--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, February 14.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering. President Trump is facing mounting pressure in the courts over his agenda and how he's been trying to carry it out.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Fourteen state attorneys general sued Trump and Elon Musk yesterday over how Musk has been dismantling federal agencies.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The lawsuit argues Trump violated the Constitution by giving Musk, an unelected private citizen, so much power, calling it an unlawful delegation.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And two federal judges moved to temporarily pause other Trump policies yesterday.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A judge in D.C. ruled the administration cannot freeze the foreign aid spending that was approved by Congress.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Trump administration said it stopped the money so it could review it for wasteful spending.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But the judge said that the government's lawyers hadn't offered an explanation for why that was necessary, considering the chaos it set off.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And a judge in Maryland stopped Trump's efforts to cut off funds to health care providers who treat transgender youth.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The case was brought on behalf of six transgender children.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The judge said the order put them at risk, saying the language of the order itself, quote, seems to deny that this population exists or even has the right to exist.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, the Justice Department is locked in a public showdown over Trump's attempts to tighten control over it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It started when the department ordered the U.S. attorney in Manhattan to drop the corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Its justification was explicitly political, and the U.S. attorney resigned rather than comply, saying it was her obligation to pursue justice impartially.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The DOJ then transferred the Adams case to Washington to try and get that office to dismiss it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Five lawyers there then also resigned.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The cascade of resignations is the most high opposition so far to Trump efforts to bend the department to push his own agenda.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here are three other updates from Washington yesterday.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I think what's going to go up is jobs are going to go up, and prices could go up somewhat short-term, but prices will also go down.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: President Trump acknowledged there may be costs to the sweeping new reciprocal tariffs he announced.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The tariffs will kick in in April, and they reverse decades of international trade policy by throwing out existing agreements and instead hitting any country that taxes U.S. goods with new tariffs at the same level.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump said the goal is to force companies to make their products in the U.S.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The tariffs are expected to hit India, Japan, and the European Union especially hard.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Also, the Office of Personnel Management ordered federal agencies to lay off around 200,000 government workers yesterday, around 10 percent of the federal civilian workforce.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The cuts largely target probationary employees, mostly people hired in the past year who are easier to fire.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And President Trump has promised that he's going to restore America's strength.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: We can't be a strong nation if we have a weak citizenry.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He's promised to tackle chronic disease and target ultra-processed foods.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The longtime vaccine skeptic now leads a system that includes the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among other agencies.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm standing in the snow in Munich, Germany, where a security conference is about to start today and where Europeans have woken up over the last 48 hours to the realization that America may no longer be the friend they have always counted on it to be.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: My colleague Jim Tankersley covers Europe for The Times.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He says top American officials including Vice President J Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be meeting with European leaders today who are reeling from a series of new moves by the Trump administration.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They were shocked by the decision to roll out new tariffs without even trying to negotiate.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And they were caught off guard by Trump's announcement that he plans to work directly with Vladimir Putin on a ceasefire for Ukraine, apparently sidelining America's longtime military allies in Europe.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Going forward, Europeans are trying to figure out how best to negotiate with President Trump.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I was just at a panel discussion where there was talk of letting Trump basically have whatever he wants in negotiations because Europe simply does not have a strong enough hand to counter him.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But there's also talk of building up Europe's own military readiness as fast as possible and trying to cycle its economy away from more ties with the United States.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'll be interested to see at this conference how European leaders react to Vice President J.D. Vance when he gives a speech laying out much of the administration's vision for foreign policy, including on Ukraine.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And I'll be very interested to see behind the scenes if officials present sort of a confrontational front to Americans or more of a conciliatory one.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A major battle over the future of abortion access has moved one step closer to the Supreme Court.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, health care providers in states where abortion is legal have been mailing abortion medication to people who live in states with restrictions, who can't get the pills locally.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But on Thursday, a judge in Texas ordered a doctor in New York to stop prescribing and sending abortion pills to Texas.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Whether that can be enforced will test the power of so-called shield laws.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Several states where abortion is legal, like New York, put these laws in place to protect medical providers from being prosecuted by other states.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those laws were a sharp turn from how states normally cooperate with each other on law enforcement.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And the Texas York case is widely expected to end up at the Supreme Court which could decide the fate of SHIELD laws by ruling whether one state can refuse to cooperate with another.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, Joanne Fabrics is closing 533 of their 850 stores?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm sorry, what?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The sewing, quilting, knitting, crocheting, generally crafty community is taking a hit with the bankruptcy of Joanne.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: God, I'm literally having a moment.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: My Joanne's fabric store is going to close. I am not okay.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The arts and crafts retail giant announced it's closing two-thirds of its stores.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Customers have been obsessively checking the closure list to see if their store will be shut down.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Roseville, Saginaw, Shelby Township, Taylor, and Ypsilanti.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The retail giant had gotten a huge bump during the pandemic when everybody suddenly got a soothing hobby.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But as the trend faded, Joanne struggled, filing bankruptcy twice in the last year.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Long-time customers say the closures are not just about having to find a new place to buy yarn, Mod Podge, and Polar Fleece.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's about the end of a kind of sanctuary.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One quilter told The Times her friends have been texting her nonstop like there's been a death in the family.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: We just heard what happened. Are you okay?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Joanne says it's going out of business sales could start as soon as tomorrow.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Please just no one tell my mom that.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines today on The Daily, the Friday Politics Roundtable.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's next in The New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Original theme by Dan Powell.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Special thanks to Mike Abrams, Larissa Anderson, Isabella Anderson, Devlin Barrett, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, and Paula Schumann.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The headlines will be back on Monday.
