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

Episode Date: January 12, 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 New York City, I'm Dwahleesai Kautao. Firefighters from across the country, as well as Canada and Mexico, are making their way to the Los Angeles area to help fight the historic fires that have been burning for five days. LA Mayor Karen Bass updated reporters on how fire victims are being

assisted. FEMA teams are on the ground providing in-person support, helping Angelenos apply for disaster relief. The Small Business Administration is now offering home disaster loans, business disaster loans, and economic injury disaster loans. More high winds are forecast. Here's LA County Fire Chief Anthony Morrone. These winds combined with dry air and dry vegetation will keep the fire threat in Los Angeles County high. The wildfires that have burned nearly 40,000 acres

of Southern California have also disrupted the industry that makes the region famous. Hollywood and Piers Mandely Del Barco reports. Hollywood A-listers Billy Crystal and Milo Ventimiglia were among those whose homes burned to the ground. On The Tonight Show, actress Jamie Lee Curtis talked about how her Pacific Palisades neighborhood was destroyed. It's just a catastrophe.

The market I shop in, the schools my kids go to, many, many, many, many, many friends now have lost their homes. The deadly wildfires have also affected countless others who work in the TV and film industry. Some studios paused productions on their lots and the film permitting offices not allowing productions in evacuated zones. Some red carpet events were canceled and award shows postponed. The fires also prompted a delay of nominations announcements for the upcoming Academy Awards. Mandelita Del Barco, NPR News, Los Angeles. A Labor Department watchdog is citing progress in prosecuting cases of fraud against state unemployment systems during the pandemic. But NPR's Martin Costey reports that some of the culprits

may go unpunished. More than 2,000 people have been charged with crimes related to fraudulent claims for special COVID-era unemployment benefits. Of those, more than 1,400 have been convicted. The primary focus has been on scammers who used other people's information to claim benefits, in some cases totaling in the millions of dollars. During the pandemic, state workforce agencies were overwhelmed by claims, and minimal verification allowed billions of dollars to flow to the scammers. But many of them have yet to be charged, and Department of Labor Inspector General Larry

Turner has warned that they'll go unpunished unless Congress acts soon to extend a five-year statute of limitations. Martin Kosty, NPR News. The special counsel who led investigations on President-elect Donald Trump has resigned from the Justice Department just 10 days ahead of Trump's inauguration. You're listening to NPR News from New York. TikTok's future in the U.S. is up in the air as it awaits a decision by the Supreme Court to shut down over security concerns because of its Chinese owner. Sam Moore of the Soul and R&B duo Sam and Dave has died. The singer died yesterday in a Coral Gables Florida hospital after undergoing

surgery. He was 89, as Inpires Chloe Veltman reports. Sam Moore was the higher voice of the duo, Dave Pray to the lower. They were best known for songs they wrote in the 1960s like Soulman, and Hold On I'm coming. Sam Moore was born in 1935 in Miami and started out singing in church. He and Prater met at a Miami nightclub in the early 1960s. After early success, their careers went through ups and downs. They broke up more than once and pursued solo careers. Prater died in a car crash in 1988. Sam and Dave were inducted into the Rock and Roll

Hall of Fame in 1992. The duo received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2019. Chloe Veltman, NPR News. A new report by the Department of Agriculture shows that an outbreak of listeria linked to deli meats last year was a result of inadequate sanitation at a Boar's Head facility in Virginia that's now closed. The Centers for Disease Control said that outbreak led to 10 deaths and dozens hospitalized from July through November. I'm Dwahleysi Kautau, NPR News in New York City. The Indicator is a podcast where daily economic news is about what matters to you. NPR News in New York City.