NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-11-2025 10AM EST

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. The Los Angeles Fire Department issued new evacuation orders and warnings for the Palisades fire last night, affecting the area around Brentwood. A fresh evacuation comes as California Governor Gavin Newsom is ordering an independent investigation into why firefighters battling a fire face challenges getting water to fight the flames. Marisa Lagos, member station KQED reports. Crews in the Pacific Palisades and near Pasadena have repeatedly been stymied by low water pressure and fire hydrants running dry. In a letter to local officials, Newsom wrote that while water supplies from hydrants are not designed for widespread blazes, losing supplies likely impaired firefighting and evacuation efforts. He directed state water and fire officials to investigate. Newsom asked LA officials to conduct their

own review and share information with the state. Health officials meanwhile warning some people in LA that their water is not safe, the advisories for those living near the largest burn zones. And Pierce Ping-Huang reports that urban wildfires offer specific risks for drinking water. Residents near the wildfires, including those in Pasadena and the Pacific Palisades, should not drink the tap water. They should not make food or ice with it. They should even consider not showering or washing dishes with it. These warnings were issued over concerns of chemical

contamination from the wildfires. Jackson Webster is a civil engineer at Chico State in California. Not everybody in all of Southern California needs to be concerned about their water right now, but there are certainly systems that have been damaged that probably will have lasting contamination issues. Webster says the low water pressure has created a vacuum that pulls ash and soot back into the water system. You may not be able to see or smell it. Officials will need to test the water to see what's in it.

Ping Huang, NPR News. News in Georgia working to restore power to tens of thousands of customers following that winter storm that's been moving through the South. Forecasters expect that storm to move off the East Coast today. At least 10 news organizations have retracted or amended stories after an NPR investigation showed that a man they featured as a brave Chinese dissident was linked to an elaborate con. NPR's Frank Langford reports that journalism scholars can't recall such a mass action based on concerns about a single news source.

Dozens of news organizations around the world covered Wang Jingyu as he presented himself, a courageous dissident standing up to China's Communist Party. But an NPR investigation linked Wang to a Byzantine Khan that involved forged government documents and bankrupted the victims. Wang denies any wrongdoing. The news organizations that changed or retracted coverage of Wang include the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Germany's Deutsche Welle, as well as Radio Free Asia, which is funded by the U.S. government.

Ed Wasserman, former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California Berkeley, said, quote, I've never seen anything like this. Frank Lankford, NPR News. This is NPR. Following arguments Friday on whether a law should take effect that could ban the popular short video app TikTok, NPR's Bobby Allen says the Supreme Court is expected to rule soon. So we're waiting to hear if the court is going to delay the ban start date and then also when it will rule on the merits, which will be in the coming days. And of course, there was president-elect Donald Trump who has vowed to save TikTok and that might throw another wrench into this situation.

Unless the Supreme Court intervenes TikTok could be banned by January 19th over national security concerns the apps parent company is based in China. A new study raising concerns about the hundreds of US hospitals controlled by private equity firms. Researchers at Harvard Medical School find patient satisfaction dropped under private equity control. From Member Station WBUR, Priyanka Thialmukluski reports. Many patients said their experience at hospitals worsened after private equity takeovers, and they reported staff were less responsive. Dr. Rishi Wadhera co-authored the study and says it adds to a growing body of evidence

pointing in the same direction. When private equity takes over a hospital, things generally get worse for patients. He says as private equity grows, there really is an urgent need for greater transparency, monitoring and regulatory oversight. Lawmakers are paying attention. The Senate Budget Committee this week published a bipartisan report saying private equity investors are making millions on hospital deals while patients suffer. For NPR News, I'm Priyanka Thial-McCluskey in Boston.