Up First briefing: Inflation; Colombia earthquake; ICE gloves; Leavitt : NPR

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Inflation eased slightly last month. Consumer prices in July were 3.4% higher than they were a year ago, according to a new report from the Labor Department. It’s a smaller annual increase than in May or June. Rent and airfare prices rose while gasoline and grocery prices fell. In particular, lettuce prices plunged 16% after a deadly Cyclospora illness outbreak led to a recall of iceberg lettuce from Mexico. Retailers responded with deep discounts on various lettuce products in an attempt to win back anxious shoppers.

• 🎧 Produce prices often fluctuate depending on growing conditions and other factors, and lettuce prices are expected to rebound once the food scare passes, NPR’s Scott Horsley tells Up First. The lower prices contributed to about 0.1% decline in grocery costs last month, but overall grocery prices are still up about 2.7% over the past year. This week’s cooler inflation report may lead the Federal Reserve to monitor whether inflation will continue to moderate rather than raise interest rates, Horsley says.

Rescue teams in Colombia are urgently searching for survivors of Monday’s 7.4 magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 260 people. Nearly 500 people remain missing, and the chances of finding survivors decrease each day.

• 🎧 It’s still possible for search and rescue teams to find survivors amid the rubble at this point in their efforts, says reporter John Otis. Otis is in Cali, one of the hardest-hit areas by the quake. It’s been three days since the deadly quake, and he spoke with rescue workers from other disasters who have successfully pulled people from collapsed buildings after six days. The warm weather in Cali can help trapped individuals survive, he says. Even so, Colombian officials know that they are racing against the clock. Cali’s mayor has called for residents to avoid the disaster zone to give rescue teams room to work and the silence their listening devices need to detect signs of life.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to equip its officers with high-tech gloves that deliver electric shocks to people they are trying to detain, according to plans posted by the Department of Homeland Security this week. The devices, known as the G.L.O.V.E., or Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, could cost DHS as much as $20 million. It delivers an electric shock upon contact with the skin when the wrist button is activated. Demonstrations indicate that the gloves inflict pain. Naureen Shah, ACLU’s director of policy and government affairs for immigration, raised concerns about whether ICE officers are adequately trained to handle such devices, especially with the agency’s effort to rapidly hire more than 12,000 officers within a year.