NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-06-2025 7PM EST

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

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Usher, Yo-Yo Ma, Boy Genius, Shaka Khan, Billie Eilish, Weird Al, one thing all these big stars have in common, they've all played behind NPR's Tiny Desk. And if you enter NPR's Tiny Desk Contest between now and February 10th, you could be next. Unsigned musicians can find out more and see the official rules at npr.org slash tiny desk contest. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. A federal judge in Boston is pausing the deferred resignation program the Trump administration has been offering to 2.3 million federal employees.

The deadline was this evening. As NPR's Andrea Hsu explains, the judge agreed to review a complaint from federal employees unions. The unions have argued that this whole thing is arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful. The unions are basically charging that the Office of Personnel Management, which sent out that original email that was titled Fork in the Road, that that agency didn't have the authority to offer employees all across the federal government pay in benefits through September because it's Congress that holds the purse strings and Congress hasn't funded most agencies past the middle of March. The judge plans to hold a court hearing Monday on the merits of the arguments, the processing

of the more than 40,000 resignations that have been submitted so far expected to continue. Some of President Trump's executive action since taking office have faced setbacks this week because of legal challenges. As NPR's Elena Moore reports, it comes as Democrats on Capitol Hill possess minimal power in a Republican-controlled Congress. Democratic lawmakers don't have the votes to stop Trump's nominees from getting confirmed, but the president is facing delays elsewhere. A federal judge has temporarily paused Trump's deferred resignation program, which gave federal employees a deadline of Thursday

evening to resign and still receive pay for a period of time. The president's executive order ending automatic citizenship for some babies born on US soil was also blocked, as was the attempt to freeze funding for federal grants and other programs. That said, these cases are ongoing, and the orders have the potential to be reversed by an appeal. Alaina Moore, NPR News. The utility company Southern California Edison has admitted to state regulators its equipment

may have ignited one of the smaller wildfires that raged during last month's deadly fire and windstorm. NPR's Liz Baker has more from Los Angeles. In letters to the State Public Utilities Commission, Southern California Edison wrote that its equipment, quote, may have been associated with the ignition of the Hearst fire. That fire destroyed two mobile homes and nearly 800 acres, nowhere near as destructive or deadly as the Eaton fire, which killed 17 people and burned over 9,000 structures. Southern California Edison has been accused of responsibility for that fire, too, with

lawsuits pointing to a video that allegedly shows arcing from a transmission tower right around the time of ignition. The company says that it has seen the video, but has not found evidence that their equipment there started the fire, although they did find irregularities on a different power line around the same time and are continuing to investigate. Liz Baker and Pira News, Los Angeles. Stocks closed mixed today in somewhat choppy trading as investors parsed quarterly earnings numbers.

The Dow was down 125 points to 44,747. The NASDAQ closed up 99 points. The S&P rose 22 points. This is NPR News. Kids' book author Mac Barnett has been named the Library of Congress's new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. The job is to promote books and reading for kids across the country. As NPR's Andrew Limbong reports, Barnett's plan for his two-year stint is to focus on picture books. While he said he'd promote all

types of literature for kids, it really is the picture books that Mac Barnett favors. It's just such an incredible, vibrant, exciting, forward-looking, experimental art form, and I think it's really undervalued, too. Barnett is the writer of more than 60 books, including chapter books, graphic novels, and of course, picture books, and his philosophy on getting kids to read is to not think of them as future adults. We're never going to win the argument that you should read a book because it's good for you.

This isn't why kids read. It's our job to make books that kids want to read. And he says it's our job as grownups to let them read whatever they want to read. Andrew Limbong, NPR News. After an hours long ordeal, a pair of hikers stuck in waist-deep snow on New Hampshire's Mount Washington were pulled to safety. A pair called 911 Sunday night and the state's Fish and Game Department determined they were stuck in an elevation of about 5,000 feet.

A nine-member team then used a snowcat to trek up the mountain snowed over a roadway and walk in using snowshoes to the site where the hikers were stranded early Monday. The two hikers both suffered frostbite injuries but were otherwise okay. Critical futures prices settled lower after President Trump reiterated his pledge to raise oil production, oil down 42 cents a barrel, to end the session at 70.60, one a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. Valentine's Day is on the horizon, NPR News in Washington.