Tracy Mumford: From The New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, June 30th. Here's what we're covering. The Supreme Court issued a major ruling in President Trump's favor yesterday, clearing the way for him to fire independent regulators. The decision could drastically change the government structure by giving the president more control over independent agencies. The case yesterday dealt specifically with the Federal Trade Commission, which does everything from regulate credit cards to investigate monopolies. It was designed by Congress to be shielded from politics, and the law states that the president can only dismiss a commissioner for quote, "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office." But Trump removed a Democrat from her seat on the FTC simply because she did not align with his agenda. And the Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled yesterday that Trump had the right to do that, effectively casting aside a 90-year precedent that had prevented presidents from removing regulators solely over policy disagreements. This could potentially affect the leadership of many other independent agencies, like the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the NTSB, which investigates plane crashes. Traditionally, they've been insulated from presidential control.

Mary Matalin: So, what it means on the ground is that the president can go in and continue to try to get rid of Democratic commissioners. And as a result of this ruling, people won't be able to sue and cite these laws and job protections that have been on the books.

Tracy Mumford: And Mary Matalin covers the Supreme Court for the Times. She has more about the implications of this ruling on today's episode of The Daily. Right after the ruling, President Trump went on Truth Social. He called this a big win. He said it's a historic and unprecedented ruling, one of the most important ever with respect to presidential powers.

Mary Matalin: That he may be eager to follow up to the ruling with firings.

Tracy Mumford: Exactly. Now, in a separate ruling yesterday, the court did carve out an exception for one institution that has traditionally operated independently from the White House, the Federal Reserve. The court blocked Trump's attempt to fire one of the Fed's governors, Lisa Cook. Though some legal experts think the ruling is vague enough that it could leave the door open for Trump to keep trying to oust her and exert more power over the Central Bank going forward. Now, two other quick updates from the Supreme Court yesterday. The justices issued a ruling on a mail-in ballot case that a lot of states were watching closely. It said that Mississippi can count ballots received up to five business days after election day, as long as they were postmarked by election day. That ruling will likely allow similar laws in more than a dozen other states to stay in place and is a blow to efforts by President Trump and Republicans to restrict mail-in voting. Also, the court let a $5 million sex abuse verdict against President Trump stand. Back in 2023, a federal jury found that Trump had sexually abused and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll, ordering him to pay a civil judgment. Trump had asked the justices to intervene, but they declined.

Tracy Mumford: Since returning to office, one of the main things President Trump has been focused on has been building.

Donald Trump: We're building the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world right at the White House. Right at the White House.

Tracy Mumford: For example, there's the ballroom going up.

Donald Trump: We are the only major capital. We are the only major place without a triumphal arch, a beautiful...

Tracy Mumford: He's about a 250-ft arch he's commissioning near the Potomac River.

Donald Trump: The seats, the decor, pretty much everything needs a lot of work.

Tracy Mumford: And he's announced a huge renovation of the Kennedy Center. He is constantly thinking about new construction projects, what he can build. By our count, he has at least 18 major construction projects either underway or in the planning process or that he's pitched to people. My colleague Luke Broadwater covers the White House. He says, "In all, the Times has calculated that the construction projects Trump has undertaken come with a potential cost of more than a billion dollars."

Luke Broadwater: Donald Trump has claimed and promised that some of these projects will be paid for through private donations. You know, famously about the ballroom, he said that not one dime of taxpayer money will be used on the ballroom, that it's a gift from him and his donors. That is just not true. You can look at spending documents and see that hundreds of millions of dollars from the Secret Service's budget are going to work on the ballroom in terms of security and the reinforced walls and the bunker underneath. So, taxpayers are very much involved in the ballroom project. And then, as you go down the list of more and more projects, you'll see more and more taxpayer expenses. You know, President Trump said that the triumphal arch would probably be paid for through private donations, but we see taxpayer money going to that project. He's raising private funds for his National Garden of American Heroes, but we already know $40 million of taxpayer money has been dedicated to that project and and the costs associated with that project are going to continue to rise. So, we are likely to see at the end of this potentially multiple billions of dollars, including a lot of it from taxpayers, that are going to construction projects in Washington D.C.

Tracy Mumford: In early March, Representative Tom Kean, a Republican from New Jersey, voted yay to support President Trump's immigration crackdown. He made a few remarks about other legislation, and then he more or less disappeared. For weeks, his neighbors said there were no obvious signs of him at home, and his family's vacation house appeared shuttered. His aides told reporters that Kean, who's 57, was being treated for a health condition and was expected to fully recover, but they offered no additional details, just saying over and over again that he was working remotely and would be back in D.C. soon. In May, when pressed, his chief of staff told the Times, quote, "There's no cameras where Tom is." And in private, Kean's own colleagues in Congress began to speculate wildly about what was going on, wondering if it could be rehab for a stroke, an addiction issue, or a case of plastic surgery gone awry. The mystery could be resolved today, when Kean, who has now missed more than 130 floor votes, is finally expected to return to the Capitol and address his absence. While members of Congress generally do not provide information to the public about their health or medical status, Kean's unexplained months-long disappearance could test the limit of what voters will tolerate. Kean won his primary election earlier this month. It was uncontested. But in the fall, he's facing a Democratic challenger in a difficult re-election battle that could help determine the balance of power in the House, and his long absence has already started coming up as a campaign issue.

News Anchor: This week, a dangerous drawn-out heatwave is spreading from the Midwest to the East Coast. 6:33 right now a.m. in the morning and I tell you right now it's already hot.

Tracy Mumford: In Chicago yesterday the heat index reached 101° with furnace-like temperatures baking the city.

Weather Forecaster: We have extreme heat warnings that are in effect for all areas of Southern Michigan and Northwest Ohio.

Tracy Mumford: Today the high temperatures and high humidity are starting to hit further east and south reaching deep into Ohio and down into Tennessee. And by later this week major cities on the East Coast could start to see extreme record-breaking temperatures. In Philadelphia officials have already said they plan to limit 4th of July celebrations and the mayor of New York City announced a heat emergency plan since the city could potentially see multiple 100-plus degree days. This is all being driven by a sprawling area of high pressure known as a heat dome. The same kind of conditions that were behind a deadly heat wave that's been roasting Europe. Because of climate change heat domes are becoming more common worldwide.

Tracy Mumford: And finally about 200 miles above the earth a vital space telescope is in desperate need of help. For more than two decades the NASA telescope known as Swift has captured data from across the universe helping scientists better understand what happens when stars collapse and collide. But over time the telescope has been slowly falling back to earth and scientists say within a few months it will get torn apart in the atmosphere. Building a replacement would likely take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. So NASA came up with a daring and unprecedented plan. Send a spacecraft up there to catch the telescope and nudge it back into a higher orbit. The agency partnered with a private company to build a device that can hopefully pull this off. It's roughly the size of a fridge and it has robotic arms to latch onto the telescope and try to push it about 100 miles deeper into space. It's set to be launched this week. NASA scientists say they're cautiously optimistic about the mission. If all goes to plan, this could help the telescope stay in orbit for another 10 years. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.