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Episode Date: April 19, 2025

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If buying a home feels out of reach, you might have more options than you think. You might be able to, especially if you have a little bit of money saved up and if you qualify for a low down payment mortgage, maybe even with some down payment assistance. It definitely could be a possibility for you. Listen to the Life Kit podcast from NPR for first time home buyer tips. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, the man who the Trump administration says was mistakenly sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador, where he expressed concerns for his security, has been moved to a different facility.

Senator Chris Van Hollen related the news to reporters upon returning from a visit in El Salvador with Abrego Garcia. As NPR's Dominic Montanaro tells us, the case of Abrego Garcia is an increasingly contentious one with repercussions for pushing the limits of executive power. The Supreme Court did say that the Trump administration has to, quote, facilitate his return, but also said the courts need to give deference to a president's foreign policy. So the Trump administration has been using that to say that it's not their responsibility to bring a Brego García back and can't tell El Salvador what to do. NPR's Domenico Montanaro, Senator Van Hollen called on the Trump

administration to return the man to the US to receive due process. The Trump administration is moving ahead with efforts to make it easier to fire federal workers. NPR's Shannon Bond reports tens of thousands of jobs could be affected by a proposed rule stripping away civil service protections. The Office of Personnel Management proposed a new rule on Friday reclassifying many federal jobs as quote, at will employees. OPM estimates 50,000 positions, or about 2% of the federal workforce, will be reclassified. President Trump said on social media that if government workers, quote, refuse to advance the policy interests of the president or are engaging in corrupt behavior,

they should no longer have a job. The Trump administration is pushing to shrink the federal government and exert more control over it. The American Federation of Government Employees says this latest action will, quote, undermine the professional civil service that Americans rely on. Shannon Bond, NPR News. Thousands of people attended a vigil Friday at Florida State University to honor the two people killed and six injured in a mass shooting on the college campus Thursday. Member Station WFSU's Tristan Wood has more. Students, faculty and staff of the university poured onto Langford Green outside the school stadium to hear remarks and prayers from university officials.

FSU President Richard McCullough led the vigil. I'm here for you. We're all here for you. Whatever you need, we will deliver to help you. That's what we do. That's what makes Florida State special. FSU senior Mina Kendall attended the middle school next to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida when a shooting happened there in 2018. She says she feels numb after it happened again. People are crying around us and it's like, I've cried all my tears.

For NPR News, I'm Tristan Wood in Tallahassee. Wall Street exchanges close today for Good Friday. This is NPR News. Federal Judge Julia Kobich today sided with the American Civil Liberties Union on the subject of gender identification on U.S. passports. The judge stayed the effects of President Trump's January executive order that stated a person is male or female and rejecting the idea that someone can transition from the sex assigned at birth to another gender. She granted a preliminary injunction while the ACLU's lawsuit plays out. Federal regulators have approved a $35 billion merger of Capital One and Discover Financial Services. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the combination will

create the nation's biggest credit card company. Putting Capital One and Discover Credit Cards in the same corporate wallet might mean less competition for credit card users, but more competition for behind-the-scenes payment systems. Discover runs its own payment processing network, which could now be a more formidable rival to the much larger networks run by Visa and MasterCard. Merchants pay a swipe fee to those networks every time a customer makes a purchase with a credit card. Revenue from swipe fees has more than doubled over the last decade as prices have climbed and more people pay with plastic. As part of the merger approval, Discover agreed to pay a $100 million fine for overcharging

merchants on swipe fees in the past. Scott Horsley in Pierre News, Washington. The 129th running of the Boston Marathon takes place on the 250th anniversary of Patriots Day, Monday. This year's marathon has more than 30,000 entrants. The city says all international runners and visitors are welcome. I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington. Since Donald Trump took office in January, a lot has happened.

The White House Budget Office ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans. The impact of the Trump administration's tariffs is already being felt in President Trump's efforts to radically remake the federal government. The MPR Politics Podcast covers it all. Keep up with what's happening in Washington and beyond with the MPR Politics Podcast. Listen every day.