NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-30-2025 7PM EST

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

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Are you the greatest musician the world has never heard? Unsigned artists, now's your opportunity to play the Tiny Desk. Enter the 2025 Tiny Desk Contest, our nationwide search for the next undiscovered star. The winner will play a Tiny Desk concert and a U.S. tour. To learn more, visit npr.org slash tiny desk contest. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Federal investigators are working to retrieve both flight recorders from the Army helicopter and a regional jet which collided over the Potomac River south of Washington, D.C. last

night. NPR's Frank Langford reports from Reagan National Airport. Military helicopters are a common sight in the skies around Washington. At a news conference, National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman explained how they navigate the crowded airspace here. They're actually helicopter zones, if you will, or tracks. And this one was transiting, I believe, from track one to four as part of their normal procedure.

Inman said the aircraft's recording devices should provide their altitude when they collided, an important piece of data as investigators try to figure out what led to the crash that left 67 people dead. Frank Langford, NPR News, Reagan National. Authorities meanwhile are continuing to recover the bodies of the victims. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

has ended all contracts for work promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. As NPR's Ping Wong reports, recipients were notified through a form letter. Lylea Johnson Health departments across the country have received a form letter terminating all people, programs, and contracts promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. The unsigned letter comes from the CDC. Dr. George S. Benjamin, head of the American Public Health Association, says the letter did not specify which grants it applied to.

Right now, I think all of us are interpreting that if DEI is in the title or it's very clear that grant is for diversity, equity, and inclusion, it is included in their definition. But it's not clear if the definition extends more broadly. And Benjamin says, given the communications freeze on federal health agencies, there's nobody they can call to find out. Ping Huang, NPR News. President Trump's FCC chief is ordering an investigation into NPR and PBS for underwriting spots at air on stations across the country.

As NPR's David Falkenflck reports, Brendan Carr says corporate underwriting spots may break the law because he believes they too closely resemble commercials. The Federal Communications Commission actually doesn't regulate the networks. It regulates public broadcasting stations because the agency licenses them to use the public airwaves.

In separate statements, the chief executives of PBS and NPR say they're careful to observe the law and agency regulations and have followed the FCC's own guidance for decades. Carr wrote in his letter to the networks that he was sharing his decision to launch the inquiry with lawmakers on Capitol Hill in hopes it helps convince them to cut off funds for the public broadcasters. President Trump's repeated proposals to do just that proved unsuccessful in his first term. David Holkinflick, NPR News.

Few Americans were filing claims for unemployment benefits last week. According to the Labor Department, first-time jobless claims dipped by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 207,000. Stocks closed higher on Wall Street today, the Dow up 168 points. This is NPR. Government regulators today moved in to announce they will sue to block a proposed $14 billion deal in which giant Hewlett-Packard is seeking to acquire rival Juniper Networks. A complaint from the Justice Department alleges the combination would eliminate competition, raise prices, and reduce inventories.

The intervention comes as something of a surprise that many regulators had expected there'd be less antitrust enforcement under the Trump administration. HP was under increased pressure to cut costs from fast-rising Jupiter, which analysts say eventually led to the proposed sale. When it comes to which foods we'd like and dislike, taste is often a deciding factor,

but new work suggests texture can be just as important. Here's science reporter Ari Daniel. Imagine drinking milk and getting something lumpy in your mouth. Yuck! This sense of mouthfeel... Is it crunchy? Is it soft? Is it chewy? Is it gooey?...gives us important information about food safety and quality, says Nikita Komarov, a neurobiology grad student at the University of Freiburg. To understand how animals perceive food texture, he and his colleagues studied fruit fly larvae. They found that the maggot's taste organ doubles as a texture sensor, and that at least one

of the neurons in the organ responds to both flavor and feel. The maggot perceives the food in this multi-dimensional space. Komarov says the work may one day provide insights into eating disorders among people. For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel. Crudeau Futures wrap 11 cents a barrel to $72.73 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. Matt Wilson spent years doing rounds at children's hospitals in New York City. Spear NPR News in Washington.