By CHARLOTTE KRAMON, Associated Press/Report for America

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s Senate passed a bill that would allow President Donald Trump and more than a dozen people to seek compensation for legal bills stemming from an attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.

The bill passed unanimously by state legislators Thursday would enable compensation from counties for attorneys’ fees and other legal costs in criminal cases in which a prosecutor has been disqualified.

Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted in Fulton County in August 2023. The accusations included asking Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find enough votes for Trump to win the battleground state, harassing an election worker and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of electoral college electors.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from the election interference case by a state appeals court based on a romantic relationship she had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom Willis hired to lead the case.

Georgia Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II, an Augusta Democrat, posed a different hypothetical.

“If you have that young person, possession of marijuana, whatever it may be, and the prosecutor has done something wrong and that case is dismissed because the prosecutor did something wrong, they’re entitled to have their attorney’s fees back,” Jones said. “That’s actually something that we probably would have pushed many years ago.”

Another bill passed the Senate Thursday that would give subpoena powers to State and House committees.

Both bills come a year after the state Senate passed a bill creating a special committee to investigate “various forms of misconduct” by Willis, including her relationship with Wade. The committee tried to subpoena Willis for a hearing last year but she did not appear. A judge later ruled the committee was allowed to subpoena her.

Nothing has come of the committee’s investigation, but Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and other Republicans said last week they want to investigate Stacey Abrams.

They want to look deeper into recent ethics findings that voter participation group New Georgia Project improperly coordinated with Abrams’ 2018 gubernatorial campaign. She would have been the first Black woman to serve as a U.S. governor but lost to Republican Brian Kemp, who defeated her again in a 2022 rematch.

They also want to investigate unsubstantiated claims by new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin that Abrams benefitted from $2 billion that a coalition of groups trying to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases received from President Joe Biden’s administration. Abrams says she received none of the money.

Kramon 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. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.

By JON GAMBRELL and WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said he sent a letter to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, something not immediately confirmed by the supreme leader.

Trump made the comments in an interview aired on Friday by Fox Business News, saying he wrote to Iranian leaders.

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“I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing,’” Trump said. He later added that he had sent the letter “yesterday” in the interview, which was filmed on Thursday.

The White House confirmed Trump’s comments, saying that he sent a letter to Iran’s leaders seeking to negotiate a nuclear deal. Trump made the comments in an interview that will air fully on Sunday.

“I would rather negotiate a deal. I’m not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily,” Trump added. “But the time is happening now. The time is coming up. Something’s going to happen one way or the other.”

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported on Trump’s comments, citing the broadcast. However, there was no immediate word from the office of the 85-year-old Khamenei, who has final say over all matters of state.

Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

By PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added solid 151,000 jobs last month, but the outlook is cloudy as President Donald threatens a trade war, purges the federal workforce and promises to deport millions of immigrants.

The Labor Department reported Friday that hiring was up from a revised 125,000 in January. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.1%.

The job market has been remarkably resilient over the past year despite high interest rates.

“Despite rising concerns about the health of the economy, momentum remains positive,’’ Lydia Boussour, senior economist at the tax and consulting firm EY, wrote in a commentary.

Billionaire Elon Musk’s purge of federal workers was not expected to have much impact on the February jobs numbers. The Labor Department conducted its survey of employers too early in the month for the Department of Government Efficiency layoffs to show up.

The American job market has remained remarkably resilient, but it has cooled from the red-hot hiring of 2021-2023. Employers added a decent average of 166,000 jobs a month last year, down from 216,000 in 2023, 380,000 in 2022 and a record 603,000 in 2021 as the economy rebounded from COVID-19 lockdowns.

Hiring continued despite high interest rates that had been expected to tip the United States into recession. The economy’s unexpectedly strong recovery from the pandemic recession of 2020 set loose an inflationary surge that peaked in June 2022 when prices came in 9.1% higher than they’d been a year earlier.

In response, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023, taking it to the highest level in more than two decades. The economy remained sturdy despite the higher borrowing costs, thanks to strong consumer spending, big productivity gains at businesses and an influx of immigrants who eased labor shortages.

Inflation came down – dropping to 2.4% in September — allowing the Fed to reverse course and cut rates three times in 2024. The rate-cutting was expected to continue this year, but progress on inflation has stalled since summer, and the Fed has held off.

Economists expect that workers’ average hourly earnings rose 0.3% last month, down from a 0.5% increase in January, a drop likely to be welcomed by the Fed — but not enough to get the central bank to cut rates at its next meeting March 18-19. In fact, Wall Street traders aren’t expecting another cut until May, and they’re not especially confident about that one, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

Economists say the economic outlook is growing more uncertain as Trump imposes — or threatens to impose — a series of taxes on imported goods.

“Steep tariff increases could cause adjustments in business decisions with knock-on effects on hiring and wages as business leaders navigate higher input costs and retaliatory measures,” Boussour said. “This could lead to a more severe job slowdown, weaker income and restrained consumer spending amidst much higher inflation.’’

By STEVE PEOPLES, Associated Press National Politics Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — As their party struggles to navigate the early days of Donald Trump’s second presidency, some Democrats are convinced that their road to recovery lies in the price of eggs.

Instead of leaning into Trump’s teardown of the federal government or his alliance with billionaire lieutenant Elon Musk, they’re steering to what they perceive as the everyday concerns of Americans — none more important than grocery prices and eggs in particular.

U.S. egg prices hit a record average of $4.95 per dozen in January, surpassing a previous record set in January 2023, according to federal data. In some parts of the country, they’re much higher. A Safeway supermarket in San Francisco was selling a dozen eggs for $10.99 this week.

A sign is mounted on a shelve of eggs at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects egg prices to rise 41% this year. Already, some restaurants are adding temporary surcharges when customers order eggs. Denny’s said its surcharge varies by region and even by restaurant, while Waffle House added a 50-cent surcharge per egg at all its restaurants.

The Democratic establishment’s focus on blaming Trump for those price spikes represents a stark break from its activists, who have launched a protest movement arguing that Trump is a budding dictator with no regard for the Constitution.

Such concerns may be valid, some Democratic members of Congress say, but they don’t resonate with working-class Americans trying to feed their families.

“When that is your day-to-day worry, the philosophical conversations about a constitutional crisis or the democracy is simply not a luxury you can afford,” Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Mich. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t worry about those things, because we should and they are important, but they are not primary in the minds of the people in Saginaw, Michigan.”

FILE – Kristen McDonald Rivet speaks during a campaign event Oct. 17, 2024, in Flint, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

The message underscores the Democratic ecosystem’s broad acknowledgment that the party must make changes to win back the hearts and minds of voters worried about the economy, who shifted toward Trump’s GOP last fall and gave Republicans control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.

It’s unclear, however, whether the Democrats’ newfound focus will do much in the short term to stop Trump’s sweeping campaign to consolidate power in Washington or if it can harness the energy of the party’s progressive base, which wants new and creative solutions to address what they view as an existential threat.

Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin, whose organization helped coordinate a nationwide protest movement that put House Republicans on defense, called the Democrats’ focus on eggs “a communications strategy built for a 1990s policy fight.”

“They’re looking at polls that say inflation is unpopular, and they think Dems can win people with boring, tired talking points,” Levin said. “But it’s 2025 — this isn’t how politics works anymore. And their failure to update their approach to creeping authoritarianism is a simple failure of leadership.”

Moving from billionaires to eggs

The Democratic establishment’s new approach echoed across Washington this week after Trump delivered a 99-minute speech to a joint session of Congress. Trump defended the tariffs he has threatened to impose on America’s trading partners. A trade war could boost prices further on everything from fruits and vegetables to cellphones, lumber and cars.

In the opening hours of Trump’s presidency, the Democratic National Committee issued talking points encouraging allies to talk about “Trump’s plans to screw over America” and highlight Trump’s alliances with Musk and other tech billionaires.

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The DNC’s talking points sounded different after Tuesday’s speech.

“We saw Trump ramble on about invading Greenland and planting the American flag on Mars, but what we didn’t hear was a plan to lower costs and address Americans’ anxiety about the looming economic disaster he’s driving us toward,” read the DNC talking points. “Consumer confidence has fallen sharply, everyday costs are skyrocketing, and congressional Republicans are pushing deeply unpopular tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.”

At the same time, Democratic officials shared new internal data Thursday that they say indicates inflation and the cost of living are voters’ top priority. Democracy, by contrast, ranked No. 12.

Public polling goes further.

A Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that one month into the new administration, U.S. adults remain almost universally unhappy about the cost of groceries. According to the survey, about 9 in 10 Americans say that food prices are “not so good” or “poor,” including about half who say they’re “poor.” And a CNN/SSRS poll conducted in mid-February found that about 6 in 10 Americans said Trump had “not gone far enough” in trying to reduce the price of everyday goods.

But the party is hardly united on the new approach.

Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, was ejected from the House chamber during Trump’s speech and eventually censured for refusing to stop shouting his concerns about potential Medicaid cuts. Other Democrats silently waved small signs that read “Musk steals,” “Save Medicaid” and “Lies.” Still others skipped the speech altogether in protest.

Why are egg prices so high?

In this week’s speech, Trump blamed the surge on his Democratic predecessor.

“Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control — the egg prices out of control. We’re working hard to get it back down,” Trump charged as Democrats in the chamber booed.

President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

The industry and most experts agree that the ongoing bird flu outbreak is the main reason egg prices are setting records, although some question whether egg producers are inflating prices to boost profits.

As further evidence that Trump’s team is aware that the situation is becoming a political liability, Musk used his social media platform on Thursday to cast more blame on Biden.

“There was an insane slaughter of 150 million egg-laying chickens ordered by the Biden administration,” Musk wrote on X, neglecting to mention the millions of egg-laying chickens killed since Trump took office.

Indeed, as of Thursday afternoon, 27,116,857 birds have been killed since Trump returned to the White House to limit the spread of bird flu. That’s because the federal government’s longstanding policy requires farmers to kill their entire flocks anytime a bird gets sick to help limit the spread of the virus.

Overall, more than 166 million birds — most of them egg-laying chickens — have been slaughtered since the outbreak began in 2022.

The Trump administration did unveil a plan to combat bird flu to help ease egg prices. But the impact is hard to predict given that the $1 billion plan isn’t a drastic departure from the previous policy.

Specifically, Trump’s plan doesn’t change the USDA’s longstanding policy of slaughtering flocks when a sick bird is found. Instead, the plan focuses on helping farmers adopt the most effective biosecurity measures to keep the virus out and explores the prospects for a bird flu vaccine, among other moves.

Rep. Josh Riley, D-N.Y., who recently confronted a bird flu outbreak in his upstate district, said almost every conversation he has with constituents centers on rising prices, especially eggs. He made a direct link between concerns about the economy and democracy.

“If you’re worried about our democracy … that’s more of a reason to be worried about the price of eggs,” Riley said. “The reason our democracy is in the situation is in, the reason our country is in the situation it’s in, is because for decades, politicians have neglected the needs of everyday working people.”

He continued: “Is it any wonder, after 40 years of shipping jobs overseas just to make Wall Street rich, after three years of egg prices skyrocketing and nobody around this place doing a goddamn thing about it, that people are really, really frustrated and believe that our democracy does not work for them? Can you blame them?”

AP writers Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit; and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed.