployment rate down to 11.1% (from 13.3% in May). According to the Wall Street Journal, the modest easing of the number of people on unemployment rolls suggests new layoffs are being offset by hiring and recalling of workers.

Economists cautioned against reading too much into the bigger-than-expected decline in jobless claims though, noting that the period included the July 4 Independence Day holiday. Claims data are volatile around holidays.

What's more, the statistics released by the Department of Labor on Thursday suggest that unemployment will most likely increase again soon. After all, nearly half of all U.S. states have recently paused or rolled back the reopening of their economies due to surges in coronavirus cases.

↦ FYI: There have been more than 1 million new unemployment claims for 15 weeks running.

First Look at the New Nest Smart Speaker

Google confirmed it on the same day it leaked

The Nest Mini (formerly known as “Google Home Mini”) has become an incredibly popular little smart speaker. But the device is long overdue for a successor and it appears one is on the way.

Google has responded to the inadvertent reveal of a new Nest smart speaker through regulatory filings by confirming its existence to The Verge.

They sent along a photo of the new device—referring to it only as “what the Nest team is working on from home.”

The speaker looks somewhere between the pillowy Nest Mini and the larger Google Home Max, with a similar ability to stand vertically. It's clear from the the size that audio will be a main component.

↦ Meanwhile: Apple just released the first iOS 14 beta open to the public.

In Other News

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Natural deodorants

This throwback arcade game

Brick-and-mortar shops

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Your Weekend Pairing

Down to Earth + a Natty Wine

I miss traveling. Don't you? But I'm not planning on breaking out the passport anytime soon. (And most countries aren't letting in Americans anyway). So Zac Efron's new Netflix docuseries, Down to Earth, seems well-timed to soothe our collective wanderlust.

Anthony Bourdain didn't invent the global travel-while-eating TV genre, but a mark of his genius can be seen in shows like this, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Efron travels from Iceland to England, from Puerto Rico to Peru to Costa Rica in order to learn about sustainable living, and he eats some interesting food along the way, including a “dung-smoked” dish—which I'm hoping is not his secret to attaining those abs. Efron's definitely more of an everyman and he's nowhere near as philosophical as the late, great Bourdain (you could make a drinking game out of the number of “dudes” Efron drops) but it's still nice to see far-flung parts of the world—if only from behind a screen.

↦ Your Pairing:What does one drink when enjoying a globetrotting, eco-conscious show focused on sustainability? I'm not exactly sure, honestly, but natural wine seems appropriate. Natty wine, as the kids call it, is really more of a concept than an officially defined distinction with agreed-upon characteristics. According to our favorite wine shop, it's generally crafted from organically farmed fruit and native yeast fermentations, then bottled unfiltered. This cloudy Italian orange wine from Calcarius has crisp notes of fresh citrus peel with a funky, mineral finish.

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