Bovino Out Of Minnesota, Trump Refocusing On Economy, Social Media On Trial

Gregory Bavino, one of the few immigration agents who showed his face, is leaving Minnesota.

His departure comes as a Trump administration faces outrage over two fatal shootings

by ICE agents in Minneapolis.

I'm Steve Inskip with Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News.

President Trump visits Iowa today trying to shift focus to the economy as members of

his own party questioned his immigration crackdown.

Nobody likes feds coming into their state.

And so what's the goal right now?

That's the governor of Oklahoma.

More Republicans are pressing for an investigation.

And social media is on trial today.

The case in Los Angeles examines if tech companies knowingly built apps that harm kids.

The outcome could change how apps are made.

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The Trump administration has at least for now made some changes to its Mast deportation

campaign in Minnesota.

The administration has removed Greg Bavino, the board of patrol official who was the public

face of the immigration operation.

Bavino will return to a previous job in California and borders are Tom Holman will replace him.

The administration has also stopped repeating.

It's false narrative about a shooting without actually retracting any of those false claims.

And President Trump called Tim Walls, the governor he previously blamed for the shootings

by federal agents on a snowy street.

Joining us from Minneapolis with the latest report at Matt Cepic of Minnesota Public Radio

Good morning Matt.

Good morning.

Dan at Greg Bavino's no longer leading the board of patrol.

What have you heard about that move?

Bavino was the commander at large of the agency.

He's made himself visible on the street stirring operations here in Minnesota and elsewhere.

Governor Tim Wall says Bavino is leaving Minnesota.

Now he's returning to his old post in California and is expected to retire soon.

This is effectively a demotion because he's no longer leading the administration's multi-state

operation.

And President Trump spoke by phone with both Minnesota governor Tim Walls and Minneapolis

Mayor Jacob Frye.

What do we know about those calls?

On social media the president said that he had a quote, very good telephone conversation

with the mayor.

Frye said Trump agreed that the president's situation cannot continue and governor

Walls says the president seemed earnest.

Whatever has happened here, there is a definite change of tone.

There is a definitely a more collaborative tone.

I want to make sure that I'm not jeopardizing that, that I'm going to take them for their

word right now.

Walls says Trump agreed to consider reducing the number of federal agents here and allow

state police to investigate the killings of Renee McLean good on January 7th and Alex

Freddie on Saturday.

And this has been a big point of contention.

We've talked about this a number of times.

So is the state taking part in any investigations?

There is little that state police can do without their federal counterparts and there's still

no indication whether the feds are cooperating.

After good was killed, the Department of Homeland Security blocked Minnesota's Bureau of

Criminal Apprehension from investigating.

Then Saturday, DHS refused to let the BCA access the area where Freddie was killed even

after the state got a search warrant.

A judge ordered the feds not to destroy any evidence that order remains in place even

as the Justice Department challenges it.

In court yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Seekert argued that the feds are already

preserving the evidence, but state attorney Peter Farrell said he's not so sure because

top administration officials called Freddie a domestic terrorist within hours of his

death.

So it seems like a lot of things are coming to head in federal court.

Where do things stand with Minnesota's effort to halt the operation altogether?

During a hearing yesterday, state attorneys argued that the presence of so many federal

agents in Minnesota is overwhelming local public safety resources.

They also say the Justice Department is extorting the state.

They pointed to a letter that Attorney General Pam Bondy sent to walls on Saturday in

which she demands that Minnesota hand over its voter rules.

The DOJ calls the lawsuit frivolous and says the federal government has the right to enforce

immigration laws.

And yet another case, Minnesota's chief federal judge Patrick Schultz has ordered

acting ICE director Todd Lyons to appear personally in court here on Friday.

Schultz says the agency is failed to comply with dozens of orders to provide hearings for

people who are alleging that they are being unlawfully detained.

Schultz writes, quote, the court's patience is at an end.

So Matt, before we let you go, give us a sense of the mood in Minneapolis.

People are continuing to mourn the deaths of Renee McLean Good and now Alex Freddie with

protests and vigils.

And despite the apparent data, thousands of massed agents remain in many residents are

seeking some sort of assurance that the killings will get a proper investigation.

That's Matt Sempick of Minnesota Public Radio.

Matt, thank you.

You're welcome.

President Trump is heading to Iowa today where he's hoping to change the subject a bit

to his economic agenda as his administration phrases growing outrage over his immigration

crackdown in Minnesota.

Yeah, not only Democrats, but more Republicans are calling for changes, at least in Trump's

message after a second US citizen was shot dead by a federal agent.

Some are also criticizing the substance of an immigration operation that has led to widespread

chaos and death.

And pure warehouse correspondent Franco Ardenes will be traveling with the president to

Des Moines.

And he's with us now.

Good morning, Franco.

Good morning, Michelle.

So what do we know about the president's trip to Iowa?

Yeah, the president is expected to visit a local business and give a speech on the economy.

This chief of staff has touted the trip as the beginning of what will soon be weekly travel

in support of Republican candidates ahead of the midterms.

But as you noted at the top, it's also part of an effort to wrestle back control of the

narrative on his own terms.

And look, we've talked about this repeatedly.

There is growing outrage about this immigration operation in Minneapolis.

So does the trip play into all that?

How does this sort of trip work with all that going on in the background?

Yeah.

And the administration has been struggling to promote Trump's economic agenda amid a

number of crises, you know, abroad and here in the U.S. and the situation in Minneapolis

has only just made it harder to talk about the things that Trump wants to talk about.

I was speaking with Ryan Williams, a veteran Republican strategist.

He told me that the trip is clearly part of Trump's effort to turn the page.

The primary news story at the moment isn't just the ice-related shooting.

It's the response to the ice-related shooting.

That's what's going to be the focus.

And the president can attempt to focus on the economy, on what he views our successes of

his administration on the economic front.

But he's going to be stuck talking about this issue for significant period of time.

And again, you've mentioned how some Republicans are calling for more investigations into

the second death.

There are also risks of a government shutdown being fueled by the controversy.

Would you say a bit more about the increasing pressure from his own party?

I mean, that does feel different considering how reliably Republicans have backed the president.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, it's certainly created some fissures within the party.

And not at a good time when election season is coming up fast.

As I mentioned, a number of Republican lawmakers are pushing for more details.

We also heard this weekend from Republican Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma.

He's questioning Trump's broader goals.

Here he is on CNN.

Now Americans are asking themselves, what is the end game?

What is the solution?

And we believe in federalism and state rights and nobody likes feds coming into their state.

And so what's the goal right now?

And polls, Michelle, show that more Americans feel ice tactics are going too far.

So how is the White House responding?

Well, at first, top officials rushed to declare the US citizen killed as a domestic terrorist.

But Trump is now trying to strike a softer tone.

He says an investigation is ongoing and even boasted of a productive call

with Minnesota Governor Tim Walls, as we heard earlier.

But I will tell you, Michelle, his team is not really letting up.

Caroline Levitt, his press secretary yesterday put the blame directly at the feet of Walls

and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fryve for what she called his their hostile resistance

to the work of federal agents.

So tensions around the immigration operations remain high.

That's White House correspondent Franco Ardenius Franco.

Thank you.

Thank you, Michelle.

Social media apps have long been accused of harming kids.

Now, a jury will hear those claims for the first time in a trial,

kicking off in a Los Angeles courtroom today.

A key question is whether tech companies deliberately built their platforms

to add decked young users.

How the jury decides could reshape the tech industry.

And pure Shannon Bond is following the case and she's with us now.

Good morning.

Good morning, Michelle.

So tell us more about how we got here.

What are the details of this trial?

Yeah, so this case in California state court is being brought by a teenage plaintiff known

as KGM.

She says she started using social media at age 10.

And she says her excessive use led to mental health problems,

including depression and body dysmorphia.

Now, the defendants in this case are Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.

And so this trial is going to be a rare look inside how some of the most popular

and powerful social media platforms operate.

Jurors are going to be presented with thousands of pages of internal documents.

That includes research.

The companies themselves have conducted on children.

They're going to hear from expert witnesses.

They're going to hear from KGM herself.

Here's Matthew Bergman, KGM's attorney.

The public is going to know for the first time what social media companies have done

to prioritize their profits over the safety of our kids.

And tech executives are also expected to take the stand,

including notably Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Instagram and Facebook owner Metta,

and Adam Messeri, the head of Instagram.

That's quite a list.

But Shannon, I'm thinking that we have heard these kinds of claims a lot.

Are there other cases like this?

Yeah, this case is actually just the first in a wave of lawsuits against social media companies.

They've been brought by more than 1,000 individual plaintiffs, hundreds of school districts,

and dozens of state attorneys general.

And I should note Snapchat recently settled with the plaintiff in this first trial,

but it's also named in these other lawsuits.

Now broadly, in these cases, what the plaintiffs are accusing these companies of designing

features like infinite scroll and auto-playing videos, frequent notifications,

that they say make these apps nearly impossible for kids to put down.

And they say, in some cases, this has led to depression, eating disorders,

self-harm, even suicide.

And the plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages, as well as changes to the way these social

media apps are designed.

And what do the companies say?

Well, as you'd expect, they dispute these allegations.

They say they've worked to make their platforms safer for kids.

They argue there's no clinical diagnosis of addiction to social media, and they say

a direct link between using social media and mental health problems in kids has not been

proven.

Now, the companies also say that federal law, including the first amendment, protects

the decisions they make about content, including the design of their platforms.

I spoke with Eric Goldman, who's a law professor at Santa Clara University, and he says if

juries end up siding with plaintiffs, these cases could really change how not just social

media, but the larger internet works.

If the plaintiffs win, the internet will almost certainly look different, and probably

it will be a far less conversational one that we have today.

He's wary of courts or regulators getting involved in these design decisions.

Sharon, before you go, you said there are more than 1,000 plaintiffs bringing similar

cases.

How does that work?

Yeah, because there are so many, these cases have been combined into two big buckets.

One in state court here in California, one in federal court, and depending how juries

decide a handful of initial cases, including this one starting in LA, the parties could enter

settlement talks that involve all of the plaintiffs, you know, and eventually this could

wind up similar to landmark settlements reached with the opioid manufacturers and tobacco

companies, which led those industries to pay out billions of dollars to victims.

That's certainly what the plaintiffs are hoping for.

That is NPR Shannon Bon Shannon, thank you.

Thank you.

And let me note that Google is a financial supporter of NPR.

And that's up for January 27th.

I'm Michelle Martin.

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

I first get you caught up and morning edition takes you deeper.

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