NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that Wells Fargo is no longer subject to harsh restraints the Fed placed on the bank in 2018 for having a toxic sales and banking culture.
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It’s a win for Wells Fargo, which has spent nearly a decade trying to convince the public and policymakers that it had changed its ways.
“We are a different and far stronger company today because of the work we’ve done,” said Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf in a statement. Scharf also announced that each of the 215,000 employees at Wells Fargo would receive a $2,000 award for turning the bank around.
Wells Fargo used to have a corporate culture where it placed unreasonable sales goals on its branch employees, which resulted in employees opening up millions of fake accounts in order to meet those goals. Wells’ top executives called its branches “stores” and employees were expected to cross-sell customers into as many banking products as possible, even if the customer did not want or need them.
After an investigation by The Los Angeles Times in 2016, Wells Fargo shut down its sales culture and fired much of its leadership and board of directors. The fake accounts scandal cost Wells Fargo billions of dollars in fines and lost business, and permanently tarnished its reputation, particularly because the scandal broke only a few years after the Great Recession and financial crisis. It was later revealed that Wells Fargo opened up roughly 3.5 million accounts that were not wanted or needed by customers.
Wells Fargo, once thought to be the best run bank in the country, was now the poster child of the worst practices of banking in decades.
In order to push Wells to fix itself, the Federal Reserve took the unusual step of placing Wells Fargo in a program where the bank could grow no larger than it was in 2018. No bank had previously been placed into such a program, known as an asset cap. The Fed required Wells to fix it culture and redo its entire risk and compliance departments in order to address its problems.
Since taking over in 2019, Scharf’s goal has been to convince the Federal Reserve that Wells Fargo had fixed its toxic banking practices. With the asset cap removed, the bank can now pursue more deposits, new accounts and take on additional investment banking businesses by holding additional securities on its balance shet.
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Rep. Andy Ogles is leading the charge, pitting the Republican who represents part of the Democratic-leaning city against a progressive mayor who has criticized immigration officials after they arrested nearly 200 people in the greater Nashville area.
The dayslong presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sent chills through well-known Nashville immigrant neighborhoods. Many Republicans, meanwhile, applauded ICE’s enforcement focus in the city.
Republicans have criticized Nashville officials for publicly documenting interactions between local authorities and federal immigration agents on an official city government website. Some of the entries included authorities’ names before city officials removed them. They have also blasted O’Connell for promoting a fundraiser for families affected by the ICE activity.
O’Connell has said the arrests caused long-lasting trauma for families and were led by people who don’t share Nashville’s values of safety and community.
Here is a look at the ICE activity and its fallout.
The arrests
ICE has said that it arrested 196 people alongside the Tennessee Highway Patrol during a weeklong effort in and around Nashville. ICE said 95 had criminal convictions, were facing criminal charges or both, but didn’t provide a more detailed breakdown, including the type of crimes. It said about 30 had entered the country after previously being deported, some of whom are included in the 95.
The Highway Patrol said it made more than 580 traffic stops in the joint operation with ICE. ICE highlighted seven cases, including two gang members, one of whom was wanted in an El Salvador killing, and people with convictions such as drug offenses, rape or assault.
Lisa Sherman Luna of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition criticized the effort as “at a scale we’ve never seen before.” She said officers were arresting some people who were going home to their children or heading to work.
The mayor’s response
Early into ICE’s operation in Nashville, the mayor held a news conference to assure that Nashville’s police force was not involved in the immigration crackdown.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell speaks with members of the Rotary Club of Nashville, Monday, June 2, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
He said the immigration enforcement approach “is not our understanding of what a Nashville for all of us looks like.”
At the news conference, the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee also announced the fundraising effort to provide child care, transportation, housing aid, food and more for families impacted by the ICE activity.
O’Connell’s administration has sent letters asking Tennessee Highway Patrol and ICE to identify those arrested and their charges. He told the Nashville Rotary Club this week he still hasn’t received that information.
O’Connell is facing particular scrutiny because of a policy requiring city agencies to report communications with federal immigration authorities to the mayor’s office. Nashville has had similar orders under two prior mayors, and O’Connell added quicker reporting deadlines last month. He said the goal is transparency.
Republicans’ investigation into O’Connell
Congressman Ogles declared that House committees would be investigating O’Connell during a Memorial Day news conference at Tennessee’s Capitol in Nashville — a venue that raised eyebrows because it’s closed to the public on the holiday. Noise from protesters carried from outside the building.
A subsequent letter signed by Ogles and three other House committee and subcommittee chairmen requests documents and communications about O’Connell’s executive order and the ICE enforcement efforts. Ogles and others have also cried foul that the names of some immigration officials in the Nashville operation were made public. The agents’ names were removed, with O’Connell saying it wasn’t the intent of the executive order to release them.
O’Connell has said Nashville isn’t trying to obstruct federal or state laws, and has no reason to be concerned about the congressional investigation.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told Fox News last week that agents will “flood the zone” in Nashville due to O’Connell’s response.
Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn is requesting that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate O’Connell.
Last week, the Trump administration listed Nashville among its so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, before the list was removed. O’Connell said he’s “puzzled” by the city’s inclusion and that Nashville, by definition, is not a sanctuary city.
Laws toughened over so-called sanctuary policies
In 2019, sanctuary cities became illegal in Tennessee, threatening noncomplying governments with the loss of state economic development money. Tennessee economic development officials say they aren’t aware of any warnings, denials or withholding of state money under that law to date.
Early this year, lawmakers and Republican Gov. Bill Lee approved legislation to aid the Trump administration with immigration enforcement. It features a potential Class E felony against any local elected official voting for or adopting a so-called sanctuary policy. This could include voting in favor of local government restrictions that impede ICE efforts to detain migrants in the U.S. without permission.
Critics believe the criminal penalty — effective July 1 — could be unconstitutional due to state and federal protections afforded lawmakers at various levels of government.
The law also created a new state immigration division, but shielded its records from public disclosure.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would revoke guidance to the nation’s hospitals that directed them to provide emergency abortions for women when they are necessary to stabilize their medical condition.
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That guidance was issued to hospitals in 2022, weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upended national abortion rights in the U.S. It was an effort by the Biden administration to preserve abortion access for extreme cases in which women were experiencing medical emergencies and needed an abortion to prevent organ loss or severe hemorrhaging, among other serious complications.
The Biden administration had argued that hospitals — including states with near-total bans — needed to provide emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. That law requires emergency rooms that receive Medicare dollars to provide an exam and stabilizing treatment for all patients. Nearly all emergency rooms in the U.S. rely on Medicare funds.
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would no longer enforce that policy The move prompted concerns from some doctors and abortion rights advocates that women will not get emergency abortions in states with strict bans.
“The Trump Administration would rather women die in emergency rooms than receive life-saving abortions,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “In pulling back guidance, this administration is feeding the fear and confusion that already exists at hospitals in every state where abortion is banned. Hospitals need more guidance, not less, to stop them from turning away patients experiencing pregnancy crises.”
Anti-abortion advocates praised the move, however. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement that the Biden-era policy had been a way to expand abortion access in states where it was banned.
“Democrats have created confusion on this fact to justify their extremely unpopular agenda for all-trimester abortion,” she said. “In situations where every minute counts, their lies lead to delayed care and put women in needless, unacceptable danger.”
An Associated Press investigation last year found that, even with the Biden administration’s guidance, dozens of pregnant women were being turned away from emergency rooms, including some who needed emergency abortions.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which investigates hospitals that are not in compliance, said in a statement that it will continue to enforce the federal law that, “including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy.”
But CMS added that it would also “rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions.”
The Biden administration sued Idaho over its abortion law that initially only allowed abortions to save the life of the mother. The federal government had argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last year that Idaho’s law was in conflict with the federal law, which requires stabilizing treatment that prevents a patient’s condition from worsening.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a procedural ruling in the case last year that left key questions unanswered about whether doctors in abortion ban states can terminate pregnancies when a woman is at risk of serious infection, organ loss or hemorrhage.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Walk into enough gas stations and they’re likely easy to find: gummies, drinks and vapes infused with THC, the compound that gives marijuana its psychoactive properties.
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That’s given lawmakers across the U.S. headaches over how to regulate the booming market, and it’s a conflict now taking hold in Texas, where a proposed ban passed by the Legislature poses another major battle for the industry.
Texas has some of the nation’s most restrictive marijuana laws, but thousands of retailers in the state sell THC consumables, underscoring states’ struggle to set rules around the products that generate millions in tax revenue.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has not indicated whether he will sign the ban. Other states, including California, have imposed restrictions in recent years that include banning underage use and limits on the potency of the products, which are often marketed as legal even in states where marijuana is not.
“Governor Abbott will thoughtfully review any legislation sent to his desk,” spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said when asked for comment on the bill.
Texas tries to crack down
The Texas bill would make it a misdemeanor to sell, possess or manufacture consumable products with tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. The proposal shadows several other state efforts to crack down on a market that has exploded since a 2018 federal law allowed states to regulate hemp, which can be synthetically processed to create THC.
Hemp is a plant that is grown to make textiles, plastics, food and several other products. It is related to marijuana and must contain less than 0.3% THC to still be classified as hemp under federal law.
Employee Savannah Gavlik displays THC products at the Dope Daughters dispensary that Texas lawmakers are seeking to ban, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Employee Savannah Gavlik displays THC products at the Dope Daughters dispensary that Texas lawmakers are seeking to ban, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
THC products that Texas lawmakers are seeking to ban are seen at the Dope Daughters dispensary, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
THC products that Texas lawmakers are seeking to ban are seen at the Dope Daughters dispensary, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
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Employee Savannah Gavlik displays THC products at the Dope Daughters dispensary that Texas lawmakers are seeking to ban, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
The proliferating market has given residents in states with strict marijuana laws such as Texas a legal way to access products that can give them a similar high.
Nationwide, the substances are often sold through legal loopholes, despite concerns about potential health risks and a lack of oversight of how they’re produced.
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick laid out bags of THC snacks on a table in front of a group of reporters last week to reiterate his determination for Texas to ban the products. He said he wasn’t worried about Abbott when asked about the possibility of a veto.
“This is serious business,” Patrick said.
If enacted into law, Texas would have one of the most restrictive bans in the country, according to Katharine Neil Harris, a researcher in drug policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.
“I’m not aware of any other states without recreational marijuana markets that also prohibit consumable hemp products from having any THC,” Harris said.
A jumbled legal landscape
States that prohibit recreational marijuana have also made efforts to regulate the THC market, including Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.
In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill last year that would have put in place age restrictions and banned marketing directed toward children, stating that it would hurt small businesses.
“There’s such a variety in how states have responded to this,” Harris said.
Texas has one of the most restrictive medical marijuana programs in the country, only allowing three licensed dispensaries to operate in the state to sell low-potency marijuana to residents with PTSD, cancer or other conditions. Proposals to expand the state’s medical program are a sticking point for some Republican lawmakers.
A total of 38 states and the District of Columbia have laws that allow the medical use of marijuana. About 6 in 10 voters across the country said they favor legalizing recreational use nationwide, according to AP VoteCast, in a 2024 survey of more than 120,000 U.S. voters.
Retailers push back on ban
Kyle Bingham, a farmer in the Texas Panhandle, said he doesn’t plan on growing hemp anymore if there’s a ban. He has grown the plant on a family farm with his dad for four years and said it is one of many crops they grow, including cotton.
“We’ve never planted more than 5% of our acres in hemp, and that’s part of the business plan,” said Bingham, who is also vice president of the National Hemp Growers Association. “So for us, it’s definitely hard to walk away from as an investment.”
Because of a lack of federal oversight into manufacturing processes and a lack of uniform labeling requirements, it’s hard to know what exactly is in THC products sold in stores.
Many dispensaries, worried about their future, have urged the governor to veto the legislation. They have defended their industry as providing medical relief to people who cannot access medical marijuana through the state’s restrictive program.
“It’s absurd they think they can sign away 50,000 jobs,” Savannah Gavlik, an employee at Austin-based dispensary Dope Daughters, said. The store will likely have to close if the ban takes place, but the anxiety has not yet set in, she said.
“One of the biggest things we provide is self care,” Gavlik said. “It’s people genuinely wanting medical relief.”
Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
