The Supreme Court dealt a blow to the Trump administration Friday.USA TODAY Reporter Michael Collins discusses how a federal judge scolded the Trump administration for refusing to provide details about what it has done to return a Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador.Moody's downgrades the U.S. credit rating.Vice President JD Vance will attend Pope Leo XIV's inaugural mass. The trip could set the tone for the Trump administration's relationship with the new pope.Some workers are job hopping for fertility benefits.USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise discusses the growing popularity of driverless ride services.Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to [email protected] Transcript available hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What did the Supreme Court decide regarding deportations?
And the popularity of self-driving robo-taxis is taking off. The Supreme Court yesterday continued to block the Trump administration from using a 1798 wartime law to deport a group of Venezuelan migrants who said they had not been given a real chance to fight their removal. In an unsigned opinion, the court said the migrants have not had enough time or information to protect their rights.
And the court said that's particularly important because the administration asserts in another case that it's not able to bring back a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. That man, Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, was at the heart of a hearing yesterday where a federal judge scolded the Trump administration.
I spoke with USA Today reporter Michael Collins for more on that hearing and what might happen next. Thanks for joining me, Michael. Thanks for having me. So what did we formally hear from this federal judge in this hearing?
Chapter 2: What were the judge's frustrations with the Trump administration?
What we heard was that the judge was really frustrated with the Trump administration. She had several weeks ago asked them to provide some details of what they are doing or not doing to bring home this man who is being held in a prison in El Salvador. She was very frustrated about what they have not done. She said that they have not provided the information that she asked for.
She said they've not made a good faith effort to provide that information. And she said that their response in this case has been, in her words, an exercise in utter frustration.
Strong words. In terms of the response on the day from the Trump administration, what did we hear from their lawyers?
Well, they argued that they have provided the information that she requested. But the key issue here is that the administration wants to keep some information secret. It argues that the information that the judge is asking for, much of it involves state secrets. And if that information is made public, then U.S. national security could be in jeopardy.
So they have filed a number of court documents in the case, but many of those are under seal, so we don't know what's in them.
And at some point, at any point, Michael, could the courts force them to unseal more of those documents? What's next on that point?
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Chapter 3: What is the status of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia?
Yes. After the hearing on Friday, the judge cleared out the courtroom and asked the attorneys to stay. They talked about what was in those documents that are under seal. Now, what was said, we don't know because, as I said, everyone was asked to leave the courtroom and this was essentially done in private.
The judge did say that she is likely to issue a ruling on what comes next in the next few days.
You know, Kilmar was last seen in April when Senator Chris Van Hollen met with him in Central America. We all saw photos of this meeting. Do we have any sense on how he's been doing since then, Michael?
We don't because he has not been seen since that meeting with Senator Van Hollen. But during the court hearing on Friday, the attorneys for the government said that he remains in custody at a prison, which is about an hour outside of San Salvador. They said he's a good help. And one of them added he's gained some weight.
So they clearly want everyone to think that he is being treated well in the prison. We don't know that, though, because nobody has seen him since his meeting with Senator Van Hollen back in April.
All right. Michael Collins is a reporter with USA Today. Thank you, Michael.
Thank you so much.
Moody's has downgraded the nation's credit rating a notch, leaving the US government without a top grade among any of the major rating agencies. Moody's cited rising debt and interest payment ratios that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereign countries.
The agency also noted the latest tax bill draft from the GOP would add about $4 trillion to the federal primary deficit over the next decade, and said it does not believe the proposal would result in material multi-year reductions in mandatory spending and deficits. For U.S. consumers, lower ratings could lead to higher borrowing costs. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.
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Chapter 4: How did Moody's downgrade the U.S. credit rating?
Fertility care coverage and childcare benefits are among the most expensive for companies, but they're also some of the most sought after perks for millennials who represent the largest segment of the US workforce and employers are noticing.
Maven Clinic, a virtual clinic for women's and family health, recently surveyed more than 1,500 human resources leaders and nearly 4,000 full-time employees and found 69% of employees have taken, considered, or might take a new job for better reproductive and family benefits. The same percentage of employers plan to increase their family health benefits vendors in the next two to three years.
Gallagher, an insurance and employee benefits consulting company, produced similar findings in its own report when 63% of the nearly 700 employees surveyed said they would change jobs for better benefits. You can read more about this conversation in today's show notes. popularity of self-driving robo-taxis is exploding in some U.S. cities.
I spoke with USA Today national correspondent Elizabeth Weiss for more. Thanks for hopping on, Beth. Happy to be here. So I think depending on where you live, you might have seen these already. But for folks, especially in parts of the eastern U.S. where these maybe haven't rolled out yet, what are these driverless robo-taxis?
Chapter 5: What is the significance of J.D. Vance's trip to meet Pope Leo XIV?
Yeah, so they are like everywhere here in San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, LA. The ones that you'll see around are run by Waymo, which is a Google-owned company. They're actually electric Jaguars. They're very nice cars. And then they've got kind of all this wedding cake-esque stuff on top of them that is part of the system that allows them to drive without a driver.
All right. So have consumers been quick or slow to latch on to these, Beth?
So this is the fascinating thing to me and why I actually wrote this story. Because two years ago, I wrote a story about how everybody in San Francisco was freaking out about them. You know, they're driving into crime scenes. They're getting in the way of firefighters. Bicyclists are terrified. They're really dangerous. And it's just the end of civilization as we know it, which it often is here.
And then I was actually out at a bar about a month and a half ago. And I was looking out at the street because we were outside. And I realized that probably every other, every third person who was getting dropped off or picked up at the bar was not coming in an Uber or a Lyft or a taxi. They were coming in a Waymo. And I'm like, whoa, wait a minute. That shifted really fast.
So then I started doing interviews.
And you spoke with some folks who talked about the usefulness, right, Beth, of these services for their lifestyles. Just specifically, what were some of the things you heard from them?
The surprising thing to me was women love these things. And it's because they say, you know, I'm fine getting in an Uber or Lyft in the daytime and I'm cool if I'm up with a bunch of friends. But if I have to get in a car late at night with some guy I don't know, you know, I'm not so thrilled about it. And this is true. Pretty much any woman you talk to has got some story about
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Chapter 6: How are companies adapting to employee demands for family benefits?
a driver going back to taxi days, but Ubers and Lyfts too. I mean, it's not necessarily that they're harassing you, but they want to talk. They want to hear about your family. Do you have a boyfriend? What do you do for work? Oh, well, I don't think that's a good job for a woman. I mean, and sometimes you just don't want to have to deal with that. And that's what these women said.
It's like, it's so restful to get in a car and not have to kind of steal yourself for that interaction.
You mentioned like this clunky early rollout, right? And the issues with fire trucks. What are some of the downsides at this point still?
So they have gotten a lot better. The software that they use has gone through multiple iterations. I think they're up to six now. They're just better drivers than they were. I mean, they were never really dangerous, but they're much smoother now. But the thing that everybody mentioned, men, women, everybody is, you know, one, they're still a little more expensive.
They can be a lot more expensive depending on time of day, though. People said, but you don't have to tip because there's no driver. And then there's a lot of them, but there are nowhere near as many of them as there are Lyfts and Ubers or taxis. And so sometimes you have to wait. And so a lot of people said, you know, I'll check both apps on my phone.
And if it's going to be 15 minutes, then I'll find another way home. But if it's going to be the same amount of time and just a little more money, I'll do a Waymo.
I do just want to mention drivers themselves here for a second. I mean, folks who drive for a living, be it in cabs or these ride share services like Uber. I can't imagine that the shift is necessarily landing well with them, though. I guess we're also still in a moment where both driver and driverless services can coexist. Right. Do you hear anything from that side of the coin?
Realistically, there's maybe 1,500 of these cars on the roads in the United States at this point. So it's a drop in the bucket. It hasn't hit yet. I have no doubt it will.
In terms of the what's next, I guess it is just a matter of getting to more cities at this point, right?
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