A report today from Nicole Winfield at the Associated Press, aka the Administration’s Press, headlines the news that Pope Francis’s revision and update of Vatican City laws “criminalizes leaks.” Meanwhile, searches on relevant terms at the AP’s national web site (“leaks“; “insider threat” “McClatchy“; all not in quotes) return either nothing, or nothing relevant.

AP’s apparent decision thus far to ignore McClatchy’s latest story on the Obama administration’s unprecedented “Insider Threat Program,” which requires federal employees to snitch on each other for “suspicious behavior” or face serious discipline and even prosecution, is — well, readers can pick their own adjectives after reading excerpts from McClatchy’s latest item which follow the jump.
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Here we go:

Topics:
– Obamacare Employer Mandate
– Morsi Ousted in Egypt
– President Obama
– Voter ID
– Aaron Hernandez
– Michelle Obama
– Cokie Roberts
– George Zimmerman
– Wendy Davis
– UFC’s Anderson Silva

Best Lines:

• “New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez has been arrested for murder, and liberals are upset. Not because of the murder, but because Hernandez’s absence might lead to more playing time for Tim Tebow.”
• “Michelle Obama told Cokie Roberts that living in the White House is like being in a real nice prison — y’know, except for all the time off for lavish European vacations at taxpayer expense.”

Predictions:
- Bloomberg — 340,000 seasonally adjusted claims.
- Reuters —
- Business Insider — 337,000

Seasonal adjustment factors:
- Week ended July 6, 2013 — 107.0
- Week ended July 7, 2012 — 121.8

Raw claims:
- Week ended June 29, 2013 (before likely revision this week) — 333,920
- Week ended July 7, 2012 — 442,192

Apparently, layoffs typically increase during the week before July 4. My guess is that this year’s raw number of layoffs was much lower than last year’s comparable week, and that today’s seasonally adjusted number will therefore also be lower. If so, it will be a one-off result from which larger conclusions can’t be drawn. We’ll see.

The report will be here at 8:30.

HERE IT IS (permanent link): So much for that theory –

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending July 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 360,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 344,000. The 4-week moving average was 351,750, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 345,750.

… UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 384,829 in the week ending July 6, an increase of 49,778 from the previous week. There were 442,192 initial claims in the comparable week in 2012.

To be fair, it looks like Team Obama caught a bad break in the inexplicably lower seasonal adjustment factor this year. If last year’s factor had been used, seasonally adjusted claims would have been 44,000 claims lower (384,829 divided by 121.8 is 316,000, rounded).

Raw claims were down 13%.

Today’s number is artificially high. Next week’s number, given a seasonal adjustment factor of 122.2, should come in artificially low. They’ll probably average out to the numbers in the 340s we’ve seen in recent weeks, and perhaps a bit lower.

Rules are here. Possible comment fodder may follow later. Other topics are also fair game.

From Concepcion, Chile:

Jul 8, 2013 / 11:03 am

The archbishop of Concepcion, Chile, has donated a $50,000 inheritance to a Catholic university in the city to establish a food scholarship in memory of his late aunt.

“I believe that in Chile, donation is a path we must take for a more just society, in a bid for freedom for all,” Archbishop Fernando N. Chomali Garib said at the June 24 ceremony establishing the Yolanda Garib Food Scholarship at the Catholic University of the Most Holy Conception.

The inheritance received by the archbishop from his maternal aunt, Yolanda Garib, will serve as financial aid for meals for students whose parents are imprisoned or immigrants.

The rector of the university, Juan Miguel Cancino, as well as members of the Chilean Prison Guard Force, government officials, the ambassador of Palestine, and family and friends of the archbishop were present at the ceremony.

“We hope that this example of generosity is followed by many,” Cancino said of the donation.

Archbishop Chomali said that “money is to overcome poverty,” adding that “now I had the opportunity to lead by example.”

Nearly 80 percent of the university’s students are from impoverished families, and the school is meant to help lift students out of poverty.

There is a “very complex” link between education and social standing in Chile, Archbishop Chomali said, and it should be overcome.

The archbishop himself comes from an immigrant family – he is part of the second generation of Palestinian immigrants to Chile. …

Go here for the rest of the story.