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Episode Date: September 10, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. Vice President J.D. Vance will deliver tonight's keynote address at the Republican Midterm Convention. As NPR's Stephen Fowler reports, the message will likely preview a 2008 presidential run. While Trump is telling Republicans to vote this year like he's on the ballot, Vance's task will be to try and keep those voters engaged for a future where Trump isn't president. The vice president's address will likely continue the messaging Trump laid out, including the election being a contrast between, quote, common sense versus crazy. It's also expected of fuel speculation that Bants would seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2028.

Other potential 2028 candidates are speaking tonight, too, like Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Jr. At least one name being floated, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is not in attendance. Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Dallas. A group of Latino civil rights groups in the city of Denver have filed a lawsuit. in federal court seeking to bar the government from doing immigration enforcement at polling places this fall. As NPR's Miles Parks reports, such enforcement activity is widely considered to be illegal, though the Trump administration has not ruled it out. Here's what Homeland Security Secretary, Mark Wayne Mullen, said earlier this month about the idea of immigration enforcement at the polls. The only reason why we would be at polling places if there is a threat to that polling place or we're serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down.

The group's suing, which include the League of United Latin American Citizens, Common Cause, Unido's U.S., and the city and county of Denver. See, executing a warrant in that way would violate federal law, which bans military personnel or other armed agents from being at any location where an election is held. Voting experts also worry such actions could dampen turnout and intimidate people from voting. Miles Parks, NPR News, Washington. A researcher at the AI company Anthropic resigned in protest this week as he warns about the technology's dangers to humanity. Jacob Coxon says AI firms are, quote, gambling with her lives. Advanced AI systems, you have to imagine them as being a lot more intelligent than humans. There's the possibility we create something that, if it wanted to, could hack into any device

on the planet, could use novel biological research to go far beyond what current scientist is capable of, could control like every robot in the world simultaneously. And it all sounds very much like science fiction. But if there's even a tiny chance that this thing could go rogue, it would have the capabilities to utterly dominate us. Coxon's departure comes after recent high-profile examples of AI models, breaking out of quarantined environments and hacking into other systems. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes declined in August to their slowest annual pace in more than a year as home shoppers grappled with rising mortgage rates and home prices.

This is the third straight monthly decline. Meanwhile, the medium sales price increased 1.6% in August from a year earlier to more than 429. thousand dollars. This is NPR news. The Iran-backed Houthi rebel group has taken control of Yemen's strategic Red Sea port of Mokta. The move could bring them closer to controlling a critical waterway to the Red Sea. The Houthis have been fighting a civil war with the government since 2014. The fighting now threatens a fragile truce that took effect in 2022. Home buying is expensive enough before so-called junk fees get involved. NPR's steambo. Bissaha reports on a fee some real estate agents are warning about.

These fees can be more than $1,000 due out of pocket at closing. They also go by different names like admin fees or document storage fees. Hina, Matlock, is an Alabama real estate agent and has a different name for them. I call them junk fees. She calls them junk because consumers are often already paying north of $10,000 in commissioned agents, which should cover those expenses. I think it's unreasonable for it to be automatically on the consumer. Matlock does not charge this fee, but they are becoming more common in home sales, according to the independent think tank, the Consumer Policy Center.

That group recommends challenging these fees before signing a contract. Stephen Besaha, NPR News. Local officials have voted to move forward with a plan to build the country's largest kelp farm, six miles off the southern California coast. The plan comes as the Trump administration seeks to ramp up aquaculture in the Pacific Ocean, a company called Ocean Rainforest, plans to grow giant kelp, to develop agricultural products that can be used in the strawberry and avocado-rich region. Some environmental advocates worry whales could get tangled in the lines used to grow kelp. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.