NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-19-2025 2AM EDT

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

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On Thru Line from NPR. The consequences for the country would have been enormous. It would have been a crisis. The man who saw a dangerous omission in the US Constitution and took it upon himself to fix it. Find NPR's Thru Line wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. NPR has learned that employees at the U.S. Census Bureau and other parts of the Commerce Department are being encouraged to resign.

As NPR's Hansi Le Wong reports, the move comes as the Bureau struggles to retain staff that's needed to conduct key national surveys. According to emails shared with NPR, the Commerce Department is giving its federal employees a chance to apply for either early retirement or a lump sum of up to $25,000 if they leave voluntarily by May 3. The deadline to apply is April 17. Spokespeople for the department, which oversees the Census Bureau, have not responded to requests for comment.

The emails say Commerce officials are using these incentives to try to avoid or minimize the impact of a reduction in force. The offer comes days after the department's inspector general's office released a report that found the Census Bureau has not met its staffing goals for interviewers needed for the current population survey. It produces the monthly jobs report. There are also staffing issues with the American Community Survey that guides federal funding to local communities.

Hansi Luang in Pure News, Washington. Supreme Court Justice Chief Justice John Roberts has rejected President Trump's call for the impeachment of a judge who ruled against his deportation plans. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg says the administration defied his weekend orders to return any planes that were carrying deported Venezuelan migrants. Boasberg gave government lawyers until noon Tuesday to submit a plan for returning the migrants, but Justice Department attorneys refused to answer

all of the judge's questions. There's more fallout over billionaire Elon Musk's dealings in U.S. government affairs. NPR's Giles Snyder reports that a Canadian auto show has booted Musk's Tesla vehicles from the event. The. have been vandalized and Tesla vehicles have been damaged or destroyed, and what Attorney General Pam Bondi has likened to domestic terrorism. Giles Snyder reporting. Ukrainians are expressing skepticism over a ceasefire deal that President Trump and

Russian President Putin reached over the phone Tuesday. As NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports, Ukrainians believe Russia's true intentions are questionable. President Putin told President Trump Russia would stop targeting energy facilities, but Ukrainian officials say a major transformer in eastern Ukraine has been hit, and drones continued to attack Ukraine's cities including the capital, Kiev. It is these nighttime attacks by Russia that are destroying the country's energy sector, infrastructure and the normal life of Ukrainians, said Zelensky. And the fact that this night was no exception shows that Ukraine must continue to put pressure

on Russia if it wants peace. Eleanor Beardsley in Pure News, Kyiv. This is NPR. Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty is suing the Trump administration for canceling its contract with the global broadcaster. The lawsuit alleges the U.S. agency for global media violated the Constitution and federal laws by canceling funding allocated by Congress. The lawsuit also names U.S. GM's Acting Chief Victor Morales and Trump adviser Kerry Lake. Radio Free Europe says it provides news to audiences in 23 nations and in 27 languages.

The state of Louisiana has used nitrogen gas to execute an inmate. It's a first for Louisiana and that state's first execution in 15 years. The Gulf State's newsrooms, Kat Stromquist has the story. The closely watched execution was modeled off an Alabama protocol. The only other state to use the gas method. Correction Secretary Gary Westcott said Louisiana had improved it. We actually probably did a little bit better than they did with some of the equipment we did and we've made some tweaks to what they did. It was flawless.

The execution drew vigils and protests. At one near the prison, Hoffman's sister saw this advocate, Alison McCrary, explain their presence. Be the voice for mercy, for compassion, for forgiveness, and for justice for everyone outside of politics. Louisiana officials say the gas method will help them carry out more death sentences. For NPR News, I'm Kat Stromquist in Angola, Louisiana. U.S. futures are flat and after hours trading on Wall Street on Asia Pacific markets, shares are mostly lower.

This is NPR News. Making time for the news is important. are mostly lower. This is NPR News.