NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-17-2025 6AM EDT

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. A day after NPR broke the story on a whistleblower's concerns about Doge's activities at his federal agency, several Doge representatives visited that agency's headquarters. NPR's Jenna McLaughlin has more. In recent days, a whistleblower working in the IT department of a small independent federal agency filed an official disclosure with Congress and spoke to NPR. Daniel Barulis works for the National Labor Relations Board, which protects employees' rights to unionize.

He says Doge requested the highest level access right before a large chunk of data was removed from the system. The NLRB told NPR that it never authorized access to the systems. Then a day later, senior officials at NLRB sent an email obtained by NPR, revealing that Doge had made its first official visit to the agency, and that two Doge representatives will be working

there part-time. NLRB says they will comply with Doge's requests, but will remove personal data from records before sharing them. Jenna McLaughlin, NPR News. The government of El Salvador has denied a U.S. senator the ability to visit a migrant who was wrongfully deported from the U.S. Kilmer Abrego-Garcia is now incarcerated in a Salvadoran prison. Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen flew to El Salvador yesterday.

He says Abrego-Garcia was denied the due process required by U.S. law. We have a court system to hold people accountable when they commit crimes, to make sure that they get the punishment they deserve. We also have a court system to make sure that people who have not committed crimes or not been convicted of crimes are not disappeared. The Trump administration insists that Rodrigo Garcia is a gang member, a charge his lawyers deny. In a related matter, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg says the Trump administration insists that Berrio Garcia is a gang member, a charge his lawyers deny. In a related matter,

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg says the Trump administration is likely in criminal contempt. He says the administration purposely ignored his order to turn around planes deporting migrants to El Salvador. Judge Boasberg says the Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders. Puerto Rico is grappling with an island-wide power outage. The territory went entirely dark yesterday.

Utility officials say about 16 percent of customers have gotten their power back. And Piers Greg Allen reports the shutdown was unexpected. Janera PR, the company that took over Puerto Rico's power generation two years ago, says the unexpected shutdown caused a massive power outage across the island. The company said it was working to bring back up power generators online. The outage began around 12.40 p.m. Puerto Rico time. A little later, the island's governor, Jennifer Gonzalez, said her administration was working with the power company and would provide details about the cause of the outage and when service would be restored. It follows a similar island-wide blackout on New Year's Eve. and would provide details about the cause of the outage and when service would be restored.

It follows a similar island-wide blackout on New Year's Eve. Puerto Rico has been plagued by power outages and failing infrastructure, as its public power company has struggled with bankruptcy. Greg Allen, NPR News. You're listening to NPR. U.S. Senator Patty Murray of Washington state says that Head Start centers across the country have not been able to get the $1 billion in federal funding they're owed. The Democratic senator says some Head Start preschool classrooms are now closed.

Murray charges the Trump administration is slow walking the money. Head Start is a child development program for more than 800,000 of the nation's poorest children. The Trump administration is proposing to limit the definition of what it means to harm and endangered species. NPR's Jonathan Lambert explains a change could make it easier to damage habitats that endangered species use. The Endangered Species Act prohibits the take of endangered species. By law, take means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect a species.

For decades, federal agencies have interpreted this definition to include harming the habitats endangered species depend on, since habitat loss is the biggest driver of species loss. Now, the Trump administration wants to narrow that interpretation. Their proposal would only prohibit harmful actions directed immediately against a particular animal, not their habitat. The change could make it easier for developers to build on habitats used by endangered species. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. Audio streaming service Spotify was out briefly yesterday.

Thousands of users said they could not stream music or podcasts for a few hours. Lambert, NPR News.