(cache) Eric Trump’s brother-in-law landed an Energy Department job - Axios
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Eric Trump’s brother-in-law landed an Energy Department job

Andrew Harnik/AP

A member of President Trump's extended family who once competed for the title of "hottest bachelor" in Washington, D.C. is helping to prepare the new administration's overhaul of energy policy.

Kyle Yunaska, who is Eric Trump's brother-in-law, is part of the "beachhead" team of temporary political appointees working at the Energy Department. Yunaska's sister Lara married the president's son in 2014.

Why it matters: Word of Yunaska's work on energy arrives as the administration has already been under fire for nepotism with Trump's installation of Jared Kushner, his daughter Ivanka's husband, as a senior White House adviser.

His work at the department involves the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis, according to sources familiar with his role on the team of temporary political appointees at the department. Trump's pick to lead the department, former Texas governor Rick Perry, has not yet won Senate confirmation, but his approval is expected soon.

Yunaska took part in Inside Edition's competition for "hottest bachelors" in Washington, D.C. in 2013 (but didn't win). He does not appear to have a background in energy policy, and his Facebook page lists his position as a tax analyst at Georgetown University and former accounting manager at the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health.

An alumni page at East Carolina University says he got a master's degree in business administration in 2009, and lists skills including "team building," "strategic planning," and "data analysis."

The department did not respond to a request for comment.

Clarifies the second sentence to describe "beachhead" teams.

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Big in business: The great airplane shortage

Ted S. Warren / AP

Aerospace manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus cannot produce airplanes fast enough to meet demand despite what the Wall Street Journal calls "one of the industry's steepest production increases since World War II." The run up in demand is partially the result of fast-growing airline industries in the Middle East and China. Manufacturers will need to increase production by 30% to meet current orders, and such booming demand is one sign of a healthier global economy.

Red-hot labor market: Another sign is data showing Initial applications for unemployment insurance falling again this week, and the four-week average of new claims is at its lowest since 1973. Back then, there were 100 million fewer people in the country, making today's record a more impressive feat.

Bitcoin hits an all-time high: The virtual currency surpassed highs reached back in November of 2013, trading at $1,172.09 per bitcoin, according to Coinbase. The last time the currency reached such heights, it very soon afterwards crashed, falling to roughly 1/6 of its record value just more than a year later.

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2017's Mobile World Congress is primed for a letdown

Manu Fernandez / AP

The largest conference in the mobile industry starts this weekend, with upwards of 100,000 people expected to descend on Barcelona. However, this year's Mobile World Congress may lack the punch of past gatherings.

That's because Samsung is expected to debut only a new tablet and save its flagship S8 for a March introduction. And, since Apple never introduces products at the show, that means little new from the two companies that account for majority high-end phone sales.

Plus, the lack of any big breakthrough technology means that this year's phones may look a lot like last year's models, with only a few new bells and whistles.

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Obamacare just keeps getting more popular (sort of)

The Kaiser Family Foundation is out today with the latest evidence that the repeal threat is making Obamacare more popular: Its monthly tracking poll shows the highest favorable rating the program has had since 2010, the year President Barack Obama signed it into law.

It's not great — just 48 percent, which says a lot about how low the approval ratings were before. But it's clearly higher than the unfavorable ratings for the first time in more than a year. (A Pew Research Center poll yesterday found the same thing, but with a higher approval rating: 54 percent.)

Data: Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Polls; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios
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Priebus asked FBI to shoot down Russia stories; FBI said 'no'

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus asked the FBI to "talk to reporters on background" to dispute reports linking the Trump campaign to Russia, CNN reports. The FBI declined. A White House official said the request was made only after the FBI said the reports were questionable.

CNN does an excellent job explaining why this matters:

The direct communications between the White House and the FBI were unusual because of decade-old restrictions on such contacts. Such a request from the White House is a violation of procedures that limit communications with the FBI on pending investigations.
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Trump keeping Paris climate options open

Andrew Harnik / AP

The Wall Street Journal reports that White House adviser Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump successfully scrubbed language attacking the Paris climate change deal from a looming executive order on environmental regulations.

Why it matters: The story is a fresh window onto how the White House is still figuring out its stance on the 2015 global climate accord — even as Trump's EPA moves to unwind domestic climate regulations that will help the U.S. meet its carbon emissions pledges under the largely non-binding deal.

"The White House declined to comment, but one official said that both Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump have been considered a moderating influence with respect to the White House's position on climate change and environmental issues," the Journal reports. President Trump, during the campaign, vowed to abandon the Paris pact. But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in his Senate confirmation process, sent more mixed signals about the U.S. posture.

What we're hearing: An EPA source says removing the language critical of Paris doesn't mean that the White House is wavering on plans for a frontal assault on climate regulations and funding. "We're cautiously optimistic that we'll get some wins in the form of cuts/deregulation," said the source, whose view reflects a number of senior officials inside the agency.

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Google's self-driving car company sues Uber over IP theft

AP Photo/Paul Sancya

Waymo, the self-driving car unit recently spun out of Alphabet, has filed a lawsuit against Uber for stealing trade secrets when it acquired a startup founded by former employees, according to a lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court on Thursday. Alphabet's investment arm, GV, is a long-time investor in Uber.

The details: According to the complaint, Waymo says that Anthony Levandowski and other employees secretly downloaded and copied confidential information about the company's LiDAR system and other technology before leaving to start their own startup focused on autonomous driving. The new startup, Otto, was subsequently acquired by Uber just a few months later in August for $680 million.

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FCC chief moves to chip away at Charter-Time Warner Cable merger conditions

AP

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai moved Thursday to roll back part of a key requirement from last year that Charter Communications expand its broadband network in order to merge with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

The setup: When the FCC approved Charter's $65 billion merger with the massive Time Warner Cable network last year, it said the company needed to build out its network to two million customer locations. A million of those had to be locations where there was already a high-speed broadband provider operating to create more competition.

The details: Multiple sources familiar with the move confirmed to Axios that a draft order eliminating those so-called "overbuild provisions" — forcing Charter to build in areas where a competitor already operates — had been circulated to the commissioners' offices by agency staff in response to petitions from two trade groups. An commission official said the rationale behind the order was to encourage Charter to build in unserved areas of the country, not places where customers can already access high-speed broadband.

Worth noting: An order can sit on circulation for a long time, so this doesn't necessarily mean that a vote on the matter is imminent. Spokespeople for the FCC and Charter declined to comment on the record.

Key context: Pai has long criticized the idea of putting conditions on a merger to reach broader policy goals, like encouraging competition in the broadband market. He even voted against the Charter merger's approval just to make that point.

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Air Force not aware of Trump’s $1B Boeing price cut

Susan Walsh / AP

On Saturday Trump told a rally he had cut the price of the new Air Force One Boeing 747s by $1 billion.

Today: "To my knowledge I have not been told that we have that information," Air Force spokesman Colonel Pat Ryder told reporters, per Bloomberg.

The original price of two 747s was supposed to be around $4 billion, but the Air Force still is working to adjust its "Acquisition Program Baseline," which helps determine how much the program costs. The program will likely receive contracts June 30.

Trump similarly claimed he cut $600 million off about 90 planes in negotiations with Lockheed Martin for F-35s. The CEO confirmed there had been about a 60% price drop — but it wasn't necessarily due to Trump's pressuring.

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Sessions rolls back Obama-era guidance on private prisons

Susan Walsh / AP

The AP reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has rescinded the Obama administration's guidance directing DOJ to phase out its use of private prisons.

Why it matters: There's been a great deal of speculation that President Trump might use private prisons as a major part of his plan to detain significantly greater numbers of illegal immigrants. And don't forget that the industry sunk a ton of money into his campaign.

They're already seeing returns:

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Trump weighs in on nukes, the EU, North Korea and Russia

Evan Vucci / AP

Reuters has a new interview with President Trump from the Oval Office. He covered a broad range of foreign policy issues, often at odds with decades of entrenched policy. The highlights…

  • Nuclear arsenal: Trump wants to take the United States to the "top of the pack" and said that it was "never going to fall behind on nuclear power."
  • A globalist? The self-proclaimed "Mr. Brexit" stated that he's "totally in favor" of the European Union, calling it "wonderful."
  • Russia: Trump said he'd talk to Putin personally "if and when [they] meet" about the reported deployment of a new Russian cruise missile in violation of an arms control treaty with the United States. He is not in favor of another "one-sided" START treaty.
  • North Korea: He called North Korea "a dangerous situation" but believes that China can "end it very quickly." He also floated the idea of a missile defense system for Japan and South Korea as an option in the region.
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