Ex-RNC Chair Michael Steele Hits Lindsey Graham With A Brutal Fact-Check

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tried to tout his home state’s hands-off approach to gun control as a solution to crime. Instead, he received a blunt reminder of South Carolina’s rising crime rates via a fact-check provided by Michael Steele, former chair of the Republican National Committee. 

Graham went on Fox News on Monday to attack crime in “big Democratic cities and states,” then suggested it was not a problem in South Carolina because of all the guns.

“If you do this crap in South Carolina, you’ll be lucky if you go to jail,” Graham said. “You’ll be lucky if someone doesn’t shoot you.” 

Graham also blamed crime on a lack of deterrence in some places.

“People no longer feel afraid to assault someone in the streets,” he said, then suggested that South Carolina kept its crime rates down because people were deterred by all the gun owners. 

Steele pointed out why that was not the case:

Over the past five years, murders in South Carolina were up by 51 percent, the South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division said last month. 

Graham also attacked California in his Fox News interview, even though CDC statistics showed that South Carolina had more than double the homicide rate and nearly three times the firearm injury death rate per 100,000 people. According to FBI data compiled by US News, South Carolina even had some of the highest rates in the nation of property crime and violent crime. 

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. Q2 adjusted earnings Beat Estimates

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (SWK) revealed a profit for its second quarter that advanced from the same period last year.

The company’s earnings came in at $454.7 million, or $2.81 per share. This compares with $233.7 million, or $1.52 per share, in last year’s second quarter.

Excluding items, Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. reported adjusted earnings of $497.8 million or $3.08 per share for the period.

Analysts had expected the company to earn $2.87 per share, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

The company’s revenue for the quarter rose 36.5% to $4.30 billion from $3.15 billion last year.

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. earnings at a glance:

-Earnings (Q2): $497.8 Mln. vs. $247.0 Mln. last year.
-EPS (Q2): $3.08 vs. $1.60 last year.
-Analysts Estimate: $2.87
-Revenue (Q2): $4.30 Bln vs. $3.15 Bln last year.

-Guidance:
Full year EPS guidance: $11.35 – $11.65

Corning Guides Q3 In Line With Estimates – Quick Facts

While reporting financial results for the second quarter on Tuesday, Corning Inc. (GLW) provided core earnings and core sales guidance for the third quarter.

For the third quarter, the company expects core earnings in a range of $0.54 to $0.59 per share on core sales between $3.5 billion and $3.7 billion.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $0.57 per share on sales of $3.53 billion for the quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren Rips Jeff Bezos For Space Trip While Stiffing IRS

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) flamed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for his high-flying trip to space last week after skipping out on his taxes and letting struggling Americans pick up the tab for funding the nation.

ProPublica reported last month that Bezos — who is worth some $205 billion — didn’t pay a penny in federal income tax in 2007, 2011 or 2018. He paid a true tax rate of less than 1% between 2014 and 2018, even though his wealth soared by $99 billion.

Now, Bezos will rake in even more dough by selling tickets off-planet via his Blue Origin space company. A public auction held for one of the other three seats on the first crewed flight of the New Sheperd rocket that carried Bezos into space last Tuesday sold for $28 million. He boasted last week that Blue Origin had already sold close to $100 million in tickets for future flights.

Bezos was recently scorched on social media for thanking Amazon workers and customers for funding his flight. That was a particular clunker given that Amazon crushed workers’ efforts earlier this year to unionize and receive better pay and benefits for their labor.

Critics were also happy to agree with Warren:

Vossloh To Buy Dutch Rail Company ETS Spoor For Undisclosed Terms

Vossloh AG (VOSSF.PK), a German supplier of rail infrastructure products and services, said it signed an agreement to acquire the Dutch company ETS Spoor B.V. The companies have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

The closing of the sale will take place on July 30.

ETS is a one-stop shop provider of rail infrastructure products and services in the Netherlands. In 2020, ETS generated sales of around 20 million euros.

Following the deal, ETS will be managed in the Lifecycle Solutions division in the future.

Vossloh expects the acquisition would strengthen its competitive position and creates even more customer proximity in the Netherlands.

Special edition Troy Bayliss Panigale V2 by Ducati unveiled

Ducati has revealed a special edition of the Panigale V2 in honour of one of their most successful racers, Troy Bayliss. The Australian has three WSBK (Superbike World Championship) titles to his name, the third highest tally of WSBK wins in history (52) and holds the unique claim to being the only racer in history to have won a WSBK and MotoGP race in the same season.

Named the Panigale V2 Bayliss first Championship 20th Anniversary edition, the bike is clearly in honour of the 20th year anniversary since Bayliss picked up his first world championship in 2001 on the 996 R.

Visually, the V2 has the same body work, but gets special livery, with the number 21 proudly plastered on the front and side, with splashes of red and white. However, things do not stop with cosmetic changes as Ducati has also having given the bike some mechanical updates.

The 935cc L-twin engine remains unchanged and continues to put out 155hp and 104Nm of torque. However, Ducati has ditched the existing bike’s Showa and Sachs front/rear suspension set-up in favour of highe- end units from Ohlins — an NIX 30 fork and a TTX36 shock. The bike also gets a lithium-ion battery which helps reduce kerb weight by 3kg.

Ducati tends to bring a small number of its special edition Panigales to India, so we may see the Bayliss edition Panigale launched in India as well, based on customer demand.