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Chapter 1: What updates are there on the federal government shutdown?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Kuhlman. The partial federal government shutdown continues. The Senate passed legislation on Friday to fund federal agencies, but the bill only funds the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks. This is supposed to give lawmakers time to negotiate changes to the agency at the heart of President Trump's immigration crackdown.
The House has to pass the Senate measure before the shutdown can end. And Bears Luke Garrett says the Speaker of the House is optimistic.
Speaker Johnson told Fox News he and Trump support some changes to DHS.
For example, we want body cameras on immigration custom enforcement agents.
But Johnson made clear the GOP won't budge on issues of DHS agents hiding their identities with masks, citing officer safety. This doesn't line up with the changes Democrats want.
NPR's Lou Garrett reporting. A federal judge has rejected a request from local and state officials in Minnesota to temporarily stop the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The judge says despite her order, the crackdown will likely have profound consequences for Minnesota. There's a new report from a nonpartisan government watchdog.
It suggests the Trump administration's efforts to fire staff at the Department of Education ended up costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
NPR's Corey Turner reports. Last March, the administration tried to fire some 300 attorneys and staff from the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights. Their work is to investigate families' complaints of school-based discrimination related to sex, race, disability, and more. The courts paused the firings, so the Trump administration then made a choice.
For nearly nine months, it kept these staff on paid leave instead of letting them work. Now, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says the cost of that lost work in salary and benefits was between $28.5 and $38 million. The administration pushed back, saying since these staff were finally allowed to work in December, it considers the issue moot. Corey Turner, NPR News.
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Chapter 2: What are the implications of the recent immigration crackdown in Minnesota?
It's February 2nd, or Groundhog Day, and keeping with tradition, thousands of fans of Punxsutawney Phil in central Pennsylvania turned out to hear his weather prediction this morning. Dan McGinley is the vice president of the Groundhog Club's inner circle.
It is my job this February 2 to look to the skies and report back to you that there is a shadow here on my ground. Six more weeks of winter abound!
The event on Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania has links to ancient farming traditions in Europe. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News, from Washington.