NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-19-2025 4AM EDT

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

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NPR informs and connects communities around the country, providing reliable information in times of crisis. Federal funding helps us fulfill our mission to create a more informed public and ensures that public radio remains available to everyone. Learn more about safeguarding the future of public media. Visit ProtectMyPublicMedia.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. A federal judge in San Francisco is questioning whether the Trump administration is complying with his order to reinstate fired government workers.

As NPR's Andrea Shue reports, six federal agencies are covered by the judge's order. U.S. District Judge William Alsup said he'd seen media reports that federal agencies had rehired probationary employees fired last month, but immediately put them on paid administrative leave. He said that was not allowed under his preliminary injunction because government services wouldn't be restored if people aren't working. Attorneys for the government did not deny that agencies have placed reinstated employees on leave, but called it an intermediate measure, a first step to getting people fully reinstated.

They did not say what the next steps would be or if they'd be carried out while the government appeals the judges' ruling. Several federal employees told NPR they are getting paid but have gotten no news about going back to work. Andrea Hsu, NPR they are getting paid but have gotten no news about going back to work. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. A federal judge in Maryland has ordered the Trump administration to restore email and

other access to all employees at the U.S. agency for international development. U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang says the dismantling of the agency by Elon Musk's Doge team without the approval of a USAID official is probably unconstitutional. Chuang also says the move deprived elected members of Congress of their constitutional authority. Pages of stories highlighting Navajo co-talkers who were instrumental to U.S. victories during World War II are now missing from the Defense Department's website.

NPR's Sandhya Dirks has the story. A handful of websites telling the stories of how code talkers helped secure American communications in the Pacific have disappeared. Zenni Gorman is a historian and the daughter of a code talker, one of 29 Marines whose Navajo language proved to be a code the enemy couldn't crack. She says Native Americans have always faced erasure, but this story was about how diversity can make us all stronger and safer. The Navajo Code Talker story has always resonated at so many levels.

It's a Native American story. It's a military story. I never in my wildest dreams ever thought that someone would try to erase this story. The Department of Defense has said DEI is dead at the DOD and they are focused on unity. Sandhya Dirks, NPR News. A federal judge in Washington has issued a preliminary injunction against President Trump's executive order banning transgender people from military service. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes says the ban likely violates the Constitution and the rights of transgender service members.

Reyes put her injunction on hold until Friday so that the administration has enough time to file an appeal. This is NPR. Federal health officials say the number of measles cases around the nation now tops the whole of last year. Details from NPR's Giles Snyder. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there were 285 measles cases around the country last year. So far this year the case count has climbed to around 320. The number of infections is being driven by the outbreaks in West Texas and New

Mexico. Texas state health officials say there have been 20 new cases since last week, bringing the total there to 279. Three new cases in New Mexico bring the state's total to 38. Measles has also turned up in at least 15 other states from Alaska, Washington and California to Florida, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Health officials say the majority of cases involve people who are unvaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. Trial Snider, NPR News. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams are back on Earth after an unplanned nine-month-long stay aboard the International Space Station. NASA program manager Steve Stitch says the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule returned the crew

without any major problems. Overall, I would say it was a really clean, undocking reentry and landing. The Dragon vehicle performed extremely well, didn't really have any issues to work. You know, little things, a GPS outage that we reset a filter on and things like that. The Boeing spacecraft that carried Wilmore and Williams to the space station was deemed unsafe for human cargo after suffering some mechanical issues. U.S. futures are flat in after hours trading on Wall Street. This is NPR News.

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