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Chapter 1: What recent legal decision was made regarding the Justice Department's fund?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. A federal judge has denied a request to temporarily block the Justice Department's nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate President Trump's allies who say they were targeted for prosecution. NPR's Ryan Lucas reports.
The lawsuit was filed by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The Justice Department says the case is moot because the department has said it is not moving forward with the anti-weaponization fund. The watchdog group, however, says the fund has not been formally rescinded and so on paper it still legally exists.
So it is asking the court to temporarily block the fund for now. At a hearing in federal court, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon denied that request. The judge said the issue does appear to be moot because of the Justice Department's public declarations, but he also warned the government not to play possum with the court.
Chapter 2: How did voter turnout in key states impact the midterm elections?
Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
Voters in several states made their primary choices yesterday, setting the stage for this year's midterm elections. The two major parties won't face each other until the fall, but as NPR's Stephen Fowler explains, Democratic turnout was up in key states.
Let's look at South Carolina. It's a southern state where Republicans actually blocked a Trump-backed push for redistricting this year out of concerns, among other things, that it would juice Democratic turnout in a pretty Democratic-friendly year. They were right. Democrats literally doubled their turnout from the 2022 midterm primaries, and there was record early voting.
You had similar turnout dynamics in Nevada, which has some of the most competitive governor and House races this fall as well.
NPR's Stephen Fowler reporting, a Republican-led effort to repeal a ban on logging in what are known as roadless national forests is now gaining traction in Congress. NPR's Kirk Sigler reports Senate Republicans successfully attached an amendment to a broader wildfire prevention bill.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of the GOP's effort to repeal the roadless rule?
The quarter-century-old roadless rule bans logging on tens of millions of acres of pristine national forests, though there are carve-outs for wildfire prevention work. Republicans on the powerful Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee want a full repeal, though.
Its chairman, Mike Lee of Utah, has gained national attention for pushing to sell federal public lands, which in a hearing caught the ire of Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell.
On our side of the aisle, we would like to continue to acquire public land and set it aside for the general public to use.
The GOP push coincides with the Trump administration's recent plans to repeal the roadless rule by administrative action. That's how it was originally created by President Clinton in 2001. Kirk Sigler, NPR News.
Rising gas prices pushed inflation to its highest level in three years last month. Consumer prices rose 4.2 percent in May from a year earlier, posting their third straight monthly increase. Prices have now risen faster than wages for several months.
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Chapter 4: How are rising gas prices affecting inflation and consumer behavior?
Families are dipping into savings and more people are falling behind on credit card bills. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney says a new bridge across the Detroit River that President Trump threatened to block may take longer to open than anticipated.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which is jointly owned by Canada and Michigan, is set to take place on Friday. But the White House now says a timeline to open the bridge to traffic has not been finalized. A warming climate could mean hailstones will get larger and do more costly property damage. Texas Public Radio's David Martin Davies has more.
U.S. losses from hailstorms have increased five-fold since 2008, according to Victor Gensini, a professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University.
Last year in the United States alone, hail did over $50 billion in insured loss.
Chapter 5: What does climate change mean for the size and impact of hailstones?
He says there's evidence that the warming atmosphere creates more powerful thunderstorms and stronger updrafts.
So that's the air that's rushing upward towards outer space. As those updrafts get stronger, it suspends these hailstones.
But the bigger hailstones eventually come crashing down. Gensini says hail could get 75 percent larger as climate change continues. For NPR News, I'm David Martin Davies in San Antonio.
Veteran Japanese politician Yohei Kono has died at 89. As chief cabinet secretary in 1993, Kono issued a historic apology to Asian women for sexual abuses by Japan's wartime military. His statement acknowledged Japanese military involvement in forcing women into work at frontline brothels. The apology led to Japan's broader acknowledgement of wartime atrocities in 1995.
Chapter 6: What was the significance of Yohei Kono's apology regarding wartime atrocities?
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