NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-19-2025 8AM EST

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

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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.

Live from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. President Trump has signed an executive order on in vitro fertilization or IVF. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin reports the goal of the order is to lower costs for patients. In vitro fertilization or IVF is a process that can cost around $20,000 or more. On the campaign trail, President Trump promised that it would be free, either paid for by insurance companies or the government. On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order that doesn't change policy right away.

It asks for officials to propose policy ideas that could bring IVF costs down. His supporters praised the move, saying it was a campaign promise kept. Democratic lawmakers called it a PR stunt since Republicans shot down laws to protect access to IVF. Some anti-abortion rights commentators also criticized the move, calling IVF immoral. Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News. President Trump and Elon Musk are vowing to remove the tech billionaire from any government work that could benefit

Elon Musk's companies. NPR's Bobbi Allen reports this comes as ethics experts continue to raise concerns about Musk's role in the White House. Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is moving to decimate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and initiated mass layoffs at the Food and Drug Administration. The CFPB was set to oversee digital wallets, like a service Musk is working on at X, and the FDA had investigated Musk's brain implant company, Neuralink.

Yet on Tuesday night, Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Trump and Musk about conflicts of interest. He won't be involved. Yeah, I'll recuse myself if it is. If there's a conflict, he won't be involved. I mean, I wouldn't want that, and he won't want it. Right, and also I'm getting sort getting a daily proctology exam here. It's not like I'll be getting away from something in the dead of night.

White House lawyers said in a recent court filing that Musk is involved in Doge but is not leading it, leaving the exact administrator of Doge unknown. Bobbi Allen in PR News. The Senate has confirmed President Trump's choice for Commerce Secretary. Howard Letnick was confirmed yesterday in a party-line vote. Lutnick is getting right to work. He'll meet the European Union's top trade official today. NPR's Giles Snyder says they're expected to discuss Trump's new tariffs.

Secretary Lutnick is expected to sit down with EU Trade Chief Maris Seftowicz. They'll be joined by National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and Jameson Greer, President Trump's nominee to be U.S. Trade Representative. Seftowich is seeking to head off President Trump's threat to expand tariffs to the EU. During his confirmation hearing last month, Lutnik expressed support for Trump's tariff plans. NPR's Giles Snyder reporting. Trump has already announced he's imposing 25 percent tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from any country. Yesterday, he said he is considering fresh tariffs.

Trump says he's considering putting these on all imports of foreign automobiles, semiconductor chips and on imported pharmaceuticals. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The head of the U.S. Postal Service says he is going to step down. Louis DeJoy has served as Postmaster General for nearly five years. He's asked the Postal Service Board of Governors to begin seeking his successor. DeJoy was named the head of the USPS during the pandemic. A winter storm is hitting several Appalachian states today.

That includes Kentucky. Last weekend, a separate storm in Kentucky killed at least 14 people, many in flash flooding. West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Curtis Tait reports another two people died in flooding in that state. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrissey thanked those who provided assistance in mountain communities hit hard by the weekend's floods. Local citizens were helping donating water. People from across the state were helping out and people from as far away as Texas.

Morrissey requested a major disaster declaration from President Donald Trump on Monday. West Virginia's congressional delegation has also sent a letter to Trump and the Federal Emergency Management Agency requesting disaster assistance for 13 counties. FEMA personnel are already on the ground in West Virginia, and Trump approved a disaster declaration Sunday for neighboring Kentucky. For NPR News, I'm Curtis Tate in Charleston, West Virginia. The Vatican says that Pope Francis continues to rest in the hospital and that he is in good spirits. Yesterday,

he was diagnosed with severe pneumonia, in a case doctors have described as complex. The pontiff was taken to the hospital last week after he got bronchitis and his condition worsened. Physicians have told the pontiff he is to take absolute rest. I'm Korva Kuhlman, NPR News. Hey, it's A. Martinez. I work on a Coleman, NPR News.