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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. President Biden and President-elect Trump will meet in the Oval Office next week. But Trump, a convicted felon, faces 91 indictments across four serious criminal cases. So what happens to those cases?
Now that he's back in the White House, Trump has the power to end the federal cases against him, and the state-level cases would likely disappear as well. NPR's Keri Johnson has more.
We just got a filing from the special counsel, Jack Smith, suggesting the process of unwinding these cases has begun. They asked the judge in Washington, D.C., Tanya Chutkin, to give them until early December to offer a status report or an update because of what they called an extraordinary circumstance.
This man who's been facing four felony charges in Washington, D.C., is now the president-elect. And that runs straight into a longstanding DOJ view that you cannot indict or prosecute a sitting president.
And here's Carrie Johnson reporting. In Arizona, a ballot initiative passed by voters this week gives local law agencies authority to carry out immigration-related arrests. But the sheriff in one border county says he's holding off on enforcing that law. For Member Station KJZZ, Elisa Resnick has more.
Proposition 314 makes crossing the border in between ports of entry a state crime. Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway says actually carrying out those arrests would require far more staff, jail space, training and funding than his 40 officer agency has. And he says it's not even allowed to take effect right now.
It actually says in the text that this law does not take effect until a similar law in Texas, Senate Bill 4 in Texas, is adjudicated by the courts.
SB 4 has been blocked for months while an appeals court decides whether the law is unconstitutional. Both measures have drawn comparisons to an Arizona law that was largely struck down by the Supreme Court more than a decade ago. For NPR News, I'm Elisa Resnick in Tucson.
Firefighters in Southern California took advantage of calmer winds today as they battle a massive wildfire in the hills just outside of Los Angeles. The mountain fire has burned more than 20,000 acres and destroyed more than 130 structures. It's also forced thousands of people to flee their homes in Ventura County.
Joe Schaaf says his house survived because he decided to return to his property despite the evacuation orders.
We lost our house in 2017 and we didn't come back. This time we wanted to come back and try to save it.
Speaking there to ABC News, other residents are returning home to find everything burned to the ground. Fire officials say the mountain fire, fueled by strong winds, dry vegetation and low humidity, is now more than 20 percent contained. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation. You're listening to NPR News.
Meanwhile, wildfires are also burning across the Northeast as wind gusts and low humidity help fuel the blazes. Millions of people are under fire alerts, including New York City and Boston. In Brooklyn, firefighters worked overnight to battle a brush fire that's burned around two acres of dry vegetation.
In Pennsylvania, firefighters are battling a blaze that erupted today and is burning in parts of that state and New York. And in Passaic County, New Jersey, the 175-acre Cannonball 3 wildfire continues to burn. fires are impacting air quality. The Chinese government has announced fresh fiscal support for the struggling economy after meeting in Beijing this week.
And here's John Rewich reports the measures are designed to ease the crushing burden of government debt.
The leaders of China's parliament approved a bill that raises the ceiling for special bond issuance by local governments. They also approved further financing for debt swaps at the local level. In all, the measures will allow local governments to issue a combined 10 trillion yuan, or about $1.4 trillion, in fresh bonds in the coming years.
The money will be used to pay down off-balance sheet debt that's been crippling local governments around the country and hurting the national economy. The debt swaps are expected to save local governments around $84 billion in interest over the coming five years. It's the latest in a series of steps to shore up the economy in the face of mounting challenges,
and now increased uncertainty with the coming of a second Trump administration. John Rewich, NPR News, Shanghai.
A record 13 of the country's governors will be women next year, five Republicans and eight Democrats. I'm Janine Hurst, NPR News in Washington.
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