UNITED STATES Supreme Court building (Flickr/Geoff Livingston).

There was good news and bad news for President Donald Trump in rulings Thursday from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court ruled 7-2 in Trump v. Vance that New York City prosecutors must have access to the president’s tax records under a subpoena that’s part of a grand jury investigation. According to United Press International, at question is “hush money” allegedly paid to two women to keep Mr. Trump’s alleged extramarital affairs from becoming public.

However, in Trump v. Mazars the high court ruled 7-2 that Democrats in Congress didn’t have the right to the same records. The ruling sends the matter back to a lower court for further review on the matter of the need for the documents.

Early re-openers hit by COVID-19 surge

The resurgence in new coronavirus cases is being most keenly felt by those states that were the first to re-open, according to a report Thursday in the New York Times. Florida, one of leaders in moving toward lifting restrictions on businesses, has seen an increase of average daily cases of 1,393 percent, followed by South Carolina with 999 percent and Arizona at 858 percent. The re-openings started in early May.

Also in the news … Biden’s manufacturing plan

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Thursday announced a $700 billion plan to stimulate American manufacturing and research, claiming it would create 5 million jobs . . . The Big 10 will play only conference games this fall in its autumn sports, including football. According to USA Today, the Pac-12 is considering a similar plan for football . . . The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5-4 that the eastern half of Oklahoma is actually part of “Native American territory.” The chief effect is to give the tribal justice systems jurisdiction in crimes allegedly committed by Native Americans …

Today’s update on coronavirus statistics

The Johns Hopkins University tally of coronavirus cases shows a total of 12,169,400 cases worldwide as of Thursday afternoon, with the U.S. leading with 3,108,141 infections. Following are Brazil (1,713,160) and India (767,296). The count of deaths globally is 552,104. The U.S. has 133,106, followed by Brazil with 67,964 and United Kingdom/Great Britain with 44,687.

Nasdaq up, but not its colleagues

The technology-heavy Nasdaq stock exchange had a good day on Thursday, but not so much the other two: the Dow Jones Average and the S&P 500.  Nasdaq jumped 55.25 points to a new high of 10,547.75, an increase of 0.53 percent. The Dow, however, fell by 361.19 points to 25,706.09, decrease of 1.39 percent. The S&P 500 was down 17.89 points to 3,152.05, a decline of 0.56 percent.

It was a very good day for FS Networks, Advanced Micro Devices and Pentair PLC. It was a bad day for Mohawk Industries, Hess Corp. and TechnipFMC.

It’s a typical outdoors for SoCal and OC

Breezy and sunny weather will be our local climate for the next several days. Winds of five to 20 miles an hour should blow through West Orange County through Saturday night. As has been usual for the last week or so, the National Weather Service calls for patchy fog in the mornings until 11, giving way through mostly sunny conditions after. Highs are predicted for Friday at 87 and 90 on Saturday and Sunday. Looking ahead to next week, we’ll see a cooling trend into the 80s.

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