NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-25-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. Twenty-one civil service employees are resigning from Elon Musk's government cost-cutting team. As NPR's Bobbi Allen reports, the workers say they refuse to lend their technical expertise to quote, dismantle critical public services. Twenty-one civil service employees, mostly engineers and data scientists, have resigned. They used to work for U.S. Digital Service, but have since been folded into Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

In a mass resignation letter posted publicly, the former government workers say, quote, "...we will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize American sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services." The former federal government employees say soon after Musk began Doge, they started to be grilled about their work and political loyalty by people who wouldn't give their names wearing White House visitors badges. Musk has said the Doge team is focused on shrinking the size of government and combating waste and fraud. Bobbi Allen, NPR News. President Biden set aside $4 billion to keep the Colorado River flowing, but President Trump put that money on hold.

The money from Biden basically pays farmers, cities, and others not to take water from the Colorado River because climate change is shrinking the river to record lows. And that leaves the river's big water users asking what's next. Alex Hager with member station KUNC has more. Water users have been told that their grants are under review, but they're not hearing much from their contacts with the federal government. And I'll note that NPR's questions about all this to federal agencies went unanswered. Some are confused as to why their funding is caught up in this freeze because it doesn't

seem to be related to the Trump administration's stated priorities like eliminating diversity programs and developing American energy production. Alex Hager reporting. Consumer confidence fell sharply this month. NPR's Scott Horsley reports people are increasingly nervous about stubborn inflation and the threat of looming tariffs. A report from the Conference Board showed the sharpest one-month drop in confidence in three and a half years.

The findings echo a similar report from the University of Michigan last week. Both surveys show Americans are concerned about inflation. A Conference Board economist says that's partly driven by stubbornly high prices at the supermarket and by the prospect that President Trump's tariff policy could push the cost of living even higher. Trump has already imposed a 10% tax on imports from China and he's threatening more tariffs on goods from other trading partners including Mexico and Canada. Consumers are also feeling more pessimistic about the job market as the administration moves to cut thousands

of jobs within the federal government. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Danielle Pletka Wall Street's trading in mixed territory at this hour. The Dow is up 118 points. The Nasdaq is down 221, S&P 500 down 23. This is NPR News. The White House says President Trump plans to change the composition of the reporter pool that travels with him. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says the White House press team will determine what outlets are in that pool, and she says while legacy outlets may still be in it, new voices and streaming services, along with local radio hosts, will be added.

That decision has traditionally been left up to the White House Correspondents Association. The NFL could consider a ban on a play known as the tush push and here's Giles Snyder has more. The tush push is a type of quarterback sneak two players line up behind the QB and push him forward in short yardage situations. The Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles are most associated with the play. The team prefers to call it the brotherly shove and used it in the Super Bowl to score the first touchdown in the Eagles victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. The NFL's Troy Vincent told the NFL Network and The Washington Post that a proposal has been submitted.

He did not identify the team. Green Bay Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy, Murphy though said he's not a fan of the play following the Packers loss to the Eagles in the wild card round. Team owners could vote on the proposal at the annual league meeting next month. Trial Snider MPR News. Joanne Fabric and Craft says it will close all of its stores around the country, some 800 stores, after it wasn't able to find a buyer while in bankruptcy protection. Joanne's listed around 19,000 employees, some part-time, in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last month.

I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News.