NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-17-2025 2PM EDT

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. In Florida, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital says six people are hospitalized, one in critical condition after reports of an active shooter on the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee. President Trump says he's been briefed on the incident. It's a shame. It's a horrible thing, horrible that things like this take place. He made the comments from the White House today.

The school has told people to shelter in place as police clear rooms. A standoff between the Trump administration and the federal courts is escalating. And Pierce-Kristin Wright reports, President Trump's key issue of immigration is at the center of the disputes. Two federal judges presiding over separate deportation cases are clashing with the Trump administration. They've scolded the government over its response to judicial orders and set quickly approaching deadlines for the administration to give deportees the chance to challenge the removals or the

government could face potential contempt charges. In the case of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, illegally deported from Maryland to a Salvadoran prison, the administration must soon explain to a judge how it's complying with a Supreme Court order to facilitate his return to the U.S. Right now, the executive and judicial branches are squarely at odds over the reach of their constitutional authority. Kristen Wright, NPR News, Washington. A whistleblower has disclosed to Congress his concerns about alleged actions by tech

billionaire Elon Musk and his cost-cutting entity Doge. Empire's Jenna McLaughlin reports that Doge's handling of sensitive data appears to be a widespread concern. The National Labor Relations Board is a small, independent federal agency that investigates and adjudicates complaints of unfair labor practices. Daniel Baroulis works for the NLRB's IT department. In a disclosure to Congress and other federal overseers, he says Doge appears to have gotten access right before a big chunk of sensitive data was removed from the agency and records

were deleted. Why was that done? And that's a purposeful effort. That doesn't just happen. Logs don't just disappear. While the NLRB tells NPR they have no record of Doge's access and that an internal investigation concluded there was no security breach, Barula says the suspicious activity he noticed warrants further investigation. Jen McLaughlin, NPR News.

President Trump is calling on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to immediately lower interest rates after the European Central Bank cut their interest rates to offset the impact of Trump's tariffs. Powell says the tariffs could raise prices in the U.S. Surveys of households and businesses report a sharp decline in sentiment and elevated uncertainty about the outlook, largely reflecting trade policy concerns. Powell speaking there in Chicago yesterday. ECB head Christine Lagarde says she supports Powell. On Wall Street, the Dow is down 307 points, the NASDAQ up 41. You're listening

to NPR News from Washington. Medications known as GLP-1 have revolutionized the way that doctors treat weight loss. It started largely with Azempik. It's Novo Nordisk's blockbuster diabetes drug, but most of the current options on the marketplace are injectables. But they can be intimidating for patients to use. Ampere Sydney Lepkin reports a new GLP-1 pill is now on the horizon. Eli Lilly is announcing that early results from a phase three clinical trial of its GLP-1 pill is now on the horizon. Eli Lilly is announcing that early results from a Phase III clinical trial of its GLP-1

pill show it reduced participants A1C, a measure of blood sugar control, better than placebo. The trial lasted 40 weeks and was only for people with type 2 diabetes. According to the company, the safety and efficacy was consistent with its injectable GLP-1 drugs, ZepBound and Manjaro. The once-daily pill also helped patients lose up to 16 pounds. The company plans to report the results at the American Diabetes Association Conference and publish them in a peer-reviewed medical journal later this year. Sydney Lupkin, NPR News.

In Puerto Rico, power is slowly returning, a day after the island suffered its second blackout in nearly four months. Nearly half the 1.4 million power customers and around 80 percent of the 400,000 water customers affected have service back. It's not clear what caused the blackout, but the U.S. Territory's Governor, Jennifer Gonzalez, says they expect preliminary information on what happened in a few days. The power outage caused massive disruption to traffic, businesses, hospitals, and the airport.

It also affected hotels that are filled with Easter vacationers. I'm Janene Hurst, NPR News in Washington.