NPR News: 01-13-2026 4PM EST
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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Minnesota's top federal fraud attorney is stepping down after the Justice Department pushed his office to investigate the widow of a woman killed by an ICE officer last week. Minnesota Public Radio's Dana Ferguson has details.
Joe Thompson, the attorney with extensive experience prosecuting social services fraud in Minnesota, resigned from the U.S. Attorney's Office, along with several other experienced attorneys. The move comes after top Justice Department officials pushed the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate the widow of Renee Macklin Good, the person shot and killed last week by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. The prosecutors also raised concerns about immigration enforcement efforts diverting resources away from prosecuting major fraud cases in the state. For NPR News, I'm Dana Ferguson in St. Paul.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority appears poised to let stand state laws that ban transgender athletes from taking part in girls' and women's sports teams. One case affects Heather Jackson's 15-year-old daughter Becky in West Virginia.
She's actually not the biggest person on her team. There's people taller than her. There's people shorter than her. She's just an average female teenager.
State Attorney General John J.B. McCuskey defends the ban.
If boys are allowed to play in girls' sports, what we know is they will take the place of biological females on these teams and take away their opportunities.
The Supreme Court is also weighing arguments in a case involving Lindsay Hecox, a college senior in Idaho, blocked from trying out for the Boise State University varsity women's track team. One of the boat strikes ordered by the Pentagon last year may have used a plane that looks like a civilian aircraft. NPR's Quill Lawrence reports that may violate U.S. military code and the laws of war.
The Trump administration says it is at war with drug cartels, and it's therefore legal for the military to carry out deadly strikes on small boats on suspicion that they're smuggling drugs. But the first of those strikes, last September 2nd, was already controversial because it included a second round of strikes to kill survivors clinging to their capsized boat. Killing shipwrecked enemies is a textbook violation of U.S. military code and the laws of war. Now, a government official not authorized to speak publicly confirms to NPR that the plane in that strike was painted not to look military, another potential war crime called perfidy. According to that official, the plane is part of a highly classified Pentagon program predating the Trump administration.
Quill Lawrence, NPR News.
Inflation is holding steady, according to the Labor Department's report on the Consumer Price Index. In December, consumer prices were up 2.7 percent from the previous year, same as November's year-over-year increase. The Dow's closed down nearly 400 points. This is NPR News. President Trump's disapproval with the Fed's measured approach to interest rate cuts was on display today in Michigan as the Fed prepares to hold another meeting this month. The president addressed the Detroit Economic Club with some jokes and a jab at Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who is the target of a controversial DOJ investigation. And Pierre Scott Horsley reports Trump faces a broad challenge in convincing voters about his handling of the economy.
The president has trotted out a number of proposals to try to address affordability, whether that was the 50-year mortgage or now this cap on credit card interest rates. I think it's pretty clear he doesn't have the authority to cap interest rates like that. But keep in mind, the president's policies are also contributing to the high cost of living, whether it's tariffs. or his immigration crackdown, which has limited the labor supply and made it more expensive for things like construction.
NPR's Scott Horsley reporting. Dilbert creator Scott Adams has died at the age of 68. This coming months after he publicly disclosed he was diagnosed with cancer.
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