Oh, Those Jobs Figures And Economic Numbers!

Jobs Surge in April, Unemployment Rate Falls to  the Lowest Since 1969 “The U.S. jobs machine kept humming along in April, adding a robust 263,000 new hires while the unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, the lowest in a generation, according to a Labor Department report Friday,” Jeff Cox reports in CNBC. The American economy “easily beat Wall Street expectations of 190,000 and a 3.8% jobless rate.” Click here to read more.

“President Donald Trump hits a new high on his economic approval ratings in a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS, reaching 56% of Americans saying he's doing a good job on the economy,” Grace Sparks reports for CNN. “At the same time, Trump's favorability rating has hit its highest point since the 100-day mark of his presidency.”

“Doing her best to raise the level of civility in Washington, Nancy Pelosi called William Barr a liar on Thursday . . . The real reason for Mrs. Pelosi’s slander is what else Mr. Barr said the last time he was before Congress. He said that spying on a political campaign was a ‘big deal,’ that he thought the FBI did spy on the Trump campaign in 2016, and that he intends to find out what happened and why,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes.

“What is perhaps most notable about this episode is that Robert Mueller — or, perhaps, as Barr hinted in his Wednesday testimony, people around him — were concerned about the media coverage and political discussion around his report. Particularly troubling was that it wasn’t damning enough of the president. This is not a prosecutorial concern, but a political one unworthy of people who were invested with incredible investigative power in the name of objectivity,” the National Review editorial board writes. “Bill Barr’s critics are demonstrating their lack of judgment and seriousness, not his.”

“Only about 15 percent of America’s students have a reasonable understanding of American history. And the numbers look just as bleak in other core subjects,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos writes in the New York Post. “There are many who propose we spend even more on doing the same thing over and over again. Albert Einstein called this ‘insanity.’ . . . Students deserve something different. And actually doing something different demands courage to confront a powerful and pernicious establishment — one that opposes change in education.”