On the record: Gov. Bobby Jindal called for tougher gun laws in other states on Sunday, breaking his silence on the issue three days after a gunman with a history of mental illness and violence opened fire in a movie theater in Lafayette. Gun control has become a prominent subject on the presidential campaign trail after the shooting on Thursday in Lafayette became the third mass shooting in six weeks in the United States. On CBS’s Face the Nation, Jindal called for states to adopt laws similar to Louisiana’s that feed information about mental illness into a federal background check system for potential gun buyers. “I think every state should strengthen their laws,” Jindal said. The New York Times has the full story.
Holding back: Global oil and natural gas producers have delayed $200 billion of investment in more than 45 projects following the slump in crude prices, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd. As Bloomberg reports, the deferrals “create a substantial hole in the industry’s investment pipeline,” accounting for about 20 billion barrels of reserves, the Edinburgh-based researcher says in an e-mailed report. Brent crude prices have dropped by half in a year after OPEC decided to maintain output to defend market share amid a global supply glut. More than 50% of the affected reserves are in deep-water projects, while almost 30% are in Canadian oil sands, the report shows.
Heating up: Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods posted a sizable gain in June, while business investment rebounded after two months of declines. Orders for durable goods jumped 3.4% in June from May, when orders had fallen 2.1%, the Commerce Department reported this morning. The Associated Press reports the gain was the best result since March and largely reflected a surge in demand for commercial aircraft A category viewed as a proxy for business investment plans jumped 0.9%, also the best showing since March. Read the full story.
