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US

Democrats have put the filibuster in the hot seat. Here’s where it comes from

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But using that notion of cooling what the House passes to outright kill a bill by filibuster is not in the US Constitution, and likely not what Washington had in mind.

In fact, early in American history senators did not use endless debate very much to obstruct legislation they didn’t like.

It wasn’t until the mid 1800s that more and more senators began to talk legislation to death that they opposed.

According to the official Senate.gov website, it started happening so much in the mid 19th century the term “filibuster” was born — derived from the Dutch word “freebooter” and the Spanish word “filibustros,” who were pirates raiding a Caribbean island at the time.

But there was no mechanism at all to overcome filibusters for the first century and a quarter of the US Senate.

It wasn’t until 1917 that a frustrated President Woodrow Wilson convinced the Senate to adopt a rule — known as RULE 22 — that allowed senators to vote to break a filibuster. It was, and still is, known as “invoking cloture.” (Fun factL The first time the new rule was used was to try to overcome a filibuster of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919).

At first, the vote threshold to break a filibuster was a supermajority — 67 votes. But that was always hard to reach and became harder as the years went on, so in 1975 it was changed to 60 votes, which is where it stands today.

‘Relic of Jim Crow’

Southern senators took advantage of the filibuster for years to block civil rights legislation — including anti-lynching bills.

Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 in the longest uninterrupted filibuster in Senate History, according to Senate.gov.

It wasn’t until 1964 that senators finally overcame a filibuster to pass the landmark civil rights bill when former Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson was President.

In 2013, then Senate Majority leader Harry Reid got so fed up with GOP obstruction on then-President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees, he led a major change so that presidential nominations only need a simple majority to be confirmed, which helped get more Obama judges on the bench. When Republicans took control of the Senate, they used the same 51-vote threshold to confirm a record number of conservative judges appointed by then-President Donald Trump.

What does ‘Talking Filibuster’ mean?

In recent years senators used the filibuster so much that the expectation is that most legislation will need 60 votes to pass, rather than a simple majority of 51 out of 100 senators.

It is now so baked in that Senate majority leaders tend to schedule so-called cloture votes to overcome the 60-vote threshold right away.

The “talking filibuster” that President Joe Biden said this week he could get behind would actually be more of a change in practice than Senate rules. It would force senators who oppose any given legislation to stand up and talk about it.

The idea is to make it more painful to wage a filibuster against a bill — to have more events like when Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas talked for hours opposing Obamacare, in part by reading “Green Eggs and Ham,” or when Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, talked for 13 hours against the use of military drones.

But experts like former Senate Parliamentarian Alan Frumin say the “talking filibuster” probably wouldn’t do much to stop obstruction.

The reason: let’s say Republicans are filibustering HR1, the voting rights legislation that passed the House. If enough GOP senators are willing to talk they could take turns and go all through the night for days and days.

Plus, rather than act as a deterrent, the filibustering senators may see it as politically advantageous to make a show of their opposition to a bill. So, the process would change, but the result — legislation getting bogged down in the Senate with no end in sight — may not.

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World

How vaccinated travelers became hot property

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(CNN) — The “Plague Island” headlines splashed across the front pages said it all.

With its out of control infection rates and deaths heading past the 125,000 mark, the UK started 2021 as Europe’s Covid pariah.

Now though, after a vaccination program that has seen more than a third of all adults receive at least one dose, countries across Europe, and tour operators who have struggled over the past 12 months, are falling over themselves to welcome weary Brits for a dose of summer sun.

Harry Theoharis, Tourism Minister for Greece, told the virtual ITB Tourism conference this week that the country would welcome anyone who’d been vaccinated, could prove they had antibodies or present a negative PCR test.

Declaring, “All you want is Greece,” his impassioned plea has kicked off a race for tourists’ unspent lockdown cash, which authorities across the Mediterranean hope will boost ailing communities that have lost millions over the past year.

Spain, which pulled in over 18 million British travelers in 2019, and Portugal have also said they’re keen to get Brits flying in as soon as it’s safe to do so.

There’s clearly a market too. ABTA, a UK travel trade association, says that 63% of Brits are hoping to book a foreign vacation in 2021.

There’s just one niggling issue. It remains illegal to leave the UK for a vacation. This week the country’s transport minister, Grant Shapps, warned that it’s still too soon to book a foreign trip.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has penciled in May 17 as the soonest possible date that international travel will be allowed.

That remains subject to a review from the government’s global travel taskforce, due on April 12, when details on what countries are deemed safe for travel and what vaccine certification, if any, might be required.

Building traveler trust

Vaccinated British tourists will be permitted to visit Cyprus from May.

CHRISTINA ASSI/AFP via Getty Images

That doesn’t appear to be deterring European countries and tour operators from going all out to attract visitors or tourists from booking.

Thomas Cook said it saw a 25% rise in enquiries about the Mediterranean island of Cyprus in the wake of its announcement about plans for vaccinated travelers.

From fully flexible booking offers, to tourism officials touting falling Covid numbers, there’s an undeniable effort to entice vacationers to book as soon as possible.

For Luis Araujo, president of tousim body VisitPortugal, it’s definitely not too soon to lock in a vacation.

“They should book immediately,” he says when asked whether potential tourists should wait before booking their summer break.

“We need to build trust with tour operators and travel agents. If we don’t have this proactive reaction in terms of booking or asking for travel, then everything will take longer to recover… What we need now is mobility.

“And we need it now because each day that passes is a day we lose.”

Araujo points to Portugal’s “Clean and Safe” stamp, which has seen over 21,500 establishments including hotels, bars, restaurants and museums comply with stringent health guidelines.

More than 25,000 people were given training in 2020, with a further 12,000 already being trained this year, he says.

With a fast-falling infection rate, down to 83.2 per 100,000, Araujo is keen to point out that Portugal is coming through the worst and will soon be ready to welcome back tourists.

It’s not just about vaccinated visitors, though. Araujo wants anyone who can prove they’re Covid-free, either by providing a negative test or proof they’ve got antibodies or had a vaccine, to be able to visit Portugal.

“The shift has to be from considering ‘dangerous’ countries to looking at people and the risk of people,” he says.

“It’s controlling the pandemic at the same time as allowing people to enter the country. It’s not just a country for those who are vaccinated.

“It’s important to consider that people, even from high risk countries, can enter if they have proof they’re not contaminated.”

Clearer Covid secure credentials

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images

Araujo is keen to emphasize that Portugal is not in competition with other countries around Europe for vaccinated tourists.

Rather, that there needs to be cooperation across the European Union to provide standardized safety rules for starting travel up again safely.

“I think the competition is to build trust and get planes in the air,” he says. “It’s not a matter of discussing if we have five more tourists than Greece or 10 less than Spain.”

Operators, too, are making their Covid secure credentials clearer as international travel gets closer.

“We have a team dedicated to making sure that our accommodation, bike and taxi providers are compliant with all applicable Covid rules and have appropriate safety measures in place, such as enhanced room cleaning between stays and physical distancing,” says Simon Wrench from Inntravel, an operator that offers walking and cycling holidays in Cyprus, Spain and Slovenia.

Greece, meanwhile, is said to be prioritizing vaccines for residents of 40 small islands with populations of 1,000 or fewer, including Haiki, Kastellorizo and Meganisi, before vaccinating people on popular tourist islands such as Mykonos and Crete.

The aim is to vaccinate as many people working in the tourism industry as possible, making it safer for them and for visitors in the process.

“We believe that the latest announcement from the tourism minister regarding Greece welcoming British tourists from mid-May and the protocols required for travel to Greece will help build consumer confidence ahead of the summer season,” says Dimos Stasinopoulos, CEO of Epoque Collection, which has properties in Santorini and Athens.

“We will be introducing a number of safety measures at OMMA Santorini when it opens in May and will be offering flexible cancellation policies to put our guests’ minds at rest.

“The safety measures at OMMA Santorini include temperature checks, safety kits in each room, frequent cleaning protocols as per WHO standards and disinfected key cards.”

Israel’s green pass

Israelis receive a “green pass” after vaccination which can be used to grant access to venues and events.

JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Image

And it’s not just Brits that are being courted by tourist hotspots across southern Europe.

Israel has the most successful vaccine program in the world, with 4.8 million of its 9 million people fully vaccinated with two doses and 80% having had at least one jab.

With pent up demand for holidays growing, the lastminute (lm) group teamed up with the Issta Lines Group this week to launch Hebrew site lastminut.co.il in a bid to entice Israeli travelers desperate to get away after their year-long Covid nightmare.

“For such a small country, pretty much everyone travels by plane, so for them in particular it’s felt hard to be “locked in,” says Andrea Bertoli, Deputy CEO of lm group.

“In similar echoes to what’s been happening in the UK as the vaccine program accelerates, the talk [in Israel] has been about the skies opening.

“In fact, in Israel, it’s probably one of the main aspects of Covid-19 discussions since the infection rates started to go down.”

The country has penciled in travel agreements with Cyprus and Greece, but is planning to introduce strict rules amid concerns about the importation of more contagious variants of Covid-19.

Bertoli explains that travelers will need a so-called “green passport” proving they’ve been vaccinated, with no travel allowed until 10 days after a second dose.

Israel’s high levels of vaccination also mean it’s ripe to attract visitors looking for a Covid safe break.

“The success of Israel’s vaccination roll-out has given hope for the return of international tourism,” says Sharon E. Bershadsky, director of The Israel Government Tourist Office UK.

“It is allowing the industry to plan for the return of tourists in the not too distant future — making Israel not only an attractive destination, but a healthy destination.”

Bershadsky is optimistic that tourists can return “soon.” And with its vaccination program almost complete, it could mean the country enjoys a tourism boom while others play catchup.

Too early to book

Greece plan to open its borders to British travelers on May 1.

LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP via Getty Images

Despite tourism boards and operators making every effort to prove they can safely host visitors, the fact remains that leisure travel will not be possible for some weeks at least.

Portugal remains on the UK government’s “red list” of countries, from which any arrivals must spend 10 days in hotel quarantine at a cost of £1,750 (around $2,400).

While this may change, booking right now is a major risk according to Rory Boland, travel editor at consumer website which.co.uk.

“Our advice is that it is too early to book,” he says. “You don’t know where you can go or when you can go and booking at the moment opens you up to financial risk.”

Boland also points out that stories about increased demand don’t tell the whole story.

“Some of the headlines you’ve seen of 500% increase in bookings are from very low original numbers,” he says

“Yes, there is a group of people, particular older people, who feel more confident about booking holidays abroad to countries that are making noises about allowing vaccinated people in. There are a lot of risks still attached to that.”

Boland highlights the fact that, as with the UK government’s much derided travel corridors policy in 2020, destinations could potentially end up on the “red list” while holidaymakers are on the beach or lying by the pool.

That could mean having to quarantine in a managed facility at their own cost, something which would not be covered by insurance.

Then there’s the added cost of Covid tests, which are likely to be required anywhere between three or five times on a trip depending on the destination. Currently a PCR test costs around £100 ($139), which soon adds up if you’re a family of four.

Green corridors

“We’re calling for travel companies to be up front,” adds Boland. “You can’t just keep promising flexibility will cover you in every eventuality, because it won’t, not right now.”

Although it may be too soon to book, vaccines appear to be the most certain way for travel to start up again safely.

“We are really optimistic that a green corridor agreement between individual countries if not a common green passport will be accepted across Europe and the UK,” says Andrea Bertoli.

“While it’s not quite a turbo-boost to tourism, it means we can certainly put the key in the ignition.”

Although a unified vaccine passport is unlikely to be agreed soon, there’s no denying those that can prove themselves to be immune to Covid are likely to power the travel industry for the rest of 2021 and well into 2022 as well.

The race for bookings is on.

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Science

Hot Super-Earth Discovered 26 Light-Years Away | Astronomy

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Astronomers from the CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Échelle Spectrographs) consortium have detected a short-period rocky planet orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 486.

An artist’s impression of the super-Earth Gliese 486b and its red dwarf star. Image credit: RenderArea, https://renderarea.com.

Gliese 486 is an M-dwarf star located 26.3 light-years away in the constellation of Virgo.

Also known as GJ 486, Wolf 437, LHS 341, and HIC 62452, the star is much fainter and cooler than the Sun.

The newfound planet orbits the star once every 1.5 days at a distance of 2.5 million km.

Designated Gliese 486b, it belongs to a class of exoplanets called super-Earths.

It has a radius of 1.31 Earth radii, a mass 2.8 times that of our home planet, but has a similar density.

Its composition is not its only distinguishing feature — its relative closeness to Earth makes it an ideal candidate for observations with the next generation of astronomical technology.

An artist’s impression of the surface of Gliese 486b. Image credit: RenderArea, https://renderarea.com.

“The proximity of this exoplanet is exciting because it will be possible to study it in more detail with powerful telescopes such as the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope and the various Extremely Large Telescopes such as the GMT and TMT,” said Dr. Trifon Trifonov, an astronomer at the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie.

“Within the next few years, we hope to use transit spectroscopy to search for signs of an atmosphere and possibly determine this planet’s surface composition.”

With an equilibrium surface temperature of 700 K (427 degrees Celsius, 801 degrees Fahrenheit), Gliese 486b is too hot to support life as we know it.

“You wouldn’t be able to go outside without some kind of spacesuit,” said Dr. Ben Montet, an astronomer in the School of Physics at the University of New South Wales.

“The gravity is also 70% stronger than on Earth, making it harder to walk and jump. Someone who weighed 50 kg on Earth would feel like they weighed 85 kg on Gliese 486b.”

“If it had been around a hundred degrees hotter all its surface would be lava, and its atmosphere would be vaporized rock,” said Dr. José Antonio Caballero, an astronomer at the Astrobiology Centre (CAB, CSIC-INTA).

“On the other hand, if Gliese 486b had been around a hundred degrees cooler, it would not have been suitable for the follow-up observations.”

The astronomers detected Gliese 486b using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and ground-based telescopes in Spain, the United States, Chile and Hawaii.

“This is the kind of planet we’ve been dreaming about for decades,” Dr. Montet said.

“We’ve known for a long time that rocky super-Earths must exist around the nearby stars, but we haven’t had the technology to search for them until recently.”

The discovery is reported in a paper published this week in the journal Science.

_____

T. Trifonov et al. 2021. A nearby transiting rocky exoplanet that is suitable for atmospheric investigation. Science 371 (6533): 1038-1041; doi: 10.1126/science.abd7645

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Business

Hospitals in Texas Are Being Evacuated Due to Lack of Hot Water and Heat

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Photo: John Weast / Stringer (Getty Images)

The massive energy crisis that’s been overwhelming Texas ever since the state was hit with a record cold snap is now threatening some of its most vulnerable residents, and at least two hospitals in the Austin metro area were being evacuated on Wednesday night due to a lack of hot water and heat.

Matt Largey, an editor at Austin’s NPR station KUT, tweeted out a statement from St. David’s South Austin Medical Center on Wednesday that confirmed that the hospital was in the process of evacuating some of its “just under 300 patients” from the facility after it “lost water pressure today from the City of Austin.”

“Water feeds the facility’s boiler, so as a result, it is also losing heat,” the statement reads. The release notes that hospital workers were in the process of working with city officials to transport patients most in need to other hospitals in the area with available capacity, and were also working to get water trucks and portable toilets on the scene for the workers and patients who would remain.

Minutes later, Largey reported that Dell Children’s Medical Center, a pediatric hospital located in Austin, was also without power. In an accompanying statement from the hospital sent from a source, officials confirmed that “extreme weather conditions” had resulted in the facility experiencing “interruptions in service,” and noted that the toilets there did not currently have “flushing capabilities.”

The rolling blackouts happening in Texas are the result of a strain on existing power supply caused by thousands of the state’s residents rushing to turn on their heat all at once. But they’re also the result of — surprise! — corporate mendacity and decades of negligence and oversight at the hands of the state’s right-wing government.

G/O Media may get a commission

While Texas residents are stuck at home dealing with the fallout from ice storms, widespread power outages and fish tanks and toilets that have literally frozen solid, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been making the rounds on Fox News, blaming renewable energy sources like solar and wind for the blackouts. In a blog posted on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s website, Former Texas governor Rick Perry recently insinuated that the situation represented a chance for Texans to get tough and make a sacrifice in order to keep the left from exploiting an “opportunity to expand their top-down, radical proposals.”

“Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” Perry wrote. “Try not to let whatever the crisis of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically, and strategically.”

While millions of Texans freeze, the GOP is using this moment to flaunt their commitment to ignoring the climate disaster that’s no longer just at their doorstep but in their living rooms, warming up a bowl of chili and getting ready to watch the Longhorns game.

It’s a commitment to the fossil fuel lobby that’s not just ignorant, it’s malignant — and it will one day spell disaster for all of us.



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Science

It’s official—NASA will subject the SLS rocket to another hot fire test

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Enlarge / The SLS core stage at NASA’s Stennis Space Center after firing up for the Green Run test on January 16, 2021.

Trevor Mahlmann

After completing a review of data collected from a hot fire test of its Space Launch System rocket in mid-January, NASA has decided it needs to test the large vehicle again. The all-up engine firing is scheduled to occur as early as the fourth week of February.

During the January 16 test firing, when NASA intended to run the rocket’s four main engines for up to eight minutes, the test was aborted after just 67.2 seconds. NASA said the engine firing was stopped due to a stringent limit on hydraulic pressure in the thrust vector control mechanism used to gimbal, or steer, the engines.

In the days after the mid-January test firing, officials from NASA and Boeing were coy about whether they would need to test-fire the rocket a second time. While it would be useful to gain additional data, they said, there were concerns about putting the core stage, with its four space shuttle main engines and large liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel tanks, through the stress of repeated tests. (The SLS rocket is expendable, so it is intended to be launched only a single time.)

According to the agency, the original hot fire test completed 15 of its 23 objectives. Four other objectives got most of the data sought, while three had partial data, and one no data. This last one was a test of how the liquid oxygen tank pressure would respond when liquid oxygen was largely used up and the tank emptied. Because the test objectives were not met, engineers within the agency have been pushing NASA and Boeing leadership to conduct a second test to lower the risk of a failure during launch.

On Friday, NASA made it official. “After evaluating data from the first hot fire and the prior seven Green Run tests, NASA and core stage lead contractor Boeing determined that a second, longer hot fire test should be conducted and would pose minimal risk to the Artemis I core stage while providing valuable data to help certify the core stage for flight,” the space agency said in a blog post.

NASA said that running the engines for four minutes during this second test should offer enough data to provide confidence in the core stage performance but that the main engines would fire for up to eight minutes if all goes well.

Following the second hot fire test—assuming that NASA and Boeing get the data needed—it will take about a month to refurbish the core stage and its engines. The vehicle will then be loaded onto a barge, shipped across the Gulf of Mexico and into the Atlantic, and delivered to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is now unlikely to happen before late March or April.

In its blog post, NASA says that once in Florida, the SLS core stage will be assembled with its solid rocket boosters and mated with the Orion spacecraft in preparation for its first launch “later this year.” However, given that a 2021 launch date was predicated on shipping the core stage from Stennis Space Center in January, a 2021 launch of the SLS rocket now seems highly unlikely.

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Science

NASA Conducts Hot Fire Test of RS-25 Engine for Artemis SLS Moon Rocket

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NASA conducted the first hot fire on January 28, 2021, in a new series of tests for production of RS-25 engines that will help power the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on future deep space missions.

The test of RS-25 developmental engine No. 0528 on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Missouri, marks the beginning of a seven-test series designed to provide valuable data to Aerojet Rocketdyne, lead contractor for SLS engines, as the company begins production of new RS-25 engines.

Four RS-25 engines help power SLS at launch, firing simultaneously to generate a combined 1.6 million pounds of thrust at launch and 2 million pounds of thrust during ascent. The RS-25 engines for the first four SLS flights are upgraded space shuttle main engines and have completed certification testing. NASA now is focused on providing data to enhance production of new RS-25 engines and components for use on subsequent SLS missions.

The new test series will evaluate the performance of engine components made with cutting-edge manufacturing technologies and techniques. The testing is part of NASA’s and Aerojet Rocketdyne’s effort to use advanced manufacturing methods to significantly reduce the cost and time needed to build new RS-25 engines.

For the January 28 test, the RS-25 developmental engine was fired for a full duration of about eight-and-a-half minutes (500 seconds), the same amount of time the engines must fire to help send SLS to orbit. The engine was fired at 111% of its original space shuttle main engine design power and the same power level needed to help launch SLS on its missions.

The hot fire marks the first test on the historic stand since April 2019, when NASA concluded testing of RS-25 engines for the first four SLS missions. Since that time, Stennis teams have worked to complete major maintenance and upgrade projects to the A-1 Test Stand and its systems to ensure future test capabilities.

Among other projects, the work featured installation of a new NASA-designed-and-manufactured thrust vector control system on the test stand that allows operators to “gimbal” test RS-25 engines, moving them on a tight circular axis as must be done in flight to ensure proper trajectory.

NASA is building SLS as the world’s most powerful rocket. Initial SLS missions will fly to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program, including the Artemis I uncrewed test flight this year that will pave the way for future flights with astronauts to explore the lunar surface and prepare for missions to Mars.

RS-25 tests at Stennis are conducted by a combined team of NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Syncom Space Services operators. Syncom Space Services is the prime contractor for Stennis facilities and operations.



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Science

NASA’s SLS rocket will go through a second and longer hot fire test

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NASA will conduct a second hot fire test for the Space Launch System’s rocket core stage as early as the fourth week of February. It will be part of the rocket’s Green Run series of tests meant to assess the core stage and ensure it’s ready for the Artemis I mission, which will send an unmanned Orion spacecraft to the Moon. The rocket’s first ever hot fire test in mid—January, wherein all four of its RS-25 engines fired simultaneously, was cut short due to a problem with its hydraulic system. What was supposed to be an eight-minute burn lasted for only 67 seconds — NASA wants the second go to last longer than that to be able to collect more data.

The agency set an eight-minute goal for the second test, as well, since that’s how long it would take to send the rocket to space. According to NASA’s announcement, though, the Green Run team analyzed data from the first test firing and determined that four minutes would be enough to provide significant data that can help verify if the core stage truly is ready for flight. “Conducting a second hot fire test will allow the team to repeat operations from the first hot fire test and obtain data on how the core stage and the engines perform over a longer period that simulates more activities during the rocket’s launch and ascent,” NASA wrote.

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Business

Goldman Sachs warns of a dangerous bubble in these 39 hot stocks

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TipRanks

3 Top Dividend Stocks With Growth Opportunity; Goldman Sachs Says ‘Buy’

Investing is all about finding profits, and investors have long seen two main paths toward that goal. Growth stocks, equities that will give a return based mainly on share price appreciation, are one route. The second route lies through dividend stocks. These are stocks that pay out a percentage of profits back to shareholders – a dividend, usually sent out quarterly. The payments vary widely, from less than 1% to more than 10%, but the average, among stocks listed on the S&P 500, is about 2%. Dividends are a nice addition for a patient investor, as they provide a steady income stream. Goldman Sachs analyst Caitlin Burrows has been looking into the real estate trust segment, a group of stocks long-known for dividends that are both high and reliable – and she sees plenty of reason to expect strong growth in three stocks in particular. Running the trio through TipRanks’ database, we learned that all three have been cheered by the rest of the Street as well, as they boast a “Strong Buy” analyst consensus. Broadstone Net Lease (BNL) First up, Broadstone Net Lease, is an established REIT that went public this past September in an IPO that raised over $533 million. The company put 33.5 million shares on the market, followed by another 5 million-plus picked up by the underwriters. It was considered a successful opening, and BNL now boasts a market cap over $2.63 billion. Broadstone’s portfolio includes 628 properties across 41 US states plus the Canadian province of British Columbia. These properties host 182 tenants and are worth an aggregate of $4 billion. The best feature here is the long-term nature of the leases – the weighted average remaining lease is 10.8 years. During the third quarter, the most recent with full financials available, BNL reported a net income of $9.7 million, or 8 cents per share. The income came mainly from rents, and the company reported collecting 97.9% of rents due during the quarter. Looking ahead, the company expects $100.3 million in property acquisitions during Q4, and an increased rent collection rate of 98.8%. Broadstone’s income and high rent collections are supporting a dividend of 25 cents per common share, or $1 annually. It’s a payment affordable for the company, and offering investors a yield of 5.5%. Goldman’s Burrows sees the company’s acquisition moves as the most important factor here. “Accretive acquisitions are the key earnings driver for Broadstone… While management halted acquisitions following COVID-induced market uncertainty (BNL did not complete any acquisitions in 1H20) and ahead of its IPO, we are confident acquisitions will ramp up in 2021, and saw the beginning of this with 4Q20 activity… We estimate that BNL achieves a positive investment spread of 1.8%, leading to 0.8% of earnings growth (on 2021E FFO) for every $100mn of acquisitions (or 4.2% on our 2021E acquisition volumes),” Burrows opined. To this end, Burrows rates BNL a Buy, and her $23 price target implies an upside of ~27% for the year ahead. (To watch Burrow’s track record, click here) Wall Street generally agrees with Burrows on Broadstone, as shown by the 3 positive reviews the stock has garnered in recent weeks. These are the only reviews on file, making the analyst consensus rating a unanimous Strong Buy. The shares are currently priced at $18.16, and the average price target of $21.33 suggests a one-year upside of ~17%. (See BNL stock analysis on TipRanks) Realty Income Corporation (O) Realty Income is a major player in the REIT field. The company holds a portfolio worth more than $20 billion, with more than 6,500 properties located in 49 states, Puerto Rico, and the UK. Annual revenue exceeded $1.48 billion in fiscal year 2019 (the last with complete data), and has kept up a monthly dividend for 12 years. Looking at current data, we find that O posted 7 cents per share income in 3Q20, along with $403 million in total revenue. The company collected 93.1% of its contracted rents in the quarter. While relatively low, a drill-down to the monthly values shows that rent collection rates have been increasing since July. As noted, O pays out a monthly dividend, and has done so regularly since listing publicly in 1994. The company raised its payout in September 2020, marking the 108th increase during that time. The current payment is 23.45 cents per common share, which annualizes to $2.81 cents – and gives a yield of 4.7%. Based on the above, Burrows put this stock on her Americas Conviction List, with a Buy rating and a $79 price target for the next 12 months. This target implies a 32% upside from current levels. Backing her stance, Burrows noted, “We estimate 5.3% FFO growth per year over 2020E-2022E, versus an average of 3.1% fo rour full REIT coverage. We expect key earnings drivers will include a continued recovery in acquisition volumes and a gradual improvement in theater rents (in 2022).” The analyst added, “We assume O makes $2.8 billion of acquisitions in each of 2021 and 2022, versus the consensus expectation of $2.3 billion. [We] believe our acquisition volume assumptions could in fact turn out to be conservative as, eight days into 2021, the company has already made or agreed to make $807.5 mn of acquisitions (or 29% of our estimate for 2021).” Overall, Wall Street takes a bullish stance on Realty Income shares. 5 Buys and 1 Hold issued over the previous three months make the stock a Strong Buy. Meanwhile, the $69.80 average price target suggests ~17% upside from the current share price. (See O stock analysis on TipRanks) Essential Properties Realty Trust (EPRT) Last up, Essential Properties, owns and manages a portfolio of single-tenant commercial properties across the US. There are 214 tenants across more than 1000 properties in 16 industries, including car washes, convenience stores, medical services, and restaurants. Essential Properties boasts a high occupancy rate of 99.4% for its properties. In 3Q20, the company saw revenue increase of 18.2% year-over-year, reaching $42.9 million. Essential Properties finished the quarter with an impressive $589.4 million in available liquidity, including cash, cash equivalents, and available credit. The strong cash position and rising revenues had the company confident enough to raise the dividend in going into Q4. The new dividend payment is 24 cents per common share, up 4.3% from the previous payment. The current rate annualizes to 96 cents, and gives a yield of 4.6%. The company has been raising its dividend regularly for the past two years. In her review for Goldman, Burrows focuses on the recovery that Essential Properties has made since the height of the COVID panic last year. “When shelter in place mandates went into effect in early 2020, only 71% of EPRT’s properties were open (completely or on a limited basis). This situation has improved in the intervening months and now just 1% of EPRT’s portfolio is closed… We expect EPRT’s future earnings growth to be driven by acquisition accretion and estimate 2.8% potential earnings growth from $100 mn of acquisitions,” Burrows wrote. In line with her optimistic approach, Burrows gives EPRT shares a Buy rating, along with a $26 one-year price target, suggesting a 27% upside. All in all, EPRT has 9 recent analyst reviews, and the breakdown of 8 Buys and 1 Sell gives the stock a Strong Buy consensus rating. Shares are priced at $20.46 and have an average price target of $22.89, giving ~12% upside potential from current levels. (See EPRT stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for dividend stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Science

Warm up with this cozy image of a hot spot on Jupiter

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A new composite image of Jupiter’s atmosphere shows a hot spot glowing brightly in infrared wavelengths.

Astronomers and amateur image processors combined data from the NASA Juno spacecraft at Jupiter and the Gemini North Telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, to create the epic image. Although researchers have known about hot spots on Jupiter for more than 25 years, views such as this one give scientists a better understanding of how storms and atmospheric waves contribute to the “elusive” water content in Jupiter’s atmosphere, NASA officials wrote in a statement.

“To the naked eye, Jupiter‘s hot spots appear as dark, cloud-free areas in the planet’s equatorial belt, but at infrared wavelengths they are extremely bright, revealing the warm, deep atmosphere below the clouds,” the statement continued.

In photos: Juno’s amazing views of Jupiter

NASA released the image just weeks after newly public data from the Juno spacecraft revealed that hot spots on Jupiter are wider and deeper than scientists previously realized. Juno gathers its data comes during periodic swoops of Jupiter, called perijoves, which show scientists more about the planet’s atmosphere.

The NASA Galileo spacecraft likely was the first to discover the planet’s hot spots, when it accidentally flew through one on its way to a planned demise in Jupiter’s atmosphere. (The spacecraft was finishing a long mission in 1995 and scientists threw the spacecraft into Jupiter to destroy the spacecraft and eliminate any chance, however small, of contaminating one of Jupiter’s possibly habitable icy moons.)

Galileo found a windy and dry environment as it plunged to its demise, which was not what scientists expected. Researchers thought the spacecraft had found a “desert” in an otherwise moist northern equatorial region, but more recent results from Juno suggest this whole zone is actually quite dry.

NASA recently extended Juno’s mission through 2025, although the spacecraft may not survive that long in the intense radiation environment surrounding Jupiter. But for now, an independent review committee advising NASA on the decision noted, the spacecraft remains healthy and has plenty of power. The extended mission observations will help NASA prepare for its forthcoming Europa Clipper mission to the icy moon of Europa, the panel added.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

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