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Episode Date: January 3, 2025

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What's in store for the music, TV, and film industries for 2025? We don't know, but we're making some fun, bold predictions for the new year. Listen now to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Law enforcement officials say the decorated Green Beret soldier suspected in the Las Vegas Tesla truck explosion shot himself to death just before the blast. Jay Price, remember station WNC, has more. Police say guns were found in the truck and that the driver, believed to be Matthew Allen

Livelsberger, had a bullet wound to the head. According to the U.S. Army, Livelsberger was on leave from his special forces unit in Germany. He'd been awarded more than a dozen medals, including the Bronze Star for valor, and a Pentagon official says he had deployed to Afghanistan five times. Livelsberger did at least some training at Fort Liberty in North Carolina, then called Fort Bragg. The explosion in Las Vegas came just hours after a former soldier plowed a pickup truck into a crowd in New Orleans, killing 14 people. He also had been a soldier on the base in North Carolina, but authorities say so far

they've found no link between the two men. For NPR News, I'm Jay Price in Durham. FBI officials now say it appears the man responsible for that deadly rampage on New Year's Day in New Orleans was acting alone. FBI Counterterrorism Division Assistant Director Christopher Rea, said the 42-year-old Shamsuddin Jabbar was captured on video planning explosives in coolers. He then drove the pickup truck into the crowd in the French Quarter, killing 14 people before being shot and killed by police.

Rea called it an act of terrorism, quote, 100 percent inspired by ISIS. House Speaker Mike Johnson spent part of today meeting with Republicans on Capitol Hill, looking to lock down the votes he needs to hold on to the Speaker's gavel. That's as the House election looms. However, Johnson appears upbeat. People are talking through process changes they want and those kinds of things. And I'm open to that. And I think tomorrow is going to go well. Some members of the far-right freedom caucus have been expressing doubts about supporting the Louisiana Republican. In recent weeks Johnson angered some Republicans including President-elect Donald Trump over a bipartisan deal to keep the

government operating in a failure to raise the debt ceiling. President-elect Trump's inauguration plans are taking shape and will include what's being called a victory rally on January 19th. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben reports on what to expect. Danielle Kurtzleben The rally will be held in the afternoon, the day before inauguration, at Washington, D.C.'s Capital One Arena. The arena is home to the NHL's Washington Capitals and the NBA's Washington Wizards. It's now typical for presidents- elect to hold special events ahead of

Inauguration Day. Obama held a massive concert and rally on the mall in 2008. In 2016, Trump also held a concert on the mall featuring rock band Three Doors Down and country singer Toby Keith. In 2020, amid COVID, Joe Biden held a shorter, more somber event on the mall billed as a COVID remembrance ceremony. Inauguration day will be Monday, January 20th, which is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Danielle Kurtzleben,

NPR News. This is NPR. A 20-year-old who broke into Gracie Mansion in New York and allegedly stole a Christmas ornament was due to be arraigned today. Police say the man was apprehended by the mayor's security detail in the early morning hours after being found in an upstairs bathroom. The spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams says the mayor was not home at the time of the pre-dawn incident. Animal rights groups are suing to stop the killing of up to 40 or 450,000 invasive barred owls in the Pacific Northwest. As Nate Hedgie of New Hampshire Public Radio explains, it's part of a federal plan to save their smaller threatened

cousin, the northern spotted owl. Bared owls are originally from the eastern woodlands of the US, but climate change and other factors have allowed them to expand their range across the country. You got this bigger, rough and tumble owl coming in and it easily evicts the northern spotted owl from its territory. Joe Liebesite is with a nonprofit conservation group,

Bird Alliance of Oregon. His group has lent support to the plan, but others sued this past fall to stop it. Wayne Peselli is with a nonprofit animal wellness action. We're going to unleash an unprecedented assault on a North American native owl, and we shouldn't do it. The government is expected to issue a response to the lawsuits this month. For NPR News, I'm Nate Hedgie. Add a new name to the list of dogs eligible for Best in Show, the American Kennel Club

announcing today. It will add the Danish-Swedish farm dog to its list of recognized breeds. That means the small, sprightly dogs will also be able to compete for a variety of AKC trophies. Fans of the breeds say they're happy, though they don't want the breed's popularity to grow too quickly. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. So as a new administration promises action on the cost of living, taxes and home prices, the S&P 500 biggest post-election day spike ever, follow all the big changes and what they mean for you. Make America affordable again.

Listen to The Indicator, the daily economics podcast from NPR.