NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-14-2025 7AM EDT

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

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Law enforcement in Washington, D.C. is ramping up. The White House says federal agents and the National Guard will be on the streets 24-7. Federal agents and local D.C. police officers stopped vehicles at checkpoints last night. Protesters shouted and warned drivers not to go down the street. Residents have varying perspectives on crime in the city, but many feel this is not the right approach. Does Shen put it this way? Based on other things that he has done is just a string of decisions that will ultimately expand presidential power at the expense of other branches of government. I just don't think deploying the National Guard is the solution to whatever they're claiming.

President Trump says the goal is to fight crime in the capital city. Resident Alicia Cooper says she feels more safe now. The positive is a sense of security. Residents at the end of the day, they can feel secure that they know that there is a higher level of chain command that is monitoring, you know, what's going on. D.C. City leaders point out that local and federal data show violent crime in the district has fallen to a 30-year low. Trump says he's going to try to extend federal oversight long term. In California today, Governor Gavin Newsom will officially announce what he plans to do to counter efforts by Republicans in Texas to, to redraw congressional maps.

Steve Futterman reports. Governor Newsom says he believes action by California may be the only way to counter what's being done in Texas. We are trying to defend democracy as opposed to see it destroyed district by district. Today he's expected to call for a special election in November. Californians would be asked to approve a new map

redrawn to favor Democrats. This week, Newsom attempted to mock President Trump on social media, saying, California will draw a new, more beautiful map. For NPR news, I'm Steve Fuderman in Los Angeles. President Trump has handed a legal victory when a federal court of appeals ruled that the administration can suspend billions of dollars that Congress had earmarked for foreign aid spending. NPR's Fatma Tannis reports.

On his very first day in office in January, President Trump froze all foreign aid spending for programs that tackle disease and poverty overseas, a group of international aid groups that were recipients of foreign aid grants sued the administration. And in March, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against the funding freeze, saying that the administration had unlawfully frozen funds that were allocated by Congress. But now that ruling's been overturned. In a two-to-one vote, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the plaintiffs did not have the legal standing to bring a lawsuit. Fat Matanis, NPR News. This is NPR News. Info Wars conspiracist Alex Jones may be about to lose control of his media empire.

A Texas state court has appointed a new receiver to sell the companies. As NPR's Tovia Smith reports, proceeds will go to the families who won a $1.3 billion defamation case against Jones. He spread false stories that the Sandy Hook school shooting never happened. The new receiver is authorized to take over Info Wars cash, cameras, and the Info Wars brand with sheriffs, needed. After years in federal bankruptcy court payouts may start in weeks to the families who say they were tormented by Jones' followers who believed his lies that they were just actors. Chris Maddie is one of the family's lawyers. Alex Jones has had this justice coming for a long time, and through many twists and turns, the families are finally holding Alex Jones accountable for years of harm.

Maddie says the move could also mean the satirical site the Onion will buy info wars. Jones's lawyers did not respond to request for comment, but Jones claimed on his show that the judge's order appointing the receiver is not legal. Tovia Smith and PR News. One of the stars of What's Happening died this week from cancer at the age of 60. Actor Danielle Spencer played Dee on the 1970s sitcom. She was Raj's very funny, feisty, teenage little sister who liked to tattle. Dee also liked to roast her big brother's friends, Duane and Rerun, said in Watts, Los Angeles, what's happening was one of the first shows on TV about the lives of black teenagers. Daniel Spencer later became a doctor, a veterinarian. She died at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia. I'm Kristen Wright, and this is NPR News

from Washington. Support for NPR.