Welcome to the 2017 National Competitiveness forum. I hope all of you that were with us last night had a lovely evening at the University Club for our annual dinner. I know we were all absolutely blown away by the fantastic talk that was given on sustainability. Thank you again for that wonderful poor divorce of the imperative for sustainability in our future. Allow me to recognize and thank our sponsors for their support and commitment for the council of work and i want to recognize the company and Lockheed Martin are premier sponsors and want to recognize our national for pepsico, deloitte, our chairman sponsor asu, university of california san diego as well as the benefactors and patrons a ten tv and Michigan State university, university of action, verizon, Marquette University and whitecap investment. We cannot do that for him and i thank you very much for that. We have a full day, very exciting talks, as well as the relief of some of the critical annual policy work of the council
Ok. Get it down to a dull roar. Let us get it started. Thank you. We are going to dive right in to the final panel of today which is on u. S. Taiwan policy. We are very honored to have three distinguished guests on the panel giving us their insights today. I will keep the introductions to a minimum because these people are familiar to most of you in the audience. Dr. Mika greene, my colleague here. Asiar Vice President for and our japan chair here. Obviously, a professor at georgetown and a former staffer at the nsc during the george w. Bush administration. He is acting as senior director for east asia. Another Foreign Service officer, extremely experienced. And one of the most Renowned Experts on u. S. Policy u. S. Taiwan policy. In the triangular relationship among u. S. , taiwan, and china. Another state Department Officer who is also currently a resident at georgetown university. We are honored to have him here as a senior fellow helping us think through a lot of these interesting
Extension. I reported it earlier this morning and just drove through this area and talking about a paving crew this is the northbound side of the northeast extension and jeff says that one lane is open from the toll booth out to route 663. Thank you for that tweet. We want to know what is going on out there. In pennsauken. Two lanes blocked out there in both directions until 6 00 this morning and that construction is still pretty active. For drivers in delaware, 495 at philadelphia pike. You can see 495 is quiet right now. We are not reporting any accidents on the majors in delaware. Tracy . Now to a story that has been developing for more than 24 hours now. Surveillance video shows a young woman putting up a fight as she is grabbed off a germantown street. Katy zachary is live at the corner where the abduction happened. Katy, tell us more. Since weve been out here, weve seen a number of Philadelphia Police cruisers drive down this block. The same street where 22yearold carlesha freela
Expensive gifts like clothing and vacation outings. This is about the mcdonnells lining their pockets with secret gifts and cash. The daughter of bob and maureen mcdonnell. It is the catering bill for her wedding in 2011. Jonnie williams potential ties to it are a major piece of evidence for the prosecution. When she was shown pictures, Kaitlyn Mcdonnell young began to cry on the stand. She then was questioned about Stock Transfer from maureen to her daughter and siblings. Coming up well have details about the mcdonnells struggling marriage. Jeff goldberg. We are only at the beginning of th. Well have more details in the Opening Statement from Bob Mcdonnells attorney. John brantly is the attorney and claims that government investigators interviewed many people up to the case including mitt romney and his wife ann. His Attorney Says that investigators were hoping to find someone who had something bad to say about Bob Mcdonnell but didnt find a thing. Our coverage of the trial continues
Top executives as part of the sanction violations. Economists forecast another month of solid gains for payroll. What will the jobs report really tell us. Mike mckee is with us. What are we looking for . What we want to see is some confirmation that the american expansion is gaining momentum. It doesnt necessarily mean that we need a strong headline jobs numbers. We will be happy if we reach a consensus. If we get there, it is the fourth consecutive month over 200,000. We have not had that since 1999. Jobs being that more available will attract more people into the labor force. That is going to happen. The reason unemployment plunged was one Million People left the labor force. Nobody thinks that is what is really happening. If that reverses, we will see unemployment rise. What will affect Interest Rates and the Federal Reserve is Janet Yellens dashboard. We want to look beyond these numbers. We went to see an increase in hours worked. More of the longterm unemployed and wage gains. Th