Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Hurst. A New York appeals court threw out a massive civil fraud penalty against President Trump, overturning an order from early 2024. NPR's Kat-Lonsdorf reports it would have cost Trump hundreds of millions of dollars. In February 2024, a New York judge found Trump had engaged in

fraudulent business practices, exaggerating his wealth and patting his financial statements for lenders

and insurers. Trump was ordered to pay 355 million in penalties, now around half a billion

with interest, a sum that threatened to wipe out his cash reserves. But a divided five-judge panel in New York's

mid-level appellate division court ruled that penalty was, quote, excessive and eliminated it while

declining to overturn the case, meaning Trump can appeal it yet again to New York's highest court.

The case was one of several lawsuits against Trump working their way through the courts during the

2024 presidential campaign, including a criminal case in which he was convicted and has also appealed.

Kat Lonsdorf, Empire News.

California's full legislature has passed a new voting map that could give Democrats five additional seats in Congress.

It now goes to Gavin Newsom, the governor, for his signature, and will then appear on the ballot for voters to decide in November.

Leaders in California say it's in response to Texas's redistricting effort, which aims to secure five more seats for Republicans in the U.S. House.

The competition between the country's two biggest states was prompted by President Trump, calling for Texas to redistrict ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Now, the Texas Senate could approve the new map in the next several hours as Houston Public Media's Andrew Schneider reports.

The map passed the Texas House Wednesday evening and a GOP-dominated Senate committee took it up this morning without hearing any public testimony.

Republican State Senator Phil King was clear that he was sponsoring the bill to help the GOP maintain its congressional majority.

And I'm very concerned that if the Republicans lost the majority in the U.S. House, that the two years following the

midterms could be very harmful to Texas and to the United States.

The committee passed the map on a party-line vote. The full Senate could vote on it as early as

tonight. For NPR News, I'm Andrew Schneider in Houston.

Sales of existing homes were up 2% last month from June,

and that was higher than economists were expecting. But it's still tough for most people to afford a home,

...