NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-31-2025 9AM EST

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

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This is Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air, and I just talked to Pamela Anderson about her big career comeback after years in the tabloids and not being taken seriously. She's entered a new era on stage and screen. Suzanne Summers had a great line. She said, You can't play a dumb blonde and be a dumb blonde. Find this interview with Pamela Anderson wherever you listen to Fresh Air. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. Searchers on the Potomac River today continue to look for more victims of the

American Airlines regional jet mid-air crash with a military helicopter outside Washington, D.C. Wednesday. 67 people were killed. Dozens of bodies have been recovered so far. Six of those on board the plane were members of an elite figure skating club in Boston along with parents and coaches and here's Becky Sullivan has more. Wichita had just hosted the US figure skating championships which ran through last Sunday. After the competition US figure skating had held a developmental camp for promising young skaters. Two of those aboard the flight were teenagers who took part in the camp said Doug

Zeigheim, the head of the skating club of Boston. They were flying home with their mothers. I think our current members, leaders, management team, I don't know what the word is. Is it wrecked? Is it devastated? Folks are just stunned by this. The two coaches were a husband and wife pair of Russian figure skaters of Jenny Ashishkova and Vadim Nomov. Besides the six affiliated with the Boston club, there were other skaters and family members on the plane, Zaghaib said, more than a dozen in total. Becky Sullivan, NPR News, Washington. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump swore he had nothing to do with the conservative policy agenda known as Project 2025 calling the proposals absolutely ridiculous. But as

NPR's Franco Ordonia's reports just two weeks in office, many of those policies are now popping up in Trump's early executive actions, including... The order to pause federal funding. Of course, that order was rescinded, but the idea came from Project 2025. Also part of Project 2025 was the proposal to end birthright citizenship as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Project 2025 also offers detailed plans to reshape the federal workforce including instituting of hiring freeze and reclassifying workers.

MPR's Franco Ordonez reporting. President Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a second day of questions yesterday at a Senate confirmation hearing, again focusing on his views on vaccines, along with his previous comments about childhood vaccinations and race. And here's Will Stone has more. Senator Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat from Maryland, confronted Kennedy on his past claims, which are recorded, that black people should have a different vaccine schedule than white people.

So what different vaccine schedule would you say I should have received? Kennedy did not directly answer her question. He did seem to cite research from the Mayo Clinic that was also brought up in a movie produced by the anti-vaccine advocacy group Kennedy founded, which pushed the debunk claim between autism and vaccines. The author of the study at Mayo told NPR previously their research did show a more robust immune response in African Americans, but did not find evidence of increased side effects and that any claim of increased vulnerability is not supported by the science. You're listening to NPR News.

In New York, an appeals panel has struck down a controversial court ruling that was threatening state-level voting rights around the country. As NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports, that ruling found that New York's legal protections against racial discrimination in voting violate the U.S. Constitution. Eight states have passed state voting rights acts, and advocates are pushing for more as critics of the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 keep chipping away at that landmark law in court. A state judge struck down New York's Voting Rights Act in November for violating the U.S.

Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. But now an appeals panel has reversed that ruling after finding the law allows any racial group that makes up a minority in their community to file a lawsuit claiming their collective voting power has been diluted. Anzila Wong, NPR News. Federal health regulators have approved a new non-addictive pain medication. The Food and Drug Administration this week approved a new drug from Vertex Pharmaceuticals that will be used to treat pain from an injury or surgery. This after the company conducted two large clinical trials with around 1,000 patients

who had pain from surgery. And unlike opioid pain medicines, it can't become addictive because the company says it only works on nerves outside of the brain blocking pain signals and can't get inside of the brain. Real financial markets, Asian markets were higher by the close. The Nikkei in Japan and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong both up one-tenth of a percent. U.S. futures contracts are trading higher this hour. Dow futures up about two-tenths of a percent.

NASDAQ futures are up about eight-tenths of a percent. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington. It's a new year, and according to Pew, 79% of resolutions are about one thing, health. But there are so many fads around how to keep ourselves healthy. On It's Been a Minute, I'm helping you understand why some of today's biggest wellness trends are, well, trending. Like why is there protein in everything? Join me as we uncover what's healthy and what's not on the It's Been a Minute podcast

from NPR.