"Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor-Johnston.
President Trump is criticizing the Justice Department's decision to drop the case involving
“damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and opposed on true social Trump said he”
100% disagrees with U.S. Attorney-Genie Piero's assessment, arguing the damage was the result of vandalism not just construction problems. Piero's Tamry Keith reports Trump had repeatedly portrayed the incident as vandalism ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary, but the DOJ says that wasn't the case." He claimed with vivid detail that there was a gash cut in the waterproof coating, and
it was 250 feet long, 350 feet long, 300 yards long. The length of it kept changing. The interior secretary backed him up, a rest were made, all for the government to then admit in last night's filing that it was "the result of flawed installation by the contractor at Lantic Industrial Coatings."
NPR's Tamry Keith reporting criminal charges against former Olympian David Hurn were dropped on Friday. He was arrested last month and accused of vandalizing the pool. Officials in Arizona are criticizing a new federal plan for sharing the Colorado River,
“Alex Hager from Ember Station, KJ ZZ reports.”
Arizona's Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly say the new plan would place an unfair burden on those states, Governor Katie Hobbs called the steepest cuts unacceptable. The State Department of Water Resources says they could devastate Arizona's economy. Officials are pushing the federal government to adopt a counter-proposal that would limit those cutbacks by about half for the next two years.
Arizona, California, and Nevada are volunteering to reduce their take from the river to make the plan work. More details about the exact size of cuts for 2027 and 2028 are expected soon. They're likely to hit cities in the Phoenix area of the hardest and many utilities have robust backup plans to keep taps from going dry.
For NPR News, I'm Alex Hager and Phoenix. Stocks on Wall Street ended higher for the week, despite Chitters about the Federal Reserve, and PR Scott Horsley reports and investors were cheered by some strong earnings reports. In big tech companies reported better than expected financial results, Amazon shares jumped by double digits on news its cloud computer business is booming.
The market value of Microsoft, soared nearly $450 billion in a single day.
That helped the market rebound after a sell-off earlier in the week, because investors reacted to somewhat mixed messages from the Federal Reserve. The central bank is promised to get control over stubborn inflation, but policymakers voted to hold their benchmark interest rate unchanged. Three of the 12 voting members of the rate setting committee said they would have preferred
to raise rates by a quarter point. For the week, both the Dow and the S&P 500 index rose more than 1%, while the tech heavy NASDAQ jumped 1.6%. Scott Horsley, in Pyrenees, Washington. This is NPR.
The online site, Truth Social, has started selling early access to President Trump's post to investment banks and other institutional clients for $100,000 a month. Former Wall Street regulators say the arrangement raises serious questions about insider trading laws, because paying subscribers could receive market-moving information before it's available to the public.
WestJet, Canada's second-largest airline, has begun grounding planes ahead of a potential
strike by its flight attendants, Dan Carp and Chuck reports they could walk off the job as early as Sunday morning. WestJet says it continues to bargain with the union representing the 4400 flight attendants in the hopes of reaching a deal.
“The Canadian Union of Public Employees says unpaid work before and after flights is a key”
issue. Two days ago, the union issued a 72-hour strike notice, WestJet countered with a 72-hour lockout. So a work stoppage could occur if no deal is reached by Sunday morning. Some planes are being parked and flights canceled to prevent crews and passengers from being
stranded. Travelers are being advised to check the status of their flight before heading for the airport. Any passengers are already scrambling to make alternate arrangements. WestJet operates more than 600 flights a day, including to 18 states in the US and Washington DC.
For NPR News, I'm Dan Carp and Chuck in Toronto. A heat dome is bringing triple-digit temperatures to much of the Western US with record highs expected across to lead 12 states, tens of millions of people are under heat alerts and forecasters mourned the heat and wind could spark new wildfires. This is NPR News in Washington.
Death has never stopped the grateful dead.
60-plus years after their first gig and 30-plus years after the death of Gerry Garcia, the dancing bears are still dancing. This August, come along with us to meet deadheads wherever they are and hear the different ways they plan to keep the jam going. Listen to dead after death, a two-episode series available starting on August 1st.
