NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-06-2025 7PM EST

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

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There's no place like the garden, and this season, Garden Variety wants to help you flourish. Each week, the Heartland's top horticulturists, insect experts, foresters, and others drop by with fresh tips about everything you want to grow or grow better. Dig in to Garden Variety from Iowa Public Radio, part of the NPR network. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. Billionaire Elon Musk and his Doge cost-cutting unit have been slashing the number of federal employees at agencies for weeks now, and now they're focusing on several other agencies, including the Pentagon. And here's Tom Bowman has been looking at the chaos and confusion it's causing at the Pentagon.

The Pentagon put out a memo on Monday saying the firings would start that day. They are looking to cut tens of thousands of probationary employees and using that money to pay for priorities such as more drones, ships, and submarines. But we're not getting a lot of detail from the Pentagon about where those cuts will come from. I'm getting calls from contacts in the Army, Air Force, and Defense, health agency about job cuts that have already taken place. And here's Tom Bowman. Musk and his DOJ unit also want to cut up to 80,000 employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The head of the VA, Doug Collins, says the agency will

carefully figure out how to get back to 2019 levels. Meanwhile, Musk says he wants to cut $1 trillion in federal spending by the end of the fiscal year. But as NPR's Stephen Fowler reports, changes of that magnitude are supposed to be driven by Congress, not Doge. For every dollar the federal government has spent so far since the start of this fiscal year in October, 2024,

Doge has claimed to save the equivalent of about four pennies. An NPR review finds those savings claims from actions like pushing agencies to fire workers and cut contracts are drastically inflated. But even if you take those numbers at face value, DOJ's focus is on such a small part of the multi-trillion dollar federal budget handled by Congress. About two-thirds of this year's federal spending has been on social security, Medicare, health programs, income security, and veterans' benefits and services.

Most of what's left goes towards interest on the debt and defense. Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Atlanta. A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has found that President Trump acted unlawfully in removing Gwen Wilcox, a member of the National Relations Board, Labor Relations Board in January, and ordered her reinstated. And here's Andrea Hsu has more.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found President Trump's removal of Wilcox was unlawful because presidents don't have the power to remove Labor Board members except in cases of neglect of duty or malfeasance. The judge ordered Gwen Wilcox return to her seat on the board to finish out her term, which expires in 2028. With Wilcox's return, the NLRB once again has a quorum and can resume its work adjudicating labor disputes between workers and employers and issuing decisions. The ruling comes a day after an appeals court in Washington, D.C. removed U.S. special counsel

Hampton Dellinger from his seat after he had been reinstated by a lower court. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Washington, D.C.'s mayor plans to remove Black Lives Matter Plaza, a mural that stretches a two-block section of a road north of the White House amid pressure from the Trump administration and a Republican in Congress. Muriel Bowser's office says the mural on the street will be painted over. The street is closed to vehicular traffic, but it's not clear if that will change.

The section of that street was designated BLM after the murder of George Floyd by a policeman in Minneapolis in 2020. Paul Francis recorded a message from his hospital room thanking people for their prayers for his recovery. It's the first time the 88-year-old has been heard since he was hospitalized almost three weeks ago. MPR's Ruth Sherlock says you can hear the toll his illness has taken in his voice. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers for my health, Pope Francis says in his native Spanish. I accompany you from here. The message sounds heartfelt. It's also labored. After so many weeks in hospital battling double pneumonia, even for this audio note that's barely 20 seconds long, Francis seems to struggle for breath as he speaks. The Vatican says the Pope's

condition is stable, but his road to recovery may yet be a long one. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Rome. All Street sharply lower by the bell. The Dow down 427 points. The NASDAQ down 483. The S&P 500 down 104. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from NYU Langone. The NYU Langone Health App gives you access to your electronic health record. Keep track of your visits, lab results, and images all in one place. Better health starts with a better health system.