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House Judiciary panel votes to hold Attorney General Barr in contempt of Congress, escalating fight over Mueller report

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Judiciary Committee has voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress, escalating the legal battle with the Trump administration over access to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

The committee voted 24-16 to hold Barr in contempt after the Justice Department rejected House Democrats’ demands for the full Mueller report and the underlying evidence. Ahead of the vote, President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege over those materials and reserved the right to block them.

The contempt resolution against Barr now moves to the full House. If it is approved, it would trigger a criminal referral to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, which would decide whether to prosecute.

Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said the panel had to act because Trump’s stonewalling is creating a “constitutional crisis.”

Between prices and a diarrhea-causing parasite, lettuce is causing hard times at some restaurants

It’s been a choppy year for restaurants that lean into lettuce. Lettuce prices rose sharply in the first half of 2026 due to hot weather in Arizona, where about one-third of America’s lettuce is grown. Now, restaurants are dealing with the fallout from a cyclospora outbreak linked to shredded lettuce that has sickened thousands of Americans. Taco Bell will likely see the biggest sales impact from the outbreak, which began in late June. Federal health officials first tied the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said customers in Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania were also affected. Taco Bell said on July 17 that it had voluntarily removed shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms from its U.S. restaurants. But its customer volume has suffered. As of July 23, Taco Bell visits were 21% lower than average across the U.S., according to Placer.ai, a market research company.
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