NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-07-2025 10PM EST

Episode Date: February 8, 2025

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President Trump is back in Washington, pursuing major policy changes on his own terms. We know from the past that means challenging precedent, busting norms, and pushing against the status quo. NPR is covering it all with Trump's Terms, a podcast where we curate stories about the 47th president with a focus on how he is upending the way Washington works. Listen to Trump's Term terms from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Democratic lawmakers are now calling for a Treasury Department investigation into access, along Musk and members of his Doge team have been given to government

payment systems. NPR's Shannon Bond has warned one of those individuals. There are staffers connected to Doge fanning out across the federal government. We have a number of Musk connected figures who have been named to senior roles. That includes Tom Krause. He's a tech CEO who just today was put in charge of the Treasury Department system that processes trillions of dollars in payments every year. Now this week in a legal challenge around this arrangement, the government said that Krause has read-only access to this payment system. But then we have Musk posting publicly about shutting off payments. And so now his ally is running

that system. Treasury Department's payment system includes sensitive information. Over the course of a year, it handles tax refunds, social security benefits and other transactions. President Trump announced today he will take over as chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. MPOR's Chloe Veltman reports Trump also says he plans to dismiss several board members. At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC great again, President Trump said in a statement on Truth Social.

Trump criticized the Kennedy Center for staging shows involving drag performers that he said targeted youth. He also said he plans to fire the Center's longtime board chair David Rubenstein among other trustees for not sharing his quote vision for a golden age in arts and culture. The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A representative Rubenstein said no comment. Trump declined to attend the annual Kennedy Center honors during his first term in office. A break with tradition. Chloe Valtman, NPR News. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled the state's top election official can keep her job. Republicans have been advocating

she be fired and then candidate Donald Trump nearly lost the 2020 presidential race in that state. Chuck Kermbock of the member station WWM is more. The GOP controlled Wisconsin State Senate tried to remove nonpartisan elections administrator Megan Wolf from her job after election skeptics made false claims about the 2020 results. But the state's high court has upheld a ruling that Wolf doesn't need state senate confirmation to continue in her position. Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wickler praised the decision. The unanimous state supreme court ruling makes clear that their attempts to undermine the

fair administration of Wisconsin elections will not stand. Republican state senators say they're disappointed with the decision. For NPR News, I'm Chuck Quirmbach in Milwaukee. The U.S. economy was still adding jobs last month. The Labor Department says employers created 143,000 non-farm payroll jobs in January. Stocks lost ground at week's end. The Dow was down 444 points. This is NPR. Academy Awards nominee Carla Sofia Gascon is reeling from

some resurfaced social media posts. Ambiors' Mandelito Barco reports the criticism could affect her film, Amelia Perez, during awards season. For her role as Mexican drug lord, Emilia Perez, Carla Sofia Gascon had looked forward to possibly becoming the first trans actress to win an Oscar. That changed when a journalist uncovered Gascon's old social media posts in which she vilified Islam and denigrated George Floyd, whose killing by police sparked racial justice protests. At first, Gascon tried to explain herself to CNN en Español. I've committed no crime, haven't hurt anyone, and I'm not racist, she said.

Emilia Perez, director Jacques Audiard, called Gascon's statements self-destructive. Gascon's reps and Netflix haven't responded to NPR's request for comments, but the actress now says she's bowing out of campaigning for the Oscars. Mandelita Del Barco, NPR News. A milestone that went remarkably uncommented on at the time, but for the first time ever on Christmas Day 2024, Nielsen Company says more people were viewing on streaming services than any single day in history.

More than 50 billion streaming minutes. Netflix showed two NFL games that day with Beyonce performing at halftime. The Baltimore Ravens Houston Texans face off. Nielsen showed roughly equal viewership on that day between streaming services and TV networks. Just two weeks later, the second most streamed day ever came when Prime Video carried an NFL game.

Crude oil futures prices closed higher, oil up 39 cents or bail to settle at $71 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. Support for NPR and the following message come from Yarle and Pamela Mohn, thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen.