NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-01-2025 1AM EST

Episode Date: February 1, 2025

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Hey, it's Robin Hilton from NPR Music. Many years ago, I helped start the Tiny Desk Concert Series. Right now, NPR is looking for the next great undiscovered musician to perform behind the famous desk. Think you've got what it takes? Submit a video of you playing an original song to the Tiny Desk Contest by February 10th. Find out more and see the official rules at npr.org slash tiny desk contest. Live from NPR News I'm Dale Wilman. A

medical transport jet on its way to Mexico slammed into a neighborhood in North Philadelphia Friday night and burst into a ball of flames. Several buildings on the ground were set on fire. The plane carried a child who'd been treated in a Philadelphia hospital along with her mother and four crew members. Philadelphia Mayor Sherrell Parker says and four crew members. Philadelphia Mayor Sherelle Parker says the investigation is continuing. We're urging you to please stay away from the scene. If you see debris, call 911. Don't touch anything. This is still an active scene under investigation. The plane crashed just 30 seconds after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

All the passengers were from Mexico. In Washington, D.C., federal authorities have restricted helicopter flights near Reagan National Airport after this week's collision there that killed 67 people. MPR's Joel Rose has more on that ongoing investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration will limit helicopter flights on routes along the Potomac River between the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and the Memorial Bridge, two of the major spans that serve the region and over the airport itself. The FAA says helicopter traffic near the airport will be restricted but not completely suspended. There are exemptions for medical

emergency flights, active law enforcement and air defense, or presidential support missions that must operate in the restricted area. The restrictions come as investigators continue to pour over an area of the Potomac River where the two aircraft went down. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. Sixty-seven people were killed in that crash. At least 41 bodies have been recovered so far. People with disabilities were offended when President Trump tied the deadly crash in Washington

to diversity hiring efforts in the federal government, and Pairs Josh Shapiro explains. No, the Federal Aviation Administration did not recruit people with intellectual disabilities to work as air traffic controllers, but President Trump said incorrectly that they can get those jobs. It's not the first time air safety problems have been linked, inaccurately, to diversity, especially to the hiring of people with disabilities. Last year, when a door blew off of an Alaska Airlines jet mid-flight, Fox News ran a misleading story that said the FAA was recruiting people with intellectual disabilities

and significant mental illness for key air safety positions. At his press conference on the deadly crash, Trump then read from that story to back up his inaccurate claim. Joseph Shapiro, NPR News. Fire officials in Los Angeles say the Eaton fire that burned more than 14,000 acres east of Los Angeles is now 100% contained. The larger Palisades fire meanwhile has consumed more than 233,000 acres on the city's west side. That fire is also now 100% contained. The two major fires along with several smaller

ones created the worst natural disaster in LA County history. This is NPR News. Six Americans who were being held in Venezuela were freed by the government of President Nicolas Maduro on Friday. U.S. Envoy Richard Grinnell had gone to Caracas to push Maduro into taking back migrants who have committed crimes in the U.S. and the six Americans were turned over to him. So far Venezuela has refused to take back the migrants President Trump hopes to deport. A New York doctor and Louisiana mother were indicted Friday for allegedly providing abortion medication to a minor.

Jung Jung-Hoon from WXXI News reports. The local prosecutor has said it may be the first time a doctor has been criminally charged for sending pills across state lines since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022. A grand jury in Louisiana charged Dr. Margaret Carpenter, Nightingale Medical, and another woman reportedly the mother of a pregnant minor with knowingly causing an abortion by pill. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the state has implemented shield laws to protect health providers that prescribe abortion pills across state lines. I will do everything I can to protect this doctor and allow her to continue the work

that she's doing that is so essential. New York is one of nearly 20 democratic-led states with shield laws. For NPR News, I'm Jeongyeon Han in Albany. The International Skating Union says it will honor the athletes and others killed in the mid-air collision in Washington, DC this weekend It will take place during the World Championships being held in Boston in March Skaters coaches and family members were among those who were killed when the plane crashed on Wednesday They were on their way home from a national skating champ camp in Kansas

I'm Dale Willman NPR news If you love NPR News.