Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder.
Chapter 2: What legal issues surround the dismissal of cases against James Comey and Letitia James?
A federal judge has dismissed the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The judge says Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor who brought the charges at the urging of President Trump... was illegally appointed by the Justice Department. Here's NPR's Ryan Lucas.
What Judge Curry found is that Halligan's appointment violates a statute that governs interim U.S.
Chapter 3: How is the Trump administration addressing farm labor shortages?
attorney appointments as well as the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution. And because of that, the judge says in her ruling, Everything that came after Halligan was appointed, including the indictments against both Comey and James, all of that was unlawful. And so she dismissed this case, but she did so without prejudice.
And that means the Justice Department could, in theory, refile the charges, although it's unclear how exactly that would look.
Chapter 4: What recent developments have occurred in Afghanistan involving the Taliban and Pakistan?
With Comey, there's an added complication, and that's that the statute of limitations has now passed.
Farm Workers Union suing the Trump administration to stop steep pay cuts for foreign guest workers. Frank Morris of member station KCUR reports the administration is trying to address a labor shortage aggravated by immigration rates.
The Trump administration wants to ease an acute farm labor shortage by dropping the wage rates for foreign guest workers under the H-2A visa program. H-2A visa wage rates are supposed to be set high enough to encourage farmers to hire locally, protecting American workers.
Chapter 5: What investigation is the Pentagon conducting regarding Senator Mark Kelly?
United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero says the cuts would depress wages across agriculture.
There is nothing America First about extending exploitative gas worker programs of undercutting American wages. So that is what this lawsuit is about.
The lawsuit claims the Trump administration sidestepped the normal process of changing the H-2A wage rate and that the guest worker pay cuts would freeze Americans out of the foreign labor force.
Chapter 6: Why is the Broadway musical 'The Queen of Versailles' closing so soon?
For NPR News, I'm Frank Morris.
A spokesman for the Taliban says Pakistan has bombed several areas of Afghanistan and killed women and children. NPR's Dia Hadid reports from Mumbai.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Majahid said on X that Pakistan conducted airstrikes, including one in the eastern province of Khos that killed nine children and a woman. It came after a suicide bomber killed three officers outside the headquarters of a paramilitary unit in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.
It also follows a suicide bombing outside a courthouse in the capital Islamabad that killed 12 people. A group called Jamaat al-Ahrar claim responsibility for both attacks. Pakistan accuses the Taliban of sheltering the group. A previous similar escalation led to clashes between the two sides in border areas and Pakistan bombing the Afghan capital Kabul.
Those October clashes ended in a ceasefire, but attempts to cement it collapsed. Dear Hadid, NPR News, Mumbai.
And you're listening to NPR News. The Pentagon says it's investigating Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly. Kelly is a former Navy pilot who joined a handful of other lawmakers with military and intelligence backgrounds in a video that warned U.S. troops against obeying illegal orders.
The Pentagon statement cites a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty by the defense secretary for possible court-martial or other measures. Broadway's fall season already has its first casualty.
The Queen of Versailles, a new musical with a score by Wicked Stephen Schwartz and starring Kristen Chenoweth, is closing shortly after the beginning of the new year at almost a total loss. Here's Jeff London reporting.
The $22.5 million musical, based on a documentary about a couple in Florida who attempt to build the largest private home in America, only to be upended by the 2008 financial crisis, is succumbing to its own financial crisis. The show announced that it would close on January 4th after only a couple of months on Broadway.
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