NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-05-2025 1PM EST

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

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Our long national nightmare is over. Beyonce has finally won the Grammy for Album of the Year. How and why did it take so long for Beyonce to win the top prize at Music's Biggest Night? We're talking about her big wins and breaking down the Grammys for Kendrick Lamar, Chappell Rhone, and Sabrina Carpenter. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Several federal employee unions are suing the Trump administration over its deferred resignation offer, calling it misleading. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports they're asking a court to halt the directive before tomorrow's deadline to accept the deal.

The Trump administration has given nearly all federal workers an offer to resign from their jobs now and keep their pay and benefits through September 30th. But since the deal was first announced last week, questions have arisen over its legality. In part because federal agencies are only funded through mid-March. Federal employee unions have urged their members to reject the deal, calling it a trick to get people to resign. Now several unions are asking a federal judge to temporarily block the effort and to require the government to quote, articulate a policy that is lawful rather than an arbitrary unlawful short-fused ultimatum which workers may not be able to

enforce. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. Critics are sounding the alarm about the extent of Elon Musk's involvement in his oversight of the cost-cutting entity known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOJ. But as heard on CNN, House Speaker Mike Johnson is defending it. That's what they're doing by putting a pause on some of these agencies and by evaluating them, by doing these internal audits. That is a long overdue, much welcome development. Danielle Pletka Much different sentiment among protesters

in the nation's capital today. They are rallying against a directive that puts most USAID employees, roughly 10,000 of them worldwide, on administrative leave as of Friday. Pam Bondi has been sworn in as U.S. Attorney General. She's taking over the Justice Department as FBI employees sue over the DOJ's effort to ID employees involved in investigations related to President Trump, such as a January 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol. A judge has thrown out a felony case against a former Georgia prosecutor accused of interfering with a police investigation into the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. N Pierre's Debbie Ellie reports he was the black jogger chased and killed by three white

men in 2020, but no arrests were made until months later after video of the crime came out. The ruling ends the misconduct trial of former Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson, who was charged with violating her oath of office. Senior Judge John Turner agreed with the defense that the indictment should be dismissed on a technical flaw. Johnson testified this week that she never sought to shield Ahmaud Arbery's killers from arrest. One of them had previously worked as an investigator in her office.

Prosecutors with the Georgia State Attorney General's Office had already suffered a setback on Monday when Judge Turner dismissed a second obstruction charge, saying there was not one scintilla of evidence that Johnson interfered with police. Debbie Elliott, NPR News. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow is up 150 points at 44,705. This is NPR News. San Francisco-based OpenAI, the company behind CHAT-GPT, is partnering with the California State University System to bring artificial intelligence learning tools to roughly half a million students and faculty.

From member station KQED in San Francisco, Joseph Jiha has details. CSU officials say the partnership will be a boon for students across the system's 23 schools as they prepare to enter an evolving workforce. But ethical questions remain about AI-based tools as lawmakers and regulators struggle to rein in their potential for spreading misinformation and fear-mongering. Chancellor Mildred Garcia said the CSUs are well-suited to help lead the way on responsible use of such technologies. I think we have to take responsibility as educators and as leaders in higher education

to teach what does ethics mean, what is a fact and what is it. We're already doing that but not using AI. School officials said the data students and faculty generate on chat GPT will stay within the CSU system. For NPR News, I'm Joseph Gija in San Jose. Tributes are being paid to one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, America's first black military pilots. Harry Stewart Jr. died February 2nd. He was 100 years old.

Military.com reports Stewart, a decorated pilot, flew 43 combat missions during World War II and was one of only four Tuskegee Airmen with three air-to-air victories in a single day. Stewart passed away at home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.