NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-07-2025 7PM EDT

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Herbst. Senior FBI officials who had a role in investigating now President Trump are being forced out. And Pierce Kerry Johnson reports the reasons aren't clear. The highest profile departure at the FBI is Brian Driscoll. He briefly led the Bureau as acting director at a time when the White House demanded a list of investigators who worked on cases related to the Capitol riot. Driscoll ran a group that responded to critical incidents and had won several awards. He wrote colleagues he didn't know why he was being fired. Also on the way out is Stephen Jensen, who led the Washington Field Office at the FBI. The Agents Association says the men carried out their duties with integrity, and they followed the law. The Association says firing FBI investigators without due process makes the country less safe.

Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. President Trump signed an executive order today that could open the door for 401K retirement plans to include alternative investments like real estate and even digital assets. MPIRS Daniel Kurtzleben reports Trump and his family have a growing business interest in crypto. The executive order instructs cabinet officials and financial regulators to determine the next steps to change regulations. The new types of assets, including private equity and cryptocurrency, are considered riskier than traditional 401K investments than stocks and bonds. Trump's family has a growing financial interest in cryptocurrency in particular. They started a digital assets business, World Liberty Financial last year, and Trump's social media company also announced earlier this year they were raising billions to purchase Bitcoin.

The price of Bitcoin jumped after news of the executive order broke. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News. Indiana's governor is partnering with the Department of Homeland Security to house 1,000 migrants facing deportation at a state prison. Ethan Sandwis from member station WFIU reports Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam is calling Indiana's Miami Correctional Facility, quote, Speedway Slammer. That's a reference to IndyCar Racing. The state and DHS aren't planning to expand the jail. They will utilize unused beds. Miami prison currently runs at partial capacity.

and has struggled to keep staff who have described the prison as out of control. State data from June shows 185 staff vacancies. Jim Woodward, a resident of nearby Peru, Indiana, supports using the prison. They broke the law to get here, and you break the law, there's consequences to it. But Peru native Joseph Hiles doesn't see it that way. They ain't guilty really in nothing. So they really ain't supposed to be. I don't think they should be locking them up like that.

Other locals say they support Trump's policies but don't want a detention center in their backyard. For NPR News, I'm Ethan Sandwise. Wall Street ended the day in mixed territory. You're listening to NPR News. A federal judge today ordered a temporary halt to construction at the Immigration Detention Center in Florida dubbed Alligator Alcatraz. This as a case winds its way through the courts on whether it violates environmental laws. The judge says the facility built in the middle of the Florida Everglades can continue to operate and hold. detainees for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, but that no structure work can take place

for the next two weeks. Americans, on average, still consume more than half of their calories from ultra-processed foods. Those are the products, dense in energy and low in nutrition. If you as Yuki Noguchi reports, that's according to new data from the CDC. Young people between age 1 and 18 get nearly 62 percent of their calories from ultra-processed foods. Sandwiches, including hamburgers, snacks, and sweet drinks account for much of it. The study by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics shows consumption of these foods decreases with age. Still, for those 19 or older, ultra-processed foods accounted for 53% of their calories. Reliance on these unhealthy foods is on a downward trend, however. The study looked at a

two-year span between 2021 and 2023. Since 2018, consumption among youth especially has decreased. Yuki NPR News. U.S. Futures contracts are trading higher at this hour. Dow futures are up about one-tenth of a percent. I'm Janine

Herbst, NPR News, in Washington.