Mystery at the center of the sale of Graceland and Kouri Richins speaks from prison: Morning Rundown

Donald Trump’s allies are getting involved in the fight to shape the Republican Party’s agenda. Motor racing legend Mario Andretti recalls a clash with a Formula One owner while trying to bring a new team into the sport. And the author of Utah’s grief, accused of the fatal poisoning of her husband, makes her first statements.

Here’s what you need to know today.

Team Trump seeks to change Republican Party platform and exclude party’s right flank

Allies of former President Donald Trump are quietly getting involved in little-noticed fights over who will serve on the committee charged with establishing the Republican Party’s national platform. The goal is to prevent the party’s right wing from trying to push the Republican National Committee’s official agenda too far right, according to nine people familiar with what’s happening in states across the country.

A Trump campaign official acknowledged that there were discussions within the party about culture war-infused policies and that they had observed and participated in some state-level races for spots on the plat committee. -form of the RNC.

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The official also noted that it is not uncommon for those closest to the president to get key roles in Congress. However, one longtime RNC staffer said the involvement of Trump allies in selecting platform committee members was “definitely out of the ordinary compared to past experiences.”

An important consideration is that the RNC did not make adjustments to its platform in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. But that means some platform fights that might have happened four years ago are now spilling over into this year’s election cycle. Two big issues the party is paying more attention to: abortion and same-sex marriage.

Read the full story here.

The company at the center of the Battle of Graceland is a mystery

A few hours after a Tennessee judge blocked sale by foreclosure of Graceland, Elvis Presley’s famous property in Memphis, a huge question remains in this case. Who exactly is trying to take ownership? Presley’s family doesn’t know, nor does the judge overseeing the fight.

A representative from Naussany Investments & Private Lending was not in the courtroom for yesterday’s hearing. In fact, it’s been difficult to find out much about the company or who runs it. NBC News searched several public databases and found nothing. The documents provided for the company’s mailing addresses correspond to post offices and PO boxes. Emails to addresses purporting to be people associated with the company also added to the mystery. Here’s what our journalists know — or rather what they don’t know.

In blocking the sale of Graceland, the Shelby County Chancery Court judge presiding over the case said Riley Keough, one of Presley’s granddaughters, would likely win the legal battle.

Where buying a home is hardest, county by county

Today’s home-buying market can feel like one false head after another, from bidding wars filled with all-cash offers to homes arriving on Zillow or Redfin already under contract. Not to mention, counterintuitive. If mortgage rates are high and demand is low, why do prices remain high? And how does my situation compare to others: is it worse? Better?

To simplify the calculations, the NBC News data graphics team created the NBC News Home Buyers Index. We developed a new metric that measures the difficulty of buying a home, based on four categories: cost, competition, scarcity, and economic instability. Together, they form a single number, on a scale of 0 to 100, which answers the question “how hard am I struggling?” » (Right now the US is at 82, which is pretty bad). Data Journalist Jasmine Cui shares four key points from our April report:

🏡 $92,000: The annual income needed to buy the median home in today’s market – and that number is closer to $100,000 if you want the type of low-interest, low-down loan home buyers are looking for. first home, experts say.

📍 Everything, everywhere: Buying a home may be “local,” but its challenges are anything but. Twenty-six states are represented among the 100 hardest counties to buy a home.

💰 Beyond cost: And 43 of those counties have median list prices lower than the national average, showing that price isn’t the only factor that makes buying a home difficult.

⛰️ Colorado’s rocky peaks: At the top of April’s hardship index are three Colorado counties: Routt, Garfield and Mesa. In Steamboat Springs, Routt County, buyers are facing a housing boom so intense that even high earners can’t afford to buy a home.

Find out where your county ranks in the Home Buyers Index, and see more takeaways of the report.

Mario Andretti says F1 owner promised to block his team

Legendary driver Mario Andretti said he clashed with Greg Maffei, CEO of Formula 1 owner Liberty Media, at a recent event in Miami over a blocked bid to become the 11th team in F1. NBC News senior politics reporter Sahil Kapur spoke to Andretti about the exchange, which took place days after Andretti visited Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress. Lawmakers accused Formula 1 of engaging in anti-competitive practices by refusing Andretti’s candidacy.

At an event last weekend, Andretti said he was speaking with Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali about why he had traveled to Washington. Then Maffei “burst into the conversation,” Andretti said, “and (Maffei) said, ‘Mario, I want to tell you that I will do everything in my power to ensure that Michael never enters Formula 1.'” Maffei was referring to Andretti’s son, Michael Andretti – chairman and CEO of Andretti Global and the one who led the company’s attempt to get into sports.

However, a source close to Liberty Media said the incident happened differently than Andretti described it. Read the exclusive story here.

Utah heartbreak author makes first comments since arrest for husband’s murder

The Utah mother accused of adding a fatal dose of fentanyl to her husband’s cocktail is speaking out for the first time since her arrest. In a series of statements provided exclusively to “Dateline,” Kouri Richins, 34, criticized prosecutors in the case and maintained his innocence. “You took an innocent mother away from her babies,” she said. “It means war.”

And in recent months, Richins’ lawyers withdrew from her case, a decision she said was “forced,” “it wasn’t my choice” and “it wasn’t a personal choice of a lawyer for my defense team.” Here’s what else Richins said on the case against her.

Richins is charged with aggravated murder and other crimes in connection with the 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins, who died after prosecutors say she gave him a Moscow mule spiked with a lethal dose of fentanyl. A year after her husband’s death, Richins published a children’s book aimed at comforting children who had lost loved ones.

Politics in brief

Immigration: The Biden administration is finalize details of new executive action this would allow the president to temporarily close the southern border to migrants if necessary.

Repercussions of Deepfake robocalls: The political consultant who admitted to making a robocall impersonating President Joe Biden before the January presidential primary in New Hampshire was indicted.

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Staff choice: Hundreds of mountain goats have been flown to a new home. Very few survived.

During a 2018 reporting mission in Washington state, I was stunned by the eerie sight of blindfolded mountain goats flying under helicopters. The scene was part of a project to move 325 non-native goats away from the Olympic Mountains in order to increase their numbers in their home range in the nearby Cascades. Since then, I have been curious about the fate of these creatures. Years later, we now know that few survived – a sobering result that has drawn attention to a broader threat facing the species. — Evan Bush, science journalist

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