NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-26-2025 11PM EST

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

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Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend on thrive. Make a recurring donation today to get special access to more than 20 NPR podcasts. Perks like sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, early access, and more. So start supporting what you love today at plus.npr.org. plus dot npr dot org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stephens. President Trump has signed an executive order expanding the powers of Elon Musk's cost cutting team. As NPR's Bobby Allen reports, Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, may now oversee routine federal spending.

Trump's executive order instructs federal agencies to work with DOJ to review contracts, grants and other spending and make cuts, quote, where appropriate. The order also freezes all government credit cards for 30 days, with few exceptions. This impacts spending but also strictly limits government travel for some agencies. It's the latest sign of support from Trump of Musk's work making aggressive cuts to the federal bureaucracy. Already Musk's deputies have fired thousands of public sector workers and terminated contracts. But the real savings to taxpayers remains an open question. Some of the canceled contracts are old, counted twice or more by Musk's Doge website or have had zeros mistakenly added to the sums.

Bobby Allen, NPR News. The Department of Veterans Affairs appears to be walking back its plan to cut billions of dollars worth of contracts. As NPR's Quill Lawrence reports, the cuts are under review. VA Secretary Doug Collins posted on X Tuesday about a big number the VA was saving by canceling what he called wasteful contracts. Almost two billion, that's billion with a B, that we found in contracts that are cutting. Those are things that we're saving now that we can put back into health care benefits.

But a partial list of hundreds of the contracts to be cut viewed by NPR included things like cutting edge cancer treatment and outreach to recruit badly needed doctors at VA, and safety inspections and audits of VA programs for waste and abuse. Within 24 hours of the announcement, a VA spokesman said instead that the review of contracts is ongoing and not final and won't hurt VA health care benefits or beneficiaries. Quill Lawrence, NPR News. The United States has recorded its first measles death in years. As NPR's Ping Wong reports, the measles outbreak in West Texas has claimed the life of a child. The child who died was of school age and was not vaccinated for measles. The death was confirmed by state and

local health officials and comes after weeks of a growing outbreak that spans West Texas and New Mexico. Measles is a very contagious respiratory disease. It was declared eliminated from the U.S. 25 years ago due to high rates of vaccination with the measles, mumps, and rubella shot. But in the last five years or so, school vaccination rates have fallen below 95%, which is the CDC's level for preventing outbreaks. The vaccination rate is far lower in pockets like the Texas County at the center of the outbreak where the rate has dropped to around 80 percent.

Ping Huang, NPR News. On Wall Street, stocks close mixed today with the Dow losing 188 points. The NASDAQ Composite Index gained 48 points. The S&P 500 added a fraction. This is NPR. The Chevron Corporation has lost its permit to pump and export oil from Venezuela. President Trump made the announcement

on his social media site. He says the Venezuelan president has failed to meet certain conditions regarding democracy and repatriating citizens deported from the United States. The permit gave California-based Chevron an exemption from economic sanctions against Venezuela. Thousands of Alzheimer's patients are being treated with a pair of new drugs

that can sometimes slow down the disease. But NPR's John Hamilton reports that it's often hard for family members to know whether the drugs are working. Sue Bell started taking the drug leukembi in 2020 as part of a clinical trial. It's one of two drugs approved since 2023 that can remove sticky amyloid plaques from the brain.

Neither drug can stop the disease, but Sue's husband, Ken Bell, thinks leukembi may have given them more time. So many of the people who were diagnosed have deteriorated a lot quicker than I think Sue did. He's not sure though because Alzheimer's course varies from person to person. Sue Bell stopped taking leukembia in 2024 when cognitive tests indicated it was no longer likely to help her. John Hamilton, NPR News. Fans are mourning the death of Michelle Trachtenberg.

The 39-year-old actress was found nonresponsive at her home in New York today. Police are investigating her death, but say foul play is not suspected. Trachtenberg is best known for her roles in the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl. This is NPR News. When she teaches her students how to write a song, musician Scarlett Keys says they need and Gossip Girl. This is NPR News.