Drachma Drama: European stocks are up today on hopes that the Greek crisis is close to a solution. Greece submitted a proposal for economic reforms and a $59 billion euro zone bailout just two hours before the midnight deadline last night. It’s a little closer to what European finance chiefs wanted to see, and tougher than what Greek voters rejected.

The proposals include tax hikes, reform of generous public pensions, privatization, and spending cuts. The bit about tax increases is largely fictitious, unless the government gets serious. Tax dodging is a Greek national pastime.

Flag Day: After flying on the South Carolina Capitol grounds for 50 years, the Confederate flag is expected to come down this morning. The flag’s removal from the capitol of the first state to secede on the eve of the Civil War could spark a re-thinking of its display on government property across the south. Guiding the politically fraught removal of the flag has been considered a deft move by Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, who has her eyes on higher office.

Nation: The general nominated to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told a Senate vetting committee yesterday that he considers Russia to be the biggest threat to America. Marine Commandant Joseph Dunford Jr. said, “If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia.”

Dunford was nicknamed “Fighting Joe” when, as commander of the 5^th Marine Regiment, he took part in a point blank firefight during the 2003 Iraq invasion.

>The Obama Administration revealed that earlier this year a massive computer hack gained access to the information of 21.5 million people stored in government computers. The information includes the addresses, health and financial history of 19.7 million people who were subject to employment background investigations, as well as 1.8 million others. This comes in addition to the separate but related hack that stole the information on 4.5 million federal employees..

Technically Speaking: IBM has announced the development of a computer chip that is just 7 nanometers wide, or about 1/10,000^th of a human hair. It’s half the size of the smallest chip available today. It’s a potentially big step in the miniaturization and boosting the power of computers. The 7 nm chip would make it possible to put 20 billion transistors on a chip the size of a dime.

The Sports Page: The US women’s soccer team gets a tickertape parade in the Canyon of Heroes in New York today. Of course the stock market doesn’t use tickertape anymore, but the air will be filled with confetti for the World Cup winners.

The Obit Page: Legendary quarterback and Super Bowl winner Ken Stabler has died of colon cancer in Mississippi at age 69. A graduate of Alabama, Stabler played for 15 years in the NFL, including 10 years with the Oakland Raiders and steering them to their 1977 Super Bowl championship.

Bookbeat: The first chapter of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman was released online today by The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal. It’s the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, actually written before Lee’s timeless bestseller.

Lee always kept Watchman under wraps and there have been suspicions about how or why she gave permission to publish it in ill health. Pre orders have already made it the #1 bestseller on Amazon.com. Hard copies come out July 14^th.

The first chapter of Watchman reveals Jean Louise “Scout” Finch rejecting a marriage proposal and dealing with her aging and ill father Atticus. A major character in Mockingbird has died, but we won’t say who.

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