--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, February 17th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, protest resignations at the Department of Justice, Nebraska, a state that relies on an immigrant workforce, braces for deportations, and disaster in Kentucky after deadly floods. But first, an outbreak of measles is sweeping through parts of Texas.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: State health authorities report at least 48 confirmed cases, but say as many as 300 people might be infected. It's Texas's worst outbreak of the highly contagious disease in 30 years.
--:-- Dr. Amesh Adalja: It is troubling because this is completely preventable.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins, speaking to CBS.
--:-- Dr. Amesh Adalja: And I think this is really a reminder that measles is still a risk and it is kind of the canary in the coal mine. And it's the most contagious infectious disease known to humans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The measles virus can live in the air and on surfaces for up to two hours. That means an unvaccinated person can catch the illness even without being in the same room as an infected person.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: According to the Dallas Morning News, the outbreak in Gaines County is largely concentrated in the Mennonite population, a religious sect that one Texas health official described as close-knit and under-vaccinated.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the county, nearly 18 percent of all kindergartners were exempt from the measles vaccine in the 2023 to 2024 school year. That's much higher than the national average of 3.3 percent.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: This outbreak comes as the nation's leading health official, newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., faces ongoing scrutiny for his long history of anti-vaccine activism.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He downplayed that history in his confirmation hearings and told senators he believes vaccines play a critical role in health care.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: And NPR reports that Kennedy now has influence over a key panel called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which guides U.S. policy on vaccines and recommends the vaccine schedule for kids and adults.
--:-- Ping Wang: The committee decides what gets covered free of charge by the Vaccines for Children program, which about half of the nation's kids are eligible for.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the Affordable Care Act also requires various types of health insurance to cover vaccines that this group recommends as well.
--:-- Ping Wang: Shortly after his confirmation, Kennedy told Fox News he doesn't trust people who serve on advisory panels like this.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NPR notes the people on this particular panel are typically experts with advanced medical degrees who specialize in vaccines, pediatrics and the immune system.
--:-- Ping Wang: They also hold regular public meetings to discuss what the latest science says on the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Kennedy has questioned the motivations people have for joining these kinds of panels.
--:-- Ping Wang: In the past, those people, almost all of them, have severe, severe conflicts of interest.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Former CDC director Tom Frieden has said that's not true.
--:-- Ping Wang: He said committee members are vetted for conflicts of interest and ties to vaccine manufacturers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And once they're on the panel, they're required to file annual disclosure reports.
--:-- Ping Wang: Wong on NPR said during the confirmation hearings, at least one senator expressed concerns that Kennedy could replace all of the panel members with vaccine skeptics like himself.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I spoke with experts and former members of the committee, and they all agreed with that.
--:-- Ping Wang: They said there's just not a lot of guardrails on this group.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to the wave of resignations that rocked the Justice Department at the end of last week.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: It started when prosecutors were ordered to dismiss charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, which include bribery, fraud and conspiracy to personally enrich himself by working with foreign nationals, charges that he has pleaded not guilty to.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The person who directed prosecutors to drop the case is Emil Bove, the No. 2 ranking official at the Justice Department.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: Bove said the DOJ's prosecution of Adams would interfere with Adams' upcoming mayoral campaign and impact the mayor's ability to take action on crime and illegal immigration, as the Trump administration has directed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So far, at least seven officials at the Justice Department chose to quit following Bove's order to drop the charges.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: Reuters reporter Sarah Lynch covers the DOJ, which is supposed to be an independent, apolitical arm of government.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And she told us the country hasn't seen something like this in decades.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: Arguably since the 70s, when famously Richard Nixon asked his attorney general to fire the special prosecutor who was investigating the Watergate break-in.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The resignations started with Danielle Sassoon, the former U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, who was Manhattan's top federal prosecutor.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: She previously clerked for conservative judges, including Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In a letter to the attorney general, Sassoon wrote she believed the law does not support dismissing the charges against Adams, and she felt, quote, confident that he committed the crimes.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: Beauvais responded by saying he would strip the case from Sassoon's office.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He opened an investigation into her conduct.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: And, Lynch said, he kept pushing to get the case dropped.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He went down to the career prosecutors in Washington who work in the public integrity section of the Justice Department.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: Now, that's the section that does the most politically sensitive investigations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And he tried to ask them to file the motion to dismiss.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: And they, too, refused and resigned.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Then he went to the next level of management when the two top people there had refused to follow his order.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: And those three also resigned
--:-- Shamita Basu: One lawyer who resigned wrote that only a quote fool or coward would obey Beauvais order
--:-- Sarah Lynch: But one person ultimately did Edward Sullivan
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post spoke to sources who said, at first, all the lawyers who were asked to do this agreed to resign rather than follow the order.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: But Sullivan, who is close to retirement, offered to be the one to sign the dismissal motion to save his colleagues from being fired and give them time to find new jobs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Prosecutors have argued that Beauvais' reasoning for dismissing the charges against Adams so the mayor could work with the Trump administration on immigration initiatives appears to be a case of quid pro quo, which both Beauvais and Adams have denied.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: However, Trump's border czar Tom Homan, who appeared on Fox & Friends alongside Mayor Adams just before the weekend, described what sounded like a quid pro quo type of agreement.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If he doesn't come through, I'll be back in New York City and we won't be sitting on the couch.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: I'd be in his office, up his butt, saying, where the hell is the agreement we came to?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Lynch told us this incident has amplified existing concerns about the DOJ's conduct as the Trump administration continues to fire and reassign career officials.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: It gets to the point where you question who's there left to say no if there's an order given that might not comport with the law.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I think that's what people are questioning right now.
--:-- Sarah Lynch: The motion to dismiss the charges was filed on Friday and signed by Beauvais himself.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A judge needs to review it before Adams' case is officially dropped.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to a state that could feel the sweeping effects of Trump's immigration crackdown harder than most, Nebraska.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Immigrants make up the backbone of Nebraska's meat processing industry.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The state is one of the top meat producers in the country, but it has one of the worst labor shortages of any state.
--:-- Jasmine Garst: A study released last year by Nebraska's Economic Chamber found there are only 39 workers for every 100 open jobs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the report concluded there's really only one way to fill all these roles.
--:-- Jasmine Garst: They found we have to become the most welcoming state to foreign-born residents in the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Jasmine Garst is NPR's immigration correspondent.
--:-- Jasmine Garst: And they literally use the words, we don't have a choice.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At the same time, Nebraskans overwhelmingly voted for President Trump.
--:-- Jasmine Garst: And if his mass deportation plans impact Nebraska, it would not only affect the state's economy in a major way, but also our wider food system.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some residents told Garst they're not convinced Trump's efforts will actually impact them.
--:-- Jasmine Garst: Overwhelmingly, what I found among Trump voters in Nebraska was the belief that he's not really going to do it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That at the end of the day, President Donald Trump is a businessman and that he will look out for business interests and mass deportations are not business interests.
--:-- Jasmine Garst: But as she traveled through Nebraska for her reporting, she noticed how fear has transformed communities already.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It was just like these empty streets
--:-- Jasmine Garst: Going to the bars and the restaurants I mean I spent a fair amount of time there and it was very quiet
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the people who would speak to us told us that they just felt a sense of anguish
--:-- Jasmine Garst: You know, I would have restaurant owners be like, people are going to work and home.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People aren't risking it.
--:-- Jasmine Garst: And so what I found was these ghost towns.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Since Trump's inauguration, immigration raids have been concentrated in major cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York.
--:-- Jasmine Garst: According to ICE, immigration officials are making anywhere from 600 to 1,100 arrests a day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post reports the town of O'Neill, Nebraska, is still recovering from a raid during Trump's first term in 2018.
--:-- Jasmine Garst: A number of businesses closed after they couldn't find workers to replace people who were detained, and at least 100 families moved away.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're watching.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on his firing of Hampton Dellinger, a Biden appointee who leads the Office of Special Counsel.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The OSC is an agency that investigates whistleblower reports filed by government workers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Dellinger turned around and sued the Trump administration, saying his termination violates a law protecting leaders of independent agencies from being fired by a president without good cause.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As The Washington Post puts it, this is the first time Trump is appealing to the Supreme Court for help in his efforts to seize greater control of the federal government.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Meanwhile, Trump posted this phrase to social media over the weekend, quote, He who saves his country does not violate any laws.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This comes as some of the president's allies have challenged the legitimacy of judicial checks on Trump.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The original quote has been attributed to French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte, who declared himself an emperor.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In New York, five people were charged with second-degree murder in the death of a transgender man, authorities said, suffered prolonged abuse and torture.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One state police captain called it, quote, one of the most horrific crimes I have ever investigated.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Authorities said 24-year-old Sam Norquist was abused between December and February, which led to his death.
--:-- Shamita Basu: All five suspects are being held without bail.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And heavy rain and extreme flooding led to eight deaths in Kentucky this weekend.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said most fatalities were due to people getting trapped in their water-submerged cars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tens of thousands of people were without power.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Trump approved the state's request for a disaster declaration and authorized FEMA to coordinate relief efforts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a Narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Time magazine spoke with researchers who are racing to understand why more young adults are getting diagnosed with cancer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Thanks for listening to Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I'm Shamita Basu.
