Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. A federal judge has approved the release of grand jury materials from the 2019 sex trafficking case against late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Justice Department requested that the records be made public under a new law passed by Congress. Details from NPR's Ryan Lucas.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act passed by Congress last month compels the Justice Department to release by December 19th nearly all of the investigative files of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Chapter 2: What recent legal developments have emerged in the Jeffrey Epstein case?
In response to a department request, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman has approved the release of grand jury materials from the investigation into Epstein by federal prosecutors in New York. Epstein died in a federal lockup there in 2019 while awaiting trial. Now all three judges overseeing Epstein-related grand jury materials have signed off on making those records public.
while also ensuring that victim-related personal information remains protected. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
In the Midwest, U.S. farmers are crunching the numbers to see if President Trump's $12 billion aid package will keep them afloat next year. NPR's Kirk Sigler reports that many say that they need financing now.
These bridge payments, as the administration is calling them, are meant to offset the effects of the president's trade war and tariffs that have left American soybeans here in the bins and not exported to China. The aid is expected to arrive by early March, but farmers like John Kipley say they need the money right now.
You can't take that to the bank and tell them that you're going to get this bridge payment. And they'll ask you how much. Nobody knows.
Kipley says banks won't lend because they know farmers will still be in the red next season. One estimate at a Farmers Union conference here showed that's the case for close to half of all the farms in South Dakota, where many family farms without capital could soon be out of business. Kirk Sigler, NPR News, Huron, South Dakota.
Federal Reserve policymakers have cut the central bank's key interest rate by a quarter point. As NPR's Scott Horsley reports, the decision is based on limited data on hiring and inflation.
There were three dissenting votes, and they came from both sides. Two members of the committee wanted to hold rates steady, and a third wanted to go with an even bigger half-point rate cut. Now, that's unusual for a group that usually tries to operate with a lot of consensus. In fact, it's the first time in six years that there was this much disagreement on a rate vote.
But Powell says, look, that's OK.
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