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  • Making friends as an adult is hard. Here’s the secret.

    Making friends as an adult is hard. Here’s the secret.

    On a recent Thursday evening in downtown Washington, I took a deep breath and walked into a bar. I joined a couple dozen other women who were milling around making small talk and ordering drinks, waiting for the more formal portion of the evening to begin.

    I was there to make friends.

    When I first moved to D.C. at age 23, I immediately met lots of new people who were in the same boat. Many of my fellow interns were new to the city, and we were all game for adventures. These days I still have close friends, but many of us have busy jobs and young children. Some have moved away. It can be hard to even schedule a phone call to catch up.

    I find myself craving the easy friendships of my early 20s. Could I find that again?

    The meetup I was attending was organized by RealRoots, one of a number of startups aimed at making us less lonely. Even before the pandemic, Americans were spending less time with friends. By 2023, the U.S. surgeon general warned we were in a loneliness epidemic and that the health risks of isolation were akin to smoking.

    The good news is there’s now less stigma in admitting you want to make friends, especially since the pandemic, RealRoots CEO and co-founder Dorothy Li told me.

    “We were all lonely together for two years,” she said, and many of us have begun rebuilding social lives at the same time.

    I consulted experts about how to both make new friends and reconnect with old ones. Here’s what I learned.

    Be vulnerable

    I went into the RealRoots event with a healthy dose of skepticism. I was told that I would be matched with a curated group of women based on my responses to a personality quiz and an interview with an artificial intelligence assistant named Lisa who detected my “social vibe.” (I was “grounded, thoughtful, and warm” — thanks, Lisa!)

    “I totally get it,” Li said when I told her about my doubts. “Human connection needs to be in real life.” But the planning and logistics of matching people who are similar and finding times on their calendars? That, she said, “can be done seamlessly by AI.”

    The women at my meetup included a former professional ballroom dancer, a nurse who loves her work with dementia patients, and an aid worker about to leave for a work trip to Sudan.

    Everyone had different reasons for being there. One woman worked from home and felt isolated, especially since becoming pregnant. Another wanted to push out of her comfort zone and meet new people. A third said she had social anxiety and felt this took the pressure off.

    After mingling, moderators led us through a series of questions, which started like corporate icebreakers (what are your hobbies?) but got progressively more personal (what’s something you’re good at?), finally building to the last question: What’s something you’re struggling with right now?

    I searched my mind for something that wouldn’t feel too revealing. These were basically strangers, after all. But then someone talked about her fertility issues. Another was going through a difficult divorce. Another had a serious illness. I quietly reassessed. When it was my turn, I no longer felt the need to hold back. I talked about my insecurities as a mom. I felt myself starting to cry as I explained my fears about how my anxiety would affect my daughter. I was met with so much empathy.

    When I told Li I felt close to all the women by the end of the night, she told me that’s the point.

    “When you start talking about the things that are actually on your mind, everyone can relate,” Li said.

    Vulnerability invites vulnerability. This rule also applies when trying to deepen friendships.

    For journalist Billy Baker, after getting married, having kids and relocating to the suburbs, he realized that many of his high school and college friends couldn’t be part of his daily life anymore. He set out to build a community where he lived, and the first step was to reach out to people he felt a connection to, and to tell them that. It was intentional and a little scary, but worth it, he said.

    “Vulnerability for me was always rewarded,” said Baker, author of the book We Need to Hang Out: A Memoir of Making Friends.

    Do things you want to do anyway

    When Baker was working on his book about friendship, he was trying to nail down exactly what draws us to other people. He found that a shared interest or activity worked particularly well as a first step. For instance, he would often run into a guy at the gym, so he started asking him to meet up there to work out together.

    “Pickleball has changed senior friendship,” he said. “Is it pickleball they love or is it having this activity that they enjoy, and finding others who also enjoy it and then they’re off for coffee?”

    Baker says if you choose something you want to do anyway, you’ll probably meet people with a shared interest, and even if you don’t you’ll still have a good time.

    Put friendship on the to-do list — near the top

    Baker learned that he couldn’t just assume friendships would happen to him — he needed to take initiative.

    “We were never taught to prioritize friendship,” Baker said. For him, this journey began when his editor asked him to write about how many men let friendships lapse in middle age. Even though Baker had always been social, he realized he had been prioritizing his work and family and neglecting to make time for friends.

    “The gift I gave myself is to put friendship on the to-do list every day alongside eating well, taking care of my family, taking out the trash, all those things,” Baker said. “It needs to be a part of our daily life if you really are going to reap the benefits.”

    Baker’s solution was to take inspiration from a group of men in his town with a tradition called “Wednesday nights” — a weekly promise of getting together. Baker created his own version of it, and said it was awkward at first. But eventually, genuine connections formed.

    At the end of my conversation with Baker, he gave me a challenge: Was there anyone I could think of who I wanted to be closer to?

    I thought of a colleague I have been casual friends with for a few years. I always delighted in running into her in the hallways or at parties, but we had never gotten together just us. Baker encouraged me to ask her to hang out.

    I felt a familiar creeping fear as I reached out to her — what if she was too busy, or didn’t feel the same friendship vibe I did? What if we did hang out and had nothing to say?

    I asked her, my colleague Rachel Kurzius, to get lunch on a Sunday. We chatted for two hours that felt like 20 minutes. We bonded over talking about books and our kids and the surprising number of things we had in common, and it really feels like the start of a friendship. Similar to Baker, I was rewarded by vulnerability.

    If you’re contemplating taking the first step, just do it. The odds are stacked in your favor.

    “We like people who like us,” Baker said. So make the first move.

    After my RealRoots meetup, I declined to join RealRoots’ six week series — like a kickball league, there was a cost, and it didn’t fit into the budget this month — but I was still grateful for the opportunity to meet people. A few days later, I ran into one of the women from the group at a workout class, and we greeted each other like old friends.

  • Trump targets Minnesota’s Somali community with harsh words and policies

    Trump targets Minnesota’s Somali community with harsh words and policies

    MINNEAPOLIS — Recent statements by President Donald Trump and top administration officials disparaging Minnesota’s large Somali community have focused renewed attention on the immigrants from the war-torn east African country and their descendants.

    Trump on Tuesday said he did not want Somalis in the U.S. because “they contribute nothing.” The president spoke soon after a person familiar with the planning said federal authorities are preparing a targeted immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota that would primarily focus on Somali immigrants living unlawfully in the U.S.

    Here are some things to know about Somalis in Minnesota:

    Largest Somali American population in the U.S.

    An estimated 260,000 people of Somali descent were living in the U.S. in 2024, according to the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. The largest population is in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, home to about 84,000 residents, most of whom are American citizens. Ohio, Washington and California also have significant populations.

    Almost 58% of the Somalis in Minnesota were born in the U.S. Of the foreign-born Somalis in Minnesota, an overwhelming majority — 87% — are naturalized U.S. citizens. Of the foreign-born population, almost half entered the U.S. in 2010 or later, according to the Census Bureau.

    They include many who fled the long civil war in their east African country and were drawn to the state’s welcoming social programs.

    Trump targets the community

    Trump has become increasingly focused in recent weeks on Somalis living in the U.S., saying they “have caused a lot of trouble.”

    Trump and other administration officials stepped up their criticism after a conservative news outlet, City Journal, claimed that taxpayer dollars from defrauded government programs have flowed to the militant group al-Shabab, an affiliate of al-Qaida that controls parts of rural Somalia and often has targeted the capital, Mogadishu.

    While Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a social media post Monday that his agency is investigating whether “hardworking Minnesotans’ tax dollars may have been diverted to the terrorist organization,” little evidence has emerged so far to prove a link. Federal prosecutors have not charged any of the dozens of defendants in recent public program fraud cases in Minnesota with providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations.

    Last month, Trump said he was terminating Temporary Protected Status for Somali migrants in Minnesota, a legal safeguard against deportation. A report produced for Congress in August put the number of Somalis covered by the program at just 705 nationwide.

    The announcement drew immediate pushback from some state leaders and immigration experts, who characterized Trump’s declaration as a legally dubious effort to sow fear and suspicion.

    Fraud allegations lead to pushback

    Local Somali community leaders, as well as allies like Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have also pushed back against those who might blame the broader Somali community for some recent cases of massive fraud in public programs.

    Those include what is known as the Feeding Our Future scandal, which federal prosecutors say was the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud case. It involved a program meant to feed children during the pandemic. The defendants were accused of fraudulently claiming to be feeding millions of meals to children. While the alleged ringleader was white, many of the defendants were Somalis, and most of them were U.S. citizens.

    Prosecutors in recent months have raised their estimate of the thefts to $300 million from an original $250 million, and the number of defendants last month grew to 78. The cases are still working their way through the court system.

    Republican candidates for governor and other offices in 2026 are staking their hopes on voters blaming Walz for failing to prevent the losses to taxpayers. Trump has blasted Walz for allowing the fraud to unfold on his watch.

    Earlier terrorism cases still echo

    Authorities in Minnesota struggled for years to stem the recruiting of young Somali men by the Islamic State group and the Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab.

    The problem first surfaced in 2007, when more than 20 young men went to Somalia, where Ethiopian troops propping up a weak U.N.-backed government were seen by many as foreign invaders.

    While most of those cases were resolved years ago, another came to light earlier this year. A 23-year-old defendant pleaded guilty in September to attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

    Mostly in the 2010s, the Islamic State group also found recruits in Minnesota’s Somali community, with authorities saying roughly a dozen left to join militants in Syria.

    Somalis have become a force in Minnesota politics

    The best-known Somali American is arguably Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a fiery progressive whose district includes Minneapolis and is a frequent target of Trump.

    Several other Somali Americans have served in the Minnesota Legislature and the Minneapolis and St. Paul city councils. State Sen. Omar Fateh, a democratic socialist, finished second in the Minneapolis mayoral election in November to incumbent Mayor Frey.

  • Shredded cheese sold in dozens of states recalled due to potential for metal fragment contamination

    Shredded cheese sold in dozens of states recalled due to potential for metal fragment contamination

    There is a recall for more than 260,000 cases of shredded cheese sold in 31 states and Puerto Rico because of the potential for metal fragment contamination, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

    The FDA said that the various shredded cheeses were recalled by Great Lakes Cheese Co. The cheese products are sold under private store-brand labels at several retailers, including Target, Walmart and Aldi.

    The recall includes various cheeses such as mozzarella, Italian style, pizza style, mozzarella and provolone and mozzarella and parmesan.

    The recall has a Class II classification, because the product “may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote,” according to the FDA’s website.

    An FDA says ingesting metal fragments may cause injuries such as dental damage, laceration of the mouth or throat, or laceration or perforation of the intestine.

  • Pentagon knew boat attack left survivors but still launched a follow-on strike, AP sources say

    Pentagon knew boat attack left survivors but still launched a follow-on strike, AP sources say

    WASHINGTON — The Pentagon knew there were survivors after a September attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea and the U.S. military still carried out a follow-up strike, according to two people familiar with the matter.

    The rationale for the second strike was that it was needed to sink the vessel, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly. The Trump administration says all 11 people aboard were killed.

    What remains unclear was who ordered the strikes and whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was involved, one of the people said. That will be part of a classified congressional briefing Thursday with the commander that the Trump administration says ordered the second strike, Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley.

    Hegseth has defended the second strike as emerging in the “fog of war,” saying he didn’t see any survivors but also “didn’t stick around” for the rest of the mission.

    Hegseth is under growing scrutiny over the military strikes on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Legal experts and some lawmakers say a strike that killed survivors would have violated the laws of armed conflict.

  • Americans gave $4B on Giving Tuesday 2025 as donations and volunteering gain big over last year

    Americans gave $4B on Giving Tuesday 2025 as donations and volunteering gain big over last year

    Americans gave $4 billion to nonprofits on Giving Tuesday in 2025, an increase from the $3.6 billion they gave in 2024, according to estimates from the nonprofit Giving Tuesday.

    More people also volunteered their time on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving this year, which fell on Dec. 2 and has become a major fundraising day for nonprofits. This year, 11.1 million people in the U.S. volunteered, up from, 9.2 million last year.

    Giving Tuesday started in 2012 as a hashtag and a project of the 92nd St Y in New York and has since become an independent nonprofit. The organization estimates how much was given and how many people volunteer using data from a wide variety of sources, including giving platforms, payment processors and software applications that nonprofits use.

    Woodrow Rosenbaum, the chief data officer for Giving Tuesday, said both the number of people giving and the overall donation amount may have increased this year as people seek a sense of belonging and connection.

    “Generosity is a really powerful way to get that,” Rosenbaum said in an interview with The Associated Press. ”But I think mostly it’s just that when people see need, they want to do something about it and Giving Tuesday is an opportunity to do that in a moment of celebration as opposed to crisis.”

    Overall donations increased 8.1% from last year when adjusted for inflation. Giving Tuesday has also seen the average donation increase in size over time and Rosenbaum said people may be seeking additional ways to give as well.

    “Volunteering is a way that you can add to your impact without it costing you money,” he said.

    Not everyone who volunteers their time does so through a nonprofit. They may volunteer with mutual aid groups or by helping out family members or neighbors, he said.

    Giving Tuesday does not include donations from corporations or foundations in their estimate, Rosenbaum said, as they are focused on the everyday generosity of individuals. That means they did not include the gift from billionaires Michael and Susan Dell of $6.25 billion to encourage families to claim new investment accounts created by the Trump administration.

    President Donald Trump hosted the Dells at the White House Tuesday, calling their commitment “one of the most generous acts in the history of our country.” The Dells will offer $250 to 25 million children 10 years old and younger to invest in accounts that the U.S. Department of Treasury will create next year. The ” Trump accounts ” were part of the administration’s tax and spending legislation passed in the summer.

    A significant portion of charitable giving to nonprofits happens at the end of the calendar year and Giving Tuesday is an informal kick off to what nonprofits think of as the giving season. A combination of economic and political uncertainty has meant it is hard to predict how generous donors will be this year. Rosenbaum said that the generosity demonstrated on GivingTuesday is an extremely encouraging bellwether for how the rest of the giving season will go.

    “What we really hope is that nonprofits and community groups see this as an opportunity that we are in a moment of abundance and that people are ready and willing to help,” Rosenbaum said.

  • A vocal Jeffrey Epstein accuser is urging judges to unseal his court records

    A vocal Jeffrey Epstein accuser is urging judges to unseal his court records

    NEW YORK — One of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell‘s most vocal accusers urged judges on Wednesday to grant the Justice Department’s request to unseal records from their federal sex trafficking cases, saying “only transparency is likely to lead to justice.”

    Annie Farmer weighed in through her lawyer, Sigrid S. McCawley, after the judges asked for input from victims before ruling on whether the records should be made public under a new law requiring the government to open its files on the late financier and his longtime confidante, who sexually abused young women and girls for decades.

    Farmer and other victims fought for the passage of the law, known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Signed last month by President Donald Trump, it compels the Justice Department, FBI and federal prosecutors to release by Dec. 19 the vast troves of material they’ve amassed during investigations into Epstein.

    The Justice Department last week asked Manhattan federal Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer to lift secrecy orders on grand jury transcripts and other material from Epstein’s 2019 sex-trafficking case and a wide range of records from Maxwell’s 2021 case, including search warrants, financial records, and notes from interviews with victims.

    “Nothing in these proceedings should stand in the way of their victory or provide a backdoor avenue to continue to cover up history’s most notorious sex-trafficking operation,” McCawley wrote in a letter to the judges.

    The attorney was critical of the government for failing to prosecute anyone else in Epstein and Maxwell’s orbit. She asked the judges to ensure that any orders they issue do not preclude the Justice Department from releasing other Epstein-related materials.

    Farmer “is wary of the possibility that any denial of the motions may be used by others as a pretext or excuse for continuing to withhold crucial information concerning Epstein’s crimes,” McCawley wrote.

    Epstein, a millionaire money manager known for socializing with celebrities, politicians, billionaires, and the academic elite, killed himself in jail a month after his 2019 arrest.

    Maxwell was convicted in 2021 by a federal jury of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of Epstein’s underage victims and participating in some of the abuse. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

    In a court filing Wednesday, Maxwell’s lawyer again said that she is preparing a habeas petition in a bid to overturn her conviction. The lawyer, David Markus, first mentioned the habeas petition in court papers in August as she fought the Justice Department’s initial bid to have her case records unsealed. The Supreme Court in October declined to hear Maxwell’s appeal.

    Markus said in Wednesday’s filing that while Maxwell now “does not take a position” in the wake of the transparency act’s passage, doing so “would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial” if her habeas petition succeeds.

    The records, Markus said, “contain untested and unproven allegations.”

    Engelmayer, who’s weighing whether to release records from Maxwell’s case, gave her and victims until Wednesday to respond to the Justice Department’s unsealing request. The government must respond to their filings by Dec. 10. The judge said he will rule “promptly thereafter.”

    Berman, who presided over the Epstein case, ordered victims and Epstein’s estate to respond by Wednesday and gave the government until Dec. 8 to reply to those submissions. Berman said he would make his “best efforts to resolve this motion promptly.”

    Lawyers for Epstein’s estate said in a letter to Berman on Wednesday that the estate takes no position on the Justice Department’s unsealing request. The lawyers noted that the government had committed to making appropriate redactions of personal identifying information for victims.

    Last week, a lawyer for some victims complained that the House Oversight Committee had failed to redact, or black out, some of their names from tens of thousands pages of Epstein-related documents it has released in recent months.

    Transparency “CANNOT come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of sexual abuse and sex trafficking victims, especially these survivors who have already suffered repeatedly,” lawyer Brad Edwards wrote.

  • Doctor who sold ketamine to ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry gets 2 1/2 years in prison

    Doctor who sold ketamine to ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry gets 2 1/2 years in prison

    LOS ANGELES — A doctor who pleaded guilty to selling ketamine to Matthew Perry in the weeks before the Friends star’s overdose death was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison on Wednesday.

    Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence plus two years of probation to 44-year-old Dr. Salvador Plasencia in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles.

    The judge emphasized that Plasencia didn’t provide the ketamine that killed Perry, but told him, “You and others helped Mr. Perry on the road to such an ending by continuing to feed his ketamine addiction.”

    “You exploited Mr. Perry’s addiction for your own profit,” she said.

    Plasencia was led from the courtroom in handcuffs as his mother cried loudly in the audience. He might have arranged a date to surrender, but his lawyers said he was prepared to do it today.

    Perry’s mother and two half sisters gave tearful victim impact statements before the sentencing.

    “The world mourns my brother,” Madeleine Morrison said. “He was everyone’s favorite friend.”

    “My brother’s death turned my world upside down,” Morrison said, crying. “It punched a crater in my life. His absence is everywhere.”

    Plasencia was the first to be sentenced of the five defendants who have pleaded guilty in connection with Perry’s death at age 54 in 2023.

    The doctor admitted to taking advantage of Perry, knowing he was a struggling addict. Plasencia texted another doctor that Perry was a “moron” who could be exploited for money, according to court filings.

    Prosecutors had asked for three years in prison, while the defense sought just a day in prison plus probation.

    Perry’s mother talked about the things he overcame in life and the strength he showed.

    “I used to think he couldn’t die,” Suzanne Perry said as her husband, Dateline journalist Keith Morrison, stood at the podium with her.

    “You called him a ‘moron,’” she said. “There is nothing moronic about that man. He was even a successful drug addict.”

    She spoke eloquently and apologized for rambling before getting tearful at the end, saying, “this was a bad thing you did!” as she cried.

    Plasencia also spoke before the sentencing, breaking into tears as he imagined the day he would have to tell his now 2-year-old son “about the time I didn’t protect another mother’s son. It hurts me so much. I can’t believe I’m here.”

    He apologized directly to Perry’s family. “I should have protected him,” he said.

    Perry had been taking the surgical anesthetic ketamine legally as a treatment for depression. But when his regular doctor wouldn’t provide it in the amounts he wanted, he turned to Plasencia, who admitted to illegally selling to Perry and knowing he was a struggling addict.

    Plasencia’s lawyers tried to give a sympathetic portrait of him as a man who rose out of poverty to become a doctor beloved by his patients, some of whom provided testimonials about him for the court.

    The attorneys called his selling to Perry “reckless” and “the biggest mistake of his life.”

    Plasencia pleaded guilty in July to four counts of distribution of ketamine. Prosecutors agreed to drop five different counts. The agreement came with no sentencing guarantees, and legally Garnett can give him up to 40 years.

    The other four defendants who reached deals to plead guilty will be sentenced at their own hearings in the coming months.

    Perry died at age 54 in 2023 after struggling with addiction for years, dating back to his time on Friends, when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing. He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s megahit.

  • Bessent says Federal Reserve Board could ‘veto’ future regional presidents

    Bessent says Federal Reserve Board could ‘veto’ future regional presidents

    WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday he would push a new requirement that the Federal Reserve’s regional bank presidents live in their districts for at least three years before taking office, a move that could give the White House more power over the independent agency.

    In comments at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit, Bessent criticized several presidents of the Fed’s regional banks, saying that they were not from the districts that they now represent, “a disconnect from the original framing” of the Fed.

    Bessent said that three of the 12 regional presidents have ties to New York: Two previously worked at the New York Federal Reserve, while a third worked at a New York investment bank.

    “So, do they represent their district?” he asked. “I am going to start advocating, going forward, not retroactively, that regional Fed presidents must have lived in their district for at least three years.”

    Bessent added that he wasn’t sure if Congress would need to weigh in on such a change. Under current law, the Fed’s Washington, D.C.-based board can block the appointment of regional Fed presidents.

    “I believe that you would just say, unless someone’s lived in the district for three years, we’re going to veto them,” Bessent said.

    Bessent has stepped up his criticism of the Fed’s 12 regional bank presidents in recent weeks after several of them made clear in a series of speeches that they opposed cutting the Fed’s key rate at its next meeting in December. President Donald Trump has sharply criticized the Fed for not lowering its short-term interest rate more quickly. When the Fed reduces its rate it can over time lower borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards.

    The prospect of the administration “vetoing” regional bank presidents would represent another effort by the White House to exert more control over the Fed, an institution that has traditionally been independent from day-to-day politics.

    The Federal Reserve seeks to keep prices in check and support hiring by setting a short-term interest rate that influences borrowing costs across the economy. It has a complicated structure that includes a seven-member board of governors based in Washington as well as 12 regional banks that cover specific districts across the United States.

    The seven governors and the president of the New York Fed vote on every interest-rate decision, while four of the remaining 11 presidents vote on a rotating basis. But all the presidents participate in meetings of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee.

    The regional Fed presidents are appointed by boards made up of local and business community leaders.

    Three of the seven members of the Fed’s board were appointed by Trump, and the president is seeking to fire Governor Lisa Cook, which would give him a fourth seat and a majority. Yet Cook has sued to keep her job, and the Supreme Court has ruled she can stay in her seat as the court battle plays out.

    Trump is also weighing a pick to replace Chair Jerome Powell when he finishes his term in May. Trump said over the weekend that “I know who I am going to pick,” but at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday said he wouldn’t announce his choice until early next year. Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser to Trump, is widely considered Trump’s most likely choice.

    The three regional presidents cited by Bessent are all relatively recent appointees. Lorie Logan was named president of the Dallas Fed in August 2022, after holding a senior position at the New York Fed as the manager of the Fed’s multitrillion dollar portfolio of mostly government securities. Alberto Musalem became president of the St. Louis Fed in April 2024, and from 2014-2017 was an executive vice president at the New York Fed.

    Beth Hammack was appointed president of the Cleveland Fed in August 2024, after an extended career at Goldman Sachs.

    Musalem is the only one of the three that currently votes on policy and he supported the Fed’s rate cuts in September and October. But last month he suggested that with inflation elevated, the Fed likely wouldn’t be able to cut much more.

    Logan has said she would have voted against October’s rate cut if she had a vote, while Hammack has said that the Fed’s key rate should remain high to combat inflation. Both Hammack and Logan will vote on rate decisions next year.

    Bessent argued last month in an interview on CNBC that the reason for the regional Fed banks was to bring the perspective of their districts to the Fed’s interest rate decisions and “break the New York hold” on the setting of interest rates.

    __

    Associated Press Writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.

  • Federal judge limits warrantless immigration arrests in D.C.

    Federal judge limits warrantless immigration arrests in D.C.

    The Trump administration’s escalating use of warrantless immigration arrests in D.C. this year probably violated federal law, a judge ruled Tuesday in a decision that prohibits such arrests for all migrants in the city except those at risk of escaping.

    U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell granted a preliminary injunction sought by the immigrant-rights group CASA Inc. and four migrants who were arrested without administrative warrants in August amid President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in the capital. All four had pending immigration applications at the time of their arrests and were eventually released after spending time in detention facilities.

    “They were arrested while going about unavoidable, lawful activities of daily life,” Howell said.

    The judge, in an 88-page opinion, took Trump administration officials to task for depriving migrants of their rights and basic necessities as they languished in cramped detention facilities before being released. She criticized immigration authorities’ “systemic failure” to follow the law and said top administration officials, including Chief Border Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino, had repeatedly misstated the legal requirements for warrantless arrests in public comments.

    Bovino and a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security had asserted that officers needed “reasonable suspicion” to conduct such arrests, but Howell said the legal standard was more stringent: probable cause. Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

    Trump ordered a renewed crackdown on illegal immigration this year, and top administration officials set targets as high as 3,000 daily arrests of migrants. Attorneys for CASA and the four plaintiffs in the case argued that authorities began to work under an “arrest first, ask questions later” policy to comply with the high daily quotas — and began ignoring a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that authorizes warrantless arrests only when a migrant “is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.”

    One of the plaintiffs, Jose Escobar Molina, a scaffolder from El Salvador, described in a court filing how he was picked up at 6 a.m. as he headed to work one morning by a group of plainclothes officers who shoved him into a black SUV, making him think he was being kidnapped. Another plaintiff, from Venezuela, said he showed his arresting officers his driver’s license, work permit and asylum application paperwork, which they disregarded.

    Warrantless arrests have skyrocketed since Trump’s surge began in August, Howell found. By one count, she said, officials conducted 943 immigration arrests over a month-long period that ended Sept. 9, which represented 40 percent of all D.C. arrests. The judge noted that being present in the country without legal authorization is not a criminal offense, but a civil violation. Entering the United States without legal authorization is a misdemeanor under federal law, and a felony for repeat offenders.

    “Viewing all immigrants potentially subject to removal as criminals is, as a legal matter, plain wrong,” Howell said, before quoting a Supreme Court ruling from 2012: “Perceived mistreatment of aliens in the United States may lead to harmful reciprocal treatment of American citizens abroad.”

    At a court hearing last month, an assistant U.S. attorney argued that an injunction would slow the Trump administration’s deportation efforts by allowing the court to micromanage arrests. As part of her ruling Tuesday, Howell ordered that immigration authorities document every warrantless immigration arrest in D.C. with “specific, particularized facts” establishing probable cause “that the person is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.”

    The Justice Department in a legal filing denied that immigration authorities had instituted a new policy of warrantless arrests and argued that the court did not have jurisdiction to rule on the case.

    “Plaintiffs identify no written policy authorizing the arrests that they complain of because there is none,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bardo said. Howell said approximately 40 migrants had submitted court declarations attesting to the warrantless arrests and said Bovino’s comments defending those arrests with inaccurate information proved that the policy existed.

    “This is a victory for the rule of law and for the people across the city, who have avoided going to work, to church, to school, to grocery stores — out of fear of being unlawfully arrested, detained, and deported,” said Joanne Lin, an official with the Washington Lawyer’s Committee, one of the groups representing the plaintiffs.

    The ruling describes some circumstances in which immigration agents can establish a migrant’s likelihood of escaping before a warrant may be obtained, but Howell said those factors could vary.

    “Some courts have found the likelihood of escape to be higher when, for example, the noncitizen presented ‘conflicting documents,’ ‘had been “picked up before,” ’ admitted that he had previously been removed, or appeared ‘extremely nervous’ as if ‘looking for an opportunity to run,’” the judge wrote. “Courts have also made the self-evident finding that the likelihood of escape is lower when the individual has resided in the country for a lengthy period of time and has strong community ties.”

    Aditi Shah, an attorney involved in the case from the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C., welcomed those conditions.

    “This requires the government to take some extra steps that it’s required to under the law before it can just grab people off the streets and lock them away in detention centers,” she said.

    Ama Frimpong, CASA’s legal director, said the ruling was a powerful memorial to one of the migrants who described his warrantless arrest and detention in a legal filing, using a pseudonym, Elias Doe. He died last week, Frimpong said. His health had worsened after he missed a dialysis treatment while detained, she said.

    “This is now part of his legacy,” Frimpong said. “It is important for impacted community members to lead this fight and show that they are not afraid.”

  • House Judiciary issues subpoena to force Jack Smith to testify in private

    House Judiciary issues subpoena to force Jack Smith to testify in private

    House Republicans have upped their demands for Jack Smith to testify behind closed doors, issuing a subpoena on Wednesday to the former special counsel that calls on him to meet with members of the House Judiciary Committee and answer questions about his two federal prosecutions of President Donald Trump.

    Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said in his letter to Smith — which he posted on social media — that Smith would be deposed on Dec. 17. Smith must hand over materials related to the investigations by Dec. 12, he said.

    The demand is the latest in a string from Republican lawmakers aimed at getting Smith to testify privately and hand over materials related to the probes. In October, Jordan wrote Smith requesting that he sit for a private interview with lawmakers about the investigations, though did not issue a subpoena.

    “Due to your service as special counsel, the Committee believes that you possess information that is vital to its oversight of this matter,” the letter from Jordan reads.

    Smith repeatedly has said he would sit for an interview with lawmakers in a public setting, but does not want to do it behind closed doors. His supporters have expressed concern that a private interview would be subject to selective leaks by committee members.

    Public testimony, however, could put Republicans and the Trump administration in a tricky position. Smith has said he collected ample evidence showing that Trump committed the alleged crimes for which he was indicted. By calling Smith to testify, Republicans risk giving him a platform to air the evidence he collected against the president and failing to elicit testimony that would portray him as a corrupt prosecutor out to get Republicans.

    The former special counsel has also said that, under long-standing protocol, he needs Justice Department guidance to tell him what he is allowed to testify about and what materials he is allowed to hand over. Smith, who is now a private citizen, says he does not have access to the investigatory materials, which are now in the Justice Department’s possession.

    The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request asking if it had provided Smith with that guidance.

    “Nearly six weeks ago Jack offered to voluntarily appear before the House Judiciary committee in an open hearing to answer any questions lawmakers have about his investigation,” Smith’s attorney, Peter Koski, said in a statement.

    “We are disappointed that offer was rejected, and that the American people will be denied the opportunity to hear directly from Jack on these topics. Jack looks forward to meeting with the committee later this month to discuss his work and clarify the various misconceptions about his investigation.”

    If Smith failed to comply with the subpoena, he could risk prosecution. If a person defies a congressional subpoena, lawmakers could refer that person to the Justice Department for prosecution.

    The back-and-forth over the terms of Smith’s testimony highlights the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with Smith and the large team of agents and prosecutors involved in investigating the president. The administration has fired multiple prosecutors and agents who worked on the cases and has portrayed Smith and his team as corrupt and politicized. The committee has also called some of Smith’s deputies on the special counsel team for testimony.

    Smith oversaw two federal investigations into Trump during the Biden administration. One examined Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified materials after he left office, and the other probed his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

    Neither case made it to trial, and both were dismissed before Trump took office in January. Smith has said that he did nothing wrong and that he followed all investigatory protocols when overseeing the cases.