Friday News Roundup – Domestic (Joshua Johnson, 1A) 2018-06-01

This week, we learned that President Trump previously asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse his recusal from the Russia investigation. And he’s still tweeting about it.

On Fox News, South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy said “the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do” regarding the Russia probe, effectively debunking President Trump’s claim that the FBI spied on his campaign.

President Trump also made a surprise decision Thursday to use one of the office’s unique powers.

And he says he’s considering a pardon for Martha Stewart and commuting the sentence of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

There was news beyond the White House, this week, too. Have you heard of the Volcker Rule? In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, lawmakers put it in place to make the banking industry safer for consumers. On Wednesday, federal regulators proposed a rollback. Benjamin Bain and Jessie Hamilton from Bloomberg explain:

Volcker is meant to prevent banks with federally-backed deposit insurance from suffering outsized losses by prohibiting them from making speculative market bets with their own capital. But firms contend the rule is unnecessarily complex and almost impossible to adhere to, arguments their armies of lobbyists have aggressively made since it took effect. Trump-appointed regulators have shown a greater willingness to listen to such grievances, and are expected to propose a revamp that would give banks more leeway to presume their trades comply with the rule, people familiar with the matter have said.

What does this mean for banks and consumers?

Sports fans, we didn’t forget about you: We’ll talk Cavs-Warriors, Caps-Golden Knights and the (long-anticipated) return of Serena Williams.

If you’re wondering why we aren’t talking about a few of the week’s big topics, it’s because we covered them earlier in the week. Here are our stories on the cancellation of “Roseanne”, #WhereAreTheChildren and our interview with Barry Meier, who reported on a mid-2000s Justice Department investigation that recommended prosecuting Big Pharma executives over the opioid epidemic.
Interview:
https://the1a.org/shows/2018-06-01/friday-news-roundup-domestic