By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Lawyers for two of President Donald Trump’s foes who have been charged by the Justice Department are set to ask a federal judge Thursday to dismiss the cases against them, saying the prosecutor who secured the indictments was illegally installed in the role.

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The challenges to Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia are part of multi-prong efforts by former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James to get their cases dismissed before trial.

At issue during Thursday’s arguments are the complex constitutional and statutory rules governing the appointment of the nation’s U.S. attorneys, who function as top federal prosecutors in Justice Department offices across the country.

The role is typically filled by lawyers who have been nominated by a president and confirmed by the Senate. Attorneys general do have the authority to get around that process by naming an interim U.S. attorney who can serve for 120 days, but lawyers for Comey and James note that once that period expires, the law gives federal judges of that district exclusive say over who can fill the vacancy.

But that’s not what happened in this instance.

After then-interim U.S. attorney Erik Siebert resigned in September while facing Trump administration pressure to bring charges against Comey and James, Attorney General Pam Bondi — at Trump’s public urging — installed Halligan to the role.

Siebert had been appointed by Bondi in January to serve as interim U.S. attorney. Trump in May announced his intention to nominate him and judges in the Eastern District unanimously agreed after his 120-day period expired that he should be retained in the role. But after the Trump administration effectively pushed him out in September, the Justice Department again opted to make an interim appointment in place of the courts, something defense lawyers say it was not empowered under the law to do.

Prosecutors in the cases say the law does not explicitly prevent successive appointments of interim U.S. attorneys by the Justice Department, and that even if Halligan’s appointment is deemed invalid, the proper fix is not the dismissal of the indictment.

Comey has pleaded not guilty to charges of making a false statement and obstructing Congress, and James has pleaded not guilty to mortgage fraud allegations. Their lawyers have separately argued that the prosecutions are improperly vindictive and motivated by the president’s personal animus toward their clients, and should therefore be dismissed.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press Business Writer

More than 1,000 unionized Starbucks workers plan to strike at 65 U.S. stores Thursday to protest a lack of progress in labor negotiations with the company.

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The strike was intended to disrupt Starbucks’ Red Cup Day, which is typically one of the company’s busiest days of the year. Since 2018, Starbucks has given out free, reusable cups on that day to customers who buy a holiday drink.

Starbucks Workers United, the union organizing Starbucks baristas, said stores in 45 cities would be impacted, including New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Diego, St. Louis, Dallas, Columbus, Ohio, and Starbucks’ home city of Seattle. There is no date set for the strike to end, and more stores are prepared to join if Starbucks doesn’t reach a contract agreement with the union, organizers said.

Starbucks emphasized that the vast majority of its U.S. stores would be open and operating as usual Thursday. The coffee giant has 10,000 company-owned stores in the U.S., as well as 7,000 licensed locations in places like grocery stores and airports.

Around 550 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores are currently unionized. More have voted to unionize, but Starbucks closed 59 unionized stores in September as part of a larger reorganization campaign.

Here’s what’s behind the strike.

A stalled contract agreement

Striking workers say they’re protesting because Starbucks has yet to reach a contract agreement with the union. Starbucks workers first voted to unionize at a store in Buffalo in 2021. In December 2023, Starbucks vowed to finalize an agreement by the end of 2024. But in August of last year, the company ousted Laxman Narasimhan, the CEO who made that promise. The union said progress has stalled under Brian Niccol, the company’s current chairman and CEO.

Workers want higher pay, better hours

Workers say they’re seeking better hours and improved staffing in stores, where they say long customer wait times are routine. They say too many workers aren’t getting the required 20 hours per week they need before Starbucks’ benefits kick in. They also want higher pay, pointing out that executives like Niccol are making millions.

The union also wants the company to resolve hundreds of unfair labor practice charges filed by workers, who say the company has fired baristas in retaliation for unionizing and has failed to bargain over changes in policy that workers must enforce, like its decision earlier this year to limit restroom use to paying customers.

Starbucks stands by its wages and benefits

Starbucks says it offers the best wage and benefit package in retail, worth an average of $30 per hour. Among the company’s benefits are up to 18 weeks of paid family leave and 100% tuition coverage for a four-year college degree. In a letter to employees last week, Starbucks’ Chief Partner Officer Sara Kelly said the union walked away from the bargaining table in the spring.

Kelly said Starbucks remained ready to talk and “believes we can move quickly to a reasonable deal.” Kelly also said surveys showed that most employees like working for the company, and its barista turnover rates are half the industry average.

Limited locations with high visibility

Unionized workers have gone on strike at Starbucks before. In 2022 and 2023, workers walked off the job on Red Cup Day. Last year, a five-day strike ahead of Christmas closed 59 U.S. stores. Each time, Starbucks said the disruption to its operations was minimal. Starbucks United said the new strike is open-ended and could spread to many more unionized locations.

The number of non-union Starbucks locations dwarfs the number of unionized ones. But Todd Vachon, a union expert at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, said any strike could be highly visible and educate the public on baristas’ concerns.

Unlike manufacturers, Vachon said, retail industries depend on the connection between their employees and their customers. That makes shaming a potentially powerful weapon in the union’s arsenal, he said.

Improving sales

Starbucks’ same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, rose 1% in the July-September period. It was the first time in nearly two years that the company had posted an increase. In his first year at the company, Niccol set new hospitality standards, redesigned stores to be cozier and more welcoming, and adjusted staffing levels to better handle peak hours.

Starbucks also is trying to prioritize in-store orders over mobile ones. Last week, the company’s holiday drink rollout in the U.S. was so successful that it almost immediately sold out of its glass Bearista cup. Starbucks said demand for the cup exceeded its expectations, but it wouldn’t say if the Bearista will return before the holidays are over.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jessica Sweet spent the federal government shutdown cutting back. To make ends meet, the Social Security claims specialist drank only one coffee a day, skipped meals, cut down on groceries and deferred paying some household bills. She racked up spending on her credit card buying gas to get to work.

FILE – A sign that reads “Closed due to federal government shutdown,” is seen outside of the National Gallery of Art on the 6th day of the government shutdown, in Washington, Oct. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

With the longest shutdown ever coming to a close, Sweet and hundreds of thousands of other federal workers who missed paychecks will soon get some relief. But many are left feeling that their livelihoods served as political pawns in the fight between recalcitrant lawmakers in Washington and are asking themselves whether the battle was worth their sacrifices.

“It’s very frustrating to go through something like this,” said Sweet, who is a union steward of AFGE Local 3343 in New York. “It shakes the foundation of trust that we all place in our agencies and in the federal government to do the right thing.”

The shutdown began on Oct. 1 after Democrats rejected a short-term funding fix and demanded that the bill include an extension of federal subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Its end emerged when eight Democratic-aligned senators agreed to a deal to fund the government with no extension of the expiring subsidies.

Federal workers deeply felt the impacts of the shutdown

The shutdown created a cascade of troubles for many Americans. Throughout the shutdown, at least 670,000 federal employees were furloughed, while about 730,000 others were working without pay, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The plight of the federal workers was among several pressure points, along with flight disruptions and cuts to food aid, that in the end ratcheted up the pressure on lawmakers to come to an agreement to fund the government.

Throughout the six-week shutdown, officials in President Donald Trump’s administration repeatedly used the federal workers as leverage to try to push Democrats to relent on their health care demands. The Republican president signaled that workers going unpaid wouldn’t get back pay. He threatened and then followed through on firings in a federal workforce already reeling from layoffs earlier this year. A court then blocked the shutdown firings, adding to the uncertainty.

The deal that is bringing an end to the shutdown will reverse the dismissals that occurred since Oct. 1, while also ensuring back pay for furloughed federal workers the Trump administration had left in doubt. The bipartisan deal provides funding to reopen the government, including for SNAP food aid and other programs.

Frustration over the shutdown and how it was brought to an end

But the whiplash of the past six weeks, coupled with the concern that the longest shutdown ever may not be the last they face, has shaken many in the workforce.

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“Stress and hunger are great tactics for traumatizing people,” Sweet said.

For Sweet, the feelings of frustration are only compounded by a feeling that she was betrayed by the Democratic-aligned senators who broke with the party on the health care subsidies.

She said that she understands that many workers were desperate for a paycheck. But she thought standing firm on the issue of the health care subsidies was worth her sacrifice.

“There are other federal workers who understood what we were holding the line for and are extremely unhappy that line was crossed and that trust was breached,” she said.

Ready to get back to work

Adam Pelletier, a National Labor Relations Board field examiner who was furloughed Oct. 1, said he is glad the compromise includes rehiring laid-off workers, but “the agreement that was reached almost feels like the Charlie Brown cartoon where Lucy holds the football and pulls it out from them.”

Pelletier, a union leader for NLRBU local 3, had financially prepared for the shutdown back in March when it became clear that a funding agreement between Democrats and Republicans likely would not be reached. He says the shutdown has made him feel “like a pawn” because federal workers had no say over their own fate.

The federal workers who spoke to The Associated Press had one common message: that they were reeling but ready to get back to work.

“This has been the worst time in my 20 years to be a federal employee,” said Elizabeth McPeak, a furloughed IRS employee in Pittsburgh who is National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 34 first vice president. She said colleagues had to beg their landlords to hold off on collecting rent payments and relied on food banks during the shutdown.

“A month without pay,” McPeak said, “is a long time to go.”

Walk through the players lounge tucked into what they call the “Zamboni end” of Aldrich Arena in Maplewood, and the memories of Hill-Murray hockey come at you like waves crashing on a windy beach.

The framed jerseys date back to the 1970s, when private schools could not yet compete in the Minnesota State High School League. They commemorate 1983, when an unbeaten Pioneers team became the first non-public state champ. They show the school’s most recent state prep title in 2020, amid the myriad moments that fans and alumni love to savor.

The 2024-25 season looked for a time like it would be another chapter in that book of triumphant memories. Instead, as coach Bill Lechner and his assistants put the finishing touches on the coming season’s roster, the abrupt end of the previous campaign is something they’re trying to forget and move past.

Last season’s Pioneers were a juggernaut, even by the lofty standards the program has set. They averaged better than six goals per game on the way to winning 22 of 25 regular-season contests, with a tie and two one-goal losses – to St. Thomas Academy and Edina – to their credit. Hill-Murray opened the playoffs with 11-1 and 10-0 wins.

Then it all came crashing down. In the section final, the Pioneers fell to neighborhood rival Stillwater in double overtime, then had to watch the Ponies march to the state title game. There, Stillwater lost to Moorhead – a team Hill-Murray had beaten to close the regular season.

Even eight months later, the painful memories are always there.

“It sticks. And probably shouldn’t in the scheme of life and all the things that go on in the world,” said Lechner, who has been the Pioneers’ head coach since 1997, after running the show at Stillwater for the five seasons before that. “It’s a bump in the road. But in this world, I couldn’t wait until Monday to get going and try and start erasing that moment.”

Over the summer, Lechner’s program got a taste of the new world of hockey development for the 16- to 20-year-old crowd.

Three players that could have returned for another season with the Pioneers headed elsewhere: defenseman Carson Scott is playing for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in Michigan, defenseman Casper Lang headed to junior hockey in British Columbia, and high-scoring forward Riley Zupfer elected to spend the entire season with Des Moines in the USHL, after his original plan was to return to Hill-Murray for his senior season.

“It’s all trickling down,” Lechner said, referring to the change in NCAA rules a year ago that added Canadian major junior hockey as an option for players interested in college hockey. “If you look around and you talk to the Minnetonkas and Edinas, they’re plucking a couple of the top guys, and they’re getting them.”

Still, the coach likes the Pioneers’ experience in goal, with Grayson Hanggi back for his senior year after winning 19 games last season. With good size and better numbers, Hanggi is considered by many as a candidate for the Frank Brimsek Award, given to the state’s top senior goalie.

The team’s offensive experience starts with senior Chaz Lentz, who averaged better than two points per game last season and is easing into a leadership role.

“It will be different,” admitted Lentz, who cut his teeth in the Cottage Grove youth hockey system. “I’ve got to step up my game to the next level. It’s fresh guys, younger guys, and we’re the guys that they look up to.”

In Lentz, Lechner sees a versatile player who will center the Pioneers’ top line and is comfortable and productive in just about any offensive role.

“He’s got great hands, great instincts. He has got to get bigger and stronger, but they all do,” said the coach. “Anywhere you want him, he’ll do whatever you want.”

After tune-up scrimmages versus Shakopee and Cretin-Derham Hall, the puck drops for real on Nov. 25 with a visit to Eden Prairie. The Pioneers’ home opener is Nov. 29 when Class A power Hermantown visits Aldrich.

Lentz said that every game feels big when you get used to being perceived as the enemy, like Hill-Murray is everywhere they go, but games versus White Bear Lake and Edina, and the rematch versus Stillwater, are all circled on most Pioneers’ calendars.

As he works to get past the disappointment of their most recent game, Lechner savors the chance to reload and give it another run with a new group of Pioneers.

“We’re not one-and-done. It’s Hill-Murray,” he said. “If we’re not being talked about every year, I don’t have a job, to be blunt.”

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