Infected Disneyland and then spread to other people Hana Tom Petty fund that's become an American anthem now the news live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Jack Speer in an unusual development the Republican led Senate intelligence committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr to appear before the panel the president's son testified before the committee in 2017 during which time he said he had only marginal knowledge of a proposed Moscow project more from N.P.R.'s to mac a source familiar with the subpoena confirmed to n.p.r. That it had been issued the move sets up an unprecedented confrontation between a Republican led committee and a member of the president's own family Trump Jr testified in December 27th before the committee at that point he was downplaying his knowledge of any proposed Trump Tower project in Russia but in the time since former Trump confident Michael Cohen has testified that he repeatedly briefed Trump Jr on the project Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr declined to comment on the subpoena but a spokesperson for the committee said that quote The committee has reserved the right to recall witnesses for additional testimony as needed to mak n.p.r. News Washington President Trump is pushing back against a New York Times report that says his businesses lost more than a 1000000000 dollars between 1985 in 1900 for calling the peace highly inaccurate the newspaper and its reporting cited information from Trump's tax records which showed major losses including $46.00 and a half $1000000.00 in 1905 report went on to say that Trump's operations lost so much money that for $8.00 of 10 years covered by the documents he wanted paying any income taxes at all Trump however said such accounting is routine for real estate developers Trump's refused to disclose his federal tax returns in New York Senate and an Enron as approved legislation would allow lawmakers access to the president's state returns troubling ministration as imposing new sanctions on Iran's mettle exports one year after the u.s. Pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal N.P.R.'s reports that sanctions are part of the White House effort to push Iran into talks. Didn't trunk says the u.s. Will no longer tolerate any nation's aseptic imports of Iranian steel or other industrial metals in a statement Trump said metals are the biggest source of export revenue for Iran but size as crude oil exports since pulling out of the Iran deal last year the White House has been re-imposing sanctions attempting to increase pressure on the regime last month the administration said its goal was to get Iran's role exports down to 0 Iran is threatening to increase your Amy on enrichment within 60 days if other nations don't shield the country from these economic penalties I saw Roscoe n.p.r. News the White House after yesterday's major decline u.s. Financial markets turned around somewhat today ahead of the start of the next round of u.s. China trade talks that investors remain edgy The Dow is up 2 points 225967 the Nasdaq fell 20 points yes and p. 500 dropped 4 points this is n.p.r. . Authorities now say the student who helped subdue one of the Colorado school shooting suspects yesterday is a student Marine recruit who has yet to receive any formal military training Marine Captain Michael McGehee saying today the student Brendan bialy is a member of the Marines delayed entry program and had met regularly with a recruiter The Corps says he placed his own safety and risk above himself helping to tackle one of the shooters at the charter school near Denver 2 suspects were taken into custody one is 18 he was in court today and is being held on suspicion of murder in the death of student Kendrick a steel 8 others were hurt some drivers of the ride handling app over and lift are on strike today protesting against cuts in pay ahead of Oberst highly anticipated stock market debut more N.P.R.'s Kamila dominance ski drivers in Los Angeles New York City London and other cities vowed to stay off the apps for at least part of the day on Wednesday they're upset with their pay rates and have asked for better working conditions James Hicks is on strike in Los Angeles we're not mocking the word trying to encourage other. Drivers and Atlanta Chicago and Washington d.c. Among other cities planned demonstrations in support of the strike it's not clear how many drivers are taking part or the extent of the strikes affect on the availability of rides or is going public later this week and is expected to be valued at $80.00 to $90000000000.00 Camille a domino ski n.p.r. News little futures prices move higher today or oil up $0.72 a barrel to close at 62 Twala Bell on The New York Mercantile Exchange I'm Jack Speer n.p.r. News in Washington. Support comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include I drive. For consumers and businesses to prevent. Remote access to computers anywhere. Com slash n.p.r. . Weather reports for the remainder of Wednesday. Night expect up to 3 inches of snow for the North Valley. In the mid twenty's. A mix of rain and snow turning to all snow around freezing tomorrow Thursday snow in the morning will turn into rain temperatures in the upper thirty's and. Now back to N.P.R.'s All Things Considered on your community. From n.p.r. News this is All Things Considered I'm Alpha Chang and I'm Ari Shapiro attorney general William Barr is one step closer to being held in contempt of Congress this afternoon the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold him in contempt because of his refusal to release an unheard acted version of Special Counsel Robert Muller's report the vote is a major escalation of a battle between President Donald Trump and the House Democrats investigating his administration Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler says this fight is about more than just one subpoena he says it's about the basic checks and balances laid out in the Constitution this is on precedent if allowed to go unchecked this obstruction means the end of congressional oversight n.p.r. Congressional reporter Kelsey Snell is following the story and joins us from Capitol Hill hi Kelsey Hi there Democrats say voting for contempt is a necessary step toward forcing bar to release the full report what do they hope a contempt resolution might achieve Well 1st of all they say that they negotiated with the Department of Justice extensively about the subpoena that they issued but that the Department of Justice simply made on reasonable request now they're said that some of the limitations the d.o.j. Was requesting included having him go and see the report but not be able to take his notes with him or not be able to discuss what he read with others on the committee and he basically said that that was too too burdensome they wouldn't allow the committee to have the kind of debate they need to have so they want to try to compel the Department of Justice to turn over the report and the supporting documents is partially political it's partially symbolic but it's also pretty high stakes Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen said that he that Democrats are basically trying to fend off what they view as a potential constitutional crisis we're afraid of the loss of the rule of law we're afraid of the loss of the power of Congress to be an independent co-equal branch of government and we face that today if we don't stand out and that's a pretty strong statement was followed up by many more Democrats. That this is in fact a constitutional crisis and they say they need the report because it's part of the foundation of their a future investigations and they're more or less trying to use their entire toolbox to prevent the administration from getting in the way of their investigations but I'll say the Department of Justice responded after the vote in the committee to say that barges could not comply with the subpoena because he would be violating the law and court orders in order to keep it to meet that subpoena and they're saying that Democrats are threatening the independence of the department of prosecutorial functions the White House is responding forcefully just as the hearing was getting started press secretary Sara Sanders announced that Trump plans to assert executive privilege to keep documents from being turned over to Democrats what else is the White House doing yeah it's not just executive privilege as they're calling it protective executive privilege Sanders said that the White House had no choice she called now there is request quote blatant abuse of power and demos are really just angry with that explanation Trump says he was going to use this wasn't going to use the power and they say it's just unacceptable for him to change course now though I will say the White House did give themselves and out they could change their minds in the future but they haven't exactly signaled that they will so now the Democrats on the committee of voted to hold barn contempt what comes next the House is set to vote we don't know exactly when but we should find out sometime soon and the committee is still waiting for confirmation that Muller himself will testify or that John McCann the former White House counsel will testify and then maybe on to the courts that is N.P.R.'s Telsey Snell speaking with us from the Capitol thanks Kelsey thank you it has been a day of confrontation between the 2 ends of Pennsylvania Avenue the House Judiciary Committee wants the totally unproductive the report President Trump has asserted executive privilege over the redactions and all of that comes on the heels of the president also saying he does not plan to be cooperating with any congressional investigations going forward so can the president do all of this. To sort through that question we're joined now by John Yoo He was a deputy assistant attorney general under President George w. Bush and he thought on lot about the powers of the executive branch Welcome to the studio Oh it's great to be here so as an official in the Justice Department you were known for a pretty expansive view of executive power you were the one who wrote the now infamous torture memo which laid out why the executive branch could use enhanced interrogation techniques there is an interpretation of executive power that you support it's often called the unitary executive theory can you just briefly tell us what that is yes this is an idea that goes back to Alexander Hamilton and George Washington through to Abraham Lincoln to f.d.r. In our modern presidents the idea is that the Constitution when it grants the president the executive power it grants from a reservoir of executive power that's not specifically set out in the Constitution that allows him to act as a leader of the executive branch to enforce the laws and to defend the country in times of crisis and emergency Ok So with that theory in mind in your view can the president refuse to cooperate with Congress as he's threatening now Congress being the co-equal branch of government that is tasked with providing oversight Well you have a conflict as to direct constitutional duties Congress has the power of course to conduct oversight to see how the Justice Department's doing its job on the other hand as the head of the executive branch the president has the power executive privilege to have confidential discussions with his or her visors and to keep secret certain kinds of information that would harm the public if were actually released usually when those 2 interests come into conflict the 2 branches work it out the thing that's unusual about this incident about Trump and now Adler implosive is that they've already rushed to the constitutional battlefronts they are not engaging in compromise or accommodation They've already raised that ratcheted up escalated the fight usually takes like a year 1st to get to this point and they seem to be daring. Each other to push their powers to the furthest are right and let's assume that all the parties involved here continue not to work it out who wins this battle in your view constitutionally in the end Congress gets the information it wants because it has the power of the purse if they wanted to get this information all they got to do is say we're going to shut down the government again during President Trump's reelection year and maybe economic growth doesn't work out the way the president would like but it could take a long time maybe ultimately it goes to court if this does end up in court who should win that constitutional battle in your area so it was my personal scholarly view as opposed to predicting what the Course was going to I would think the president could withhold the information and the courts will say Congress has all kinds of tools to sort of pry it loose what it wants from the president but the courts are not going to side with either branch we're going to let them fight it out which usually means the president as American constitutional law can win but a matter of bottom line practical politics Congress usually gets the information in the end Well sounds like you're proposing a political solution to what's a constitutional fight you're sharing the same insight that the framers held they thought each branch would have these constitutional powers at their disposal congresses are funding oversight legislation and what we have to have an impeachment and they are supposed to use those tools to constantly fight the executive branch as it uses its own constitutional powers and the framers thought that constant grinding and fighting would produce what we all want which is the liberty for the American people and responsible government so the founders would have thought yes great use the funding power cut off funds the executive branch in order to pry loose the information even threaten impeachment if you need to to get the information those are all of been valid in the framers views rather than duking it out in court with arguments about the Constitution I think us a great point I think actually the framers would have been rather surprised to see all these issues go to the Supreme Court but we live in this era now where everyone wants the Supreme Court to settle these questions force they would have expected the president and Congress there with their phrases ambition was supposed to counteract ambition that's a direct quote from the federal state person and they wanted each branch to use those powers to constantly fight against each other and the result would be hopefully an accommodation that's good for the American people. Now even someone like you who has supported a wide view of executive power even you have written that you believe President Trump has transgressed the proper bounds of a 2nd if authority he has already in his term so far tell me why I don't think the president can say I refuse on behalf of the entire executive branch to provide any information to Congress of any kind of any nature of all subjects you know the president can preserve certain kinds of information executive privilege discussion just between him and his advisors grand jury information classified information but the report and the files underneath it have a lot of information that don't fall into those categories and by tradition and practice in constitutional law the presidents have traditionally recognize they have to hand over that information is part of Congress's job to conduct oversight when you look at how presidencies unfold you can see how every president's interpretation of executive power shapes the powers available to the next president so when you look at the way President Trump is responding to these challenges to his power how do you think this is ministration is shaping the executive branch for the next administration Well the one thing I worry about as a supporter of presidential power is that presidential power expands and contracts depending on the circumstances that it survives when it's used well because we really are in a crisis an emergency the thing that worries me about the trumpet ministration is that every day seems like a crisis every day you see the invocation of really the broads extents of presidential power which we only see at rare moments in our history of the actually trump is parsed 2nd only maybe to Lincoln in that Lincoln really but he had to because of the crisis of the Civil War you know we're not living through a civil war now and so I worry sometimes that by overextending presidential power at times that don't justify it you risk falling into becoming more like a Nixon rather than becoming like a Lincoln. You think President Trump is becoming more like an ex and it's more that I worry that if you keep invoking the powers all the time when the circumstances don't justify it that's what Nixon did that's what some other I think presidents who have failed have done you know it's time will tell we still have half way through his term so things might change but I think he could get his way without having to make these kinds of broad claims of presidential power particularly for example here with a report in the bus station John Yoo was deputy assistant attorney general under President Bush he now teaches law at u.c. Berkeley his recent article on the battle over the report is in the Atlantic thanks very much for coming into the studio today thanks. You're listening to All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. Thank. You Jamie it Shannon gave birth to the Kansas City sound but this song has gone down in history as a beginning of another sort you're on the sound. Swing Latism was sax master Charlie Parker's 1st recording made on April 30th 1941 no one's quite sure how Parker earned the nickname most stories seem to center around the shortening of Yardbird slang for chicken one such has him traveling to a gig with Mick shams band when their car strikes a bird Parker hops out brings the unfortunate foul with him and asks the border to cook it for him no word on whether this was a usual request for the time Parker would go on to revolutionize the instrument and the genre earning praise from critics the beach poets and fellow jazz greats Indeed Miles Davis once quipped that you could sum up jazz history in 4 words Louis Armstrong Charlie Parker. Will spare you the bird Twitter pun but if you're in the Twitter sphere follow us on the sound beat. Sound beat is produced of the bell for audio archive Syracuse University library I'm Bradbury. 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Mellon foundation guided by the belief that the arts and humanities are essential to the well being of diverse and democratic societies learn more at Melun dot org And from the Arcus Foundation dedicated to the idea that people can live in harmony with one another and the natural world. This is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm also Chang and I'm Ari Shapiro unlike many other countries the u.s. Does not have laws to charge extremists with domestic terrorism and this growing talk about whether that should change on Capitol Hill today the House Homeland Security Committee took up this topic and n.p.r. National security correspondent Greg Myre was watching Welcome to the studio Greg Thanks Ari I think some people might be surprise