NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-09-2025 8PM EST

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

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Okay, so does this sound like you? You love NPR's podcasts, you wish you could get more of all your favorite shows, and you want to support NPR's mission to create a more informed public. If all that sounds appealing, then it is time to sign up for the NPR Plus bundle. Learn more at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. In Los Angeles, crews continue to battle wildfires that have turned sections of the city into a hellscape. Fire officials say one of those blazes, the Eaton fires, destroyed more than 5,000 acres or structures rather.

NPR's Kirk Siegler reports on the nearby Palisades fire from a vantage point along the scene of Pacific Coast Highway. I'm standing here on Pacific Coast Highway. It's really this eerie smell among other things. You can smell the sea over here, the waves crashing, and then it's just this sulfury, charred smell of burning rubble and vegetation. I'm even looking at a fire truck trying to save a house right in front of me here. Doesn't look like they're gonna do it but embers have been still flying in and catching things on fire. Up and down this highway, hotel over to my right is totally burned. I can see in the distance the Getty Villa, the famous museum. It appears to be intact, although the vegetation all the way up right around it is burned.

At least five people have died in the fires, though officials expect that number to rise. Supreme Court has rejected a request by President-elect Donald Trump's lawyers to halt his sentencing for his conviction on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star. The court in a five-to-four decision, dying a last-minute bid to halt the sentencing, which is scheduled for tomorrow. Trump was found guilty last May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment

to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Trump is the first former or future president to be convicted of a crime. He takes office again later this month after winning re-election. The Senate overwhelmingly voted to begin debating legislation

allowing for the detention of unauthorized migrants who were charged with some crimes. And PRS Deidre Walsh reports the bipartisan immigration vote is the first policy pushed by the new Senate Republican majority. The Laken Reilly Act is named after a Georgia nursing student who was murdered last February

by a man from Venezuela who was in the U.S. illegally and had been previously arrested and charged for having stolen goods. Wyoming Senator John Barrasso says he's glad lawmakers from both parties now back it. Protecting Americans from the dangers of a broken border makes sense to, I believe, most if not all of our citizens. The House of Representatives approved the measure on Tuesday in a bipartisan vote, with 48 Democrats joining all Republicans. But opponents say it fails to allow due process and defers federal authority to state law

enforcement leaders. Deirdre Walsh, NPR News, The Capitol. With some hedge funds, buying up single-family properties in the state, New York Governor Kathy Hochul says she plans to introduce legislation requiring a 75-day waiting period before big investment firms can place bids on new homes. There are concerns about large investment firms gobbling up housing stock at a time there is a shrinking supply. You're listening to NPR. Nearly two dozen kangaroo species went extinct some 40 to 65 thousand years ago. The question is why? Reporter Ari Daniels

says hundreds of teeth may hold an answer. Sam Arman took a detailed look at the teeth of more than 900 kangaroos from both fossils and modern animals. Whenever an animal chews its food, the food leaves marks, microscopic scratches on the surface of the teeth. Armin, who's a paleontologist at a natural history museum in central Australia, used those scratches to figure out what the ancient kangaroos ate. His answer, a mix of shrubs and grasses, suggesting that a changing climate that wiped out a single group of plants

likely wasn't behind the extinctions. Rather, he thinks humans who arrived in Australia around this time had something to do with it. Other paleontologists disagree, citing evidence that climate change did play more of a role. For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel. A 175-pound tortoise named Tiptoe is among the survivors of the California wildfires. Tiptoe and his owner Caitlin Duran were forced to flee their home in Pacific Palisades. The TikTok star with upwards of 4 million followers rushed to safety by his owner who

says her parents' home, where she filmed content with Tiptoe, was lost in the fire. Duran says she, her family and the Tortoise are safe in Marina Del Rey. Others who have reportedly lost their homes in the Palisades fire include actors Anthony Hopkins and John Goodman. Cruel Futures prices moved higher today. Oil up 60 cents a barrel to end the session at $73.92 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. Tis the season for rich meals, twinkly lights, and New Year's resolutions. At LifeKit, NPR's

self-help podcast, we're here to help you make those resolutions less of a December and January thing, and more like a year-long affair. We've got shows that'll help you draw up plans to meet your goals, whatever they are. Get the tools you need all year round with the LifeKit podcast from NPR.