NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-11-2025 6AM EST

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

NPR News: 02-11-2025 6AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

At the Super Bowl halftime show, Kendrick Lamar indeed performed his smash diss track Not Like Us and brought out Samuel L. Jackson, Serena Williams, and SZA. We're recapping the Super Bowl, including why we saw so many celebrities in commercials this year. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. President Trump will receive Jordan's King Abdullah today at the White House. Their meeting could be significant.

It comes days after Trump doubled down on his claim the U.S. will take over Gaza, and he insists that all Palestinians there should be relocated to other countries such as Jordan and Egypt. Those countries are already hosting hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees. They rejected Trump's demand. A federal judge says the Trump administration has disobeyed his court order to release federal funds that were frozen last week by the president. Democratic attorneys general had sued to restore payments for grants and other federal programs. And Piers Elena Moore reports. The order directs the Trump administration to immediately end any federal funding pause,

pointing to information from states that details how some funding has remained inaccessible. The legal challenge is one of two lawsuits sparked by a memo from the Office of Management and Budget last month. That memo was rescinded days after it was released, but the White House says a review of federal funding is still necessary. The administration also argued in a court filing that it had acted, quote, in good faith to interpret the scope of the court's temporary restraining order. Elena Moore, NPR News. The federal judge ordered that all federal funding be restored until he can hold a hearing

on a motion for a longer-term court order. The Trump administration is appealing the judge's decision. An independent research arm within the U.S. Department of Education is being all but shut down. NBOS Janaki Mehta explains. The Trump administration's cost-cutting unit DOGE has announced it is making cuts to the U.S. Education Department. The Institute of Education Sciences, or IES, is an independent organization within the department. Two IES

employees told NPR they got called into an emergency meeting Monday afternoon where they learned about most of IES's contracts being canceled. IES is responsible for gathering and sharing data about a huge swath of things like how students learn best, enrollment numbers, how cost- effective college is. Now with most of IES' contracts gone, it's not clear what will happen to this essential research. Janaki Mehta, NPR News. One person died yesterday when a small plane crashed into another at Scottsdale Airport just outside of Phoenix. Kelly Kuster another at Scottsdale Airport just outside of Phoenix.

Kelly Kuster is a Scottsdale Airport official. We had a midsize business jet upon arrival collide with another midsize business jet that was parked on private property. Our runway is currently closed and will remain closed for the foreseeable future. She says it appears the landing gear failed on the plane that crashed. The aircraft is also owned by the lead singer for the band Motley Crue, but a representative says singer Vince Neil was not aboard at the time. This is NPR.

Hundreds of immigrants in Chicago are skipping doctors' appointments. This comes as President Trump starts to carry out his declaration to deport millions of people in the U.S. illegally. From member station WBEZ in Chicago, Kristin Schorsch has more. Margaret Bavis is a nurse practitioner at Community Health, a free clinic on Chicago's West Side. Bavis says lately many of of irregular patients have stopped showing up. That includes a woman who came in for lab work a week late.

And she's like, right now I just am so afraid and I can't go anywhere and I can't go to the hospital. Like I can't do anything. And it's just been very, very heartbreaking to just hear that kind of despair from people. In the first two weeks after Trump took office, nearly 30 percent of patients skipped appointments or lab tests at community health. That's more than 300 missed visits. The clinic is offering virtual visits for patients who are scared to come in.

For NPR News, I'm Kristen Schorsch in Chicago. President Trump has pardoned former Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich of his corruption crimes. He had been convicted of pressuring people and groups for money, such as a children's hospital. He also tried to sell former President Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat. Trump says Blagojevich's sentence was an injustice. Separately, the Justice Department is ordering federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against New York City's Democratic Mayor Eric Adams. The charges include taking bribes. Mayor Adams has denied any wrongdoing. I'm Korva Kuhlman, NPR News in Washington.

Planet Money is there. From California's most expensive fires ever. That was my home home. Yeah. I grew up there. It's ashes. To the potentially largest deportation in U.S. history. They're going to come to the businesses. They're going to come to the restaurants. They're going to come here. Planet Money. We go to the places at the center of the story. The Planet Money podcast from NPR.