NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-14-2025 6PM EST

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Terminal at the Justice Department is intensifying after at least seven prosecutors have now quit rather than follow orders to dismiss a major corruption case. NPR's Kerry Johnson reports the episode is raising questions about political pressure at justice. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen Scottin resigned his post in Manhattan after sending a letter to say prosecutors cannot use their vast power to lean on elected officials. Scottin earned two Bronze Stars in military service and clerked for Chief Justice John

Roberts. He wrote that he expected senior leaders at Justice would eventually find someone who's enough of a fool or a coward to file a motion to dismiss the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, but it was never going to be me. Ultimately, it's up to Judge Dale Ho to formally dismiss the corruption case. The judge may decide to hold a hearing to explore the pressure Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Boevi put on line prosecutors. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board gave their first on-camera briefing

almost two weeks since the January 29th midair collision involving a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet. The plane was trying to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River, killing all 67 people on board both aircraft. NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the collision happened at 278 feet above the river. The helicopter was supposed to be no higher than 200 feet. Homendy said it's unclear whether the altimeters in the helicopter were showing the pilots the proper altitude. Mexico's president says if the U.S. designates Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations,

her country will expand legal actions against the U.S. gunmakers. Foreign terrorist designation will put the cartels in the same category as armed foreign groups like Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram. Nita Kravinsky of Member Station KJZZ reports. President Trump directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in an executive order shortly after taking office. Mexican President Claudia Schoenbaum said in her regular morning press conference that if the U.S. goes through with that designation, she plans to expand an existing lawsuit in

U.S. courts against gun manufacturers. Well, we would have to increase the demand in the United States. Shane Baum says more than 70 percent of the guns used by cartels come from the U.S. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments about whether the lawsuit against gun makers should go forward early next month. For NPR News, I'm Nina Kruwinski in Hermosillo, Mexico. Colder than usual weather in many parts of the country last month put retail sales in the deep freeze. That's based on new numbers from the Commerce Department. They show retail sales down nine tenths of a percent in January from the previous month.

A mixed close on Wall Street, the Dow fell 165 points. The Nasdaq rose 81 points. This is NPR. While many people make time to smell the roses or take in the trees, people don't usually notice moss. Badina Pritchett reports students at Oregon's Lewis and Clark College are trying to change that with their seventh annual Moss Appreciation Week. Mosses are ancient, simple plants, which grow from the driest deserts to the highest mountaintops.

Their ancestors helped create the oxygen levels that made human life possible. I think moss is something that we kind of take for granted. Student Kenji Yamamoto helped organize this year's moss appreciation week, with moss walks, moss talks, moss valentines, and a moss petting zoo. It's undeniably silly, but Yamamoto says it can also be profound. Just to like focus on the little things and like slow down to the pace of moss, if you will. Moss appreciation week may have come to an end, but moss itself, of course, can be appreciated anytime. Just look around. For NPR News, I'm Dina Pritchett in Portland, Oregon. An opossum from Gretna, Nebraska found out what many people already know.

A Costco tuxedo cake with chocolate grache is good, but too much of a good thing can be trouble. Resident Kim Doggett had left her cake out in the cold on her back porch, thinking it would be fine. What she did not count on was an opossum wolfing down the whole thing. Doggett says she found the sticky pot of possum panning on her patio furniture. Animal control officer gently collected the animal after a brief stint in wildlife rehab. She's expected to be released back into the wild, perhaps wiser about overindulging,

even when the cake is really good. This is NPR.