NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-06-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

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The indicator from Planet Money is diving into the world of batteries. Not the kind you buy at the grocery store. We're talking really big batteries, the kind that can power thousands of homes. This technology came seemingly out of nowhere. We're digging deep into the battery industry in three back-to-back episodes. Listen to the indicator from Planet Money podcast on NPR. on NPR. Lye from NPR News in Washington. I'm Lakshmi Singh. There are just a few hours remaining for federal workers to decide whether to take the Trump administration's offer to resign from their jobs now and keep their pay and benefits through September 30th, despite agencies only being funded through mid-March.

As NPR's Andrea Hsu reports, a federal court in Boston is weighing a request for a stay. U.S. District Judge George O'Toole, who's a Clinton appointee, will preside over a hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern time. The lawsuit was brought by unions representing more than 800,000 civil servants. It alleges that the deferred resignation offer is arbitrary and capricious as well as unlawful. The unions argue that the offer fails to consider possible adverse consequences to the government's ability to function and is pretext for removing and replacing workers on an ideological basis. The offer went out to more than two million civilian employees of the federal government,

including this week to members of the National Security Agency and the CIA. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. Employees were given to just before midnight to decide. While jobs are top of mind for many civil servants, the government's released new numbers on the state of the nation's labor market. Here's NPR's Scott Horsley. Scott Horsley, NPR News. U.S. workers got a little more productive

in the final months of 2024, churning out 1.2% more goods and services with every hour of work. That's important because when workers are more productive, they can earn higher wages without putting upward pressure on prices. New applications for unemployment benefits inched up last week as 219,000 people applied for jobless aid.

We'll get a more complete snapshot of the job market tomorrow when the Labor Department reports on employment gains for the month of January. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested more than 8,000 people in the first two weeks of the Trump administration. They include people without a criminal record.

Here's NPR's Sergio Martinez Beltran. One of them is 18 year old Carlos. He's from Venezuela, but came to the US in November legally through a Biden era program. He was arrested by federal immigration agents while at his home in Texas last week. That's Juan, Carlos' dad. He says his son is a young man

who is just opening his eyes to the world. NPR could not find any criminal record for Carlos in Texas, the only state he's lived in. We are using only first names because the family where he's speaking out will jeopardize Carlos's case. Juan is asking President Trump for mercy for his son. Sergio Martinez Beltran, NPR News, Cedar Park, Texas. U.S. stocks are mixed this hour. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 126 points at 44,742. The S&P is up nine points and the NASDAQ has picked up 15 points. From Washington, this is NPR News. A California utility company says its

equipment likely started a wildfire in Los Angeles the same day two other major fires erupted in the area January. Today Southern California Edison admitted to playing a role possibly in the Hearst fire. That blaze did not destroy any structures or result in deaths. The two larger ones, the Palisades and Eaton fires, caused widespread destruction and they claimed at least 29 lives. Scientists say they have temporarily reversed some symptoms of a paralyzing genetic disorder. NPR's John Hamilton reports they did so by stimulating nerves in the spine.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh tried spinal stimulation on three people with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare inherited disorder that kills off many of the nerve cells that control muscles. During a month of daily stimulation, participants' leg muscles grew stronger and they were able to walk farther. Doug McCullough, who is 57, was one of the participants. And after some days, my legs just felt super charged. It's like, man, I feel like I can walk a mile. Stimulation appears to work by restoring connections between the surviving motor neurons, which control muscles, and sensory neurons, which monitor what those muscles are doing. John Hamilton, NPR News.

Nevada farmers are now dealing with a new type of bird flu infection that's turned up in some of their dairy herds. The Department of Agriculture says, first time a varying of the H5N1 bird flu that circulated widely in wild birds and in some cases led to severe illness among humans has been detected in dairy cattle. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.