The rules says it starts at June 15 at 7:00 PM to June 17 at 7:30 PM while the counter says it starts at June 15 at 5:00 PM to June 17 at 5:29 PM. When does the jam actually begin and finish?

We apologize for the delay.  We believe you may live on the west coast?  The time given is 7:00 PM CST.  If you are on the west coast, then the game jam should begin at 5:00pm in your local time.  The additional 30 minutes is for final submissions after the 48 hours so that you don't have an issue right at the deadline as you try to submit it, and we would like you to try to get your submission in within the 48 hours, but if you do have issues or really need to fix something last minute, that's what those 30-minutes are for.