Justice Dept. seeks to unseal search warrant of Trump home; McDonald’s to reopen in Ukraine | Hot off the Wire podcast

The Justice Department has asked a court to unseal the search warrant the FBI received before searching the Florida estate of former President Donald Trump, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday.

Garland cited the “substantial public interest in this matter” in announcing the request at a hastily scheduled Justice Department news conference. Garland also said that he personally approved the search warrant, which was part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into the discovery of classified White House records recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida earlier this year.

Authorities say a man has been in a standoff with law enforcement for hours and has “unknown injuries” after he tried to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati office, fled and exchanged gunfire with law enforcement.

Congressional panel leaders say an additional 135 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine from a troubled Baltimore factory will have to be destroyed due to quality problems.

The nation’s top public health agency is relaxing its COVID-19 guidelines and dropping the recommendation that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person.

Bill Russell’s No. 6 jersey is being retired across the NBA, a first for the league. The league and the National Basketball Players Association announced Thursday that the number worn by the 11-time champion and civil rights activist was being permanently retired by all 30 teams.

German officials say water levels on the Rhine River could reach a critically low point in the coming days, making the transport of goods along the river increasingly difficult.

Political leaders honored Republican U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana as a determined advocate for her beliefs during a funeral after she and three other people were killed in a highway crash last week.

Prices at the wholesale level fell from June to July, the first month-to-month drop in more than two years and a sign that some of the U.S. economy’s inflationary pressures cooled last month. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — declined 0.5% in July.

The number of Americans who signed up for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since November, though the U.S. job market continues to show signs of strength. Applications for jobless aid climbed by 14,000 to 262,000 and now have risen five out of the last six weeks, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Air travelers are finally getting a break on fares. The government said Wednesday that the average airfare dropped nearly 8% in July compared with June, to $311. The bad news is, that’s still almost 28% higher than last July.

McDonald’s will begin reopening some of its restaurants in Ukraine in the coming months. The burger giant closed its Ukrainian restaurants after Russia’s invasion nearly six months ago but has continued to pay its more than 10,000 employees in the country.