Greenspan, Bernanke and Yellen urge Supreme Court to let Lisa Cook keep her job

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen and other former top economic officials appointed by presidents of both parties are urging the Supreme Court to preserve the Federal Reserve’s political independence and allow Lisa Cook to remain as a central bank governor for now. The filing Thursday comes as the justices are weighing an emergency appeal from the administration to remove Cook while her lawsuit challenging her firing by President Donald Trump proceeds through the courts. The Fed board was designed to be largely independent from day-to-day politics. No president has fired a sitting Fed governor in the agency’s 112-year history.

Report: LA County response to deadly fires slowed by lack of resources, outdated alert process

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An outside review of Los Angeles County’s response to January’s deadly wildfires found a lack of resources and an outdated emergency alert process led to delays in warning residents about the need to evacuate as flames began consuming neighborhoods. The Independent After-Action Report was commissioned by county supervisors after the Eaton and Palisades fires killed more than 30 people and destroyed thousands of homes. The report released Thursday says a series of weaknesses, including “outdated policies, inconsistent practices and communications vulnerabilities,” hampered the effectiveness of the county’s response. The county says it’s not intended to investigate or assess blame.

Amazon to pay $2.5B to settle FTC allegations it duped customers into enrolling in Prime

SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon has reached a historic $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission which said the online giant tricked customers into signing up for its Prime memberships, and made it difficult to cancel after they did so. The Seattle company will pay $1 billion in civil penalties — the largest fine in FTC history, and $1.5 billion will be paid to consumers who were unintentionally enrolled in Prime, or were deterred from canceling their subscriptions.

Hegseth abruptly summons top military commanders to a meeting in Virginia next week

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned hundreds of generals and admirals to a base in northern Virginia for a sudden meeting next week. The directive doesn’t offer a reason for the gathering next Tuesday of senior commanders of the one-star rank or higher and their top advisers. Confirmation comes from three people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the sensitive plans and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Pentagon’s top spokesman confirms that Hegseth “will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week.” Vice President JD Vance argued that the media had turned it into a “big story.”