NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-29-2024 2AM EDT

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

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Live from MPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. The Trump campaign is trying to walk back the profanity-laced racist and sexist comments made at Sunday's rally in Madison Square Garden. A comedian called the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance was asked about the latest controversy while campaigning Monday in Wisconsin. I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the joke, but I think that we have to stop getting so offended

at every little thing in the United States of America. I'm just, I'm so over it. Another speaker at Sunday's rally referred to the Harris campaign as the vice president's pimp handlers. Around 10,000 Harris supporters joined Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, and former President Obama at a rally in Philadelphia on Monday. WHYY's Carmen Russell Sluchanski was there.

Springsteen made a pitch for Harris before starting a three-song set. I'm casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. And I urge all of you who believe in the American way to join me. The campaign says they hope the event will further motivate volunteers like Sylvia Lucci of nearby Bucks County. I'm going to go home and I'm going to go one more campus, you know, because that's my ticket. I paid my ticket by saying I I'm gonna volunteer one more time. Trump campaign state communications director, Kush Desai, said the event shows Harris's message

is falling flat in Pennsylvania. For NPR News, I'm Carmen Russell Sucansky in Philadelphia. The US Supreme Court is being asked to rule on election moves in two states. Virginia Republicans want the justices to allow that state to remove 1,600 voters from state rolls. Federal courts have blocked the move, citing federal law forbidding voter purges within

90 days of an election. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Republicans are asking the high court to block the counting of some provisional ballots in that state. A Kansas court is holding hearings on a request to abolish the state's death penalty. As Zane Erwin with the Kansas News Service reports, the case was filed by a coalition of legal groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU says the death penalty is unconstitutional and racially discriminatory. Litigants are also honing in on death qualification, a rule that says anyone who

serves on a capital jury must believe state execution is a valid form of punishment. Alex Valdez, a staff attorney with the ACLU, says black people are struck from juries at higher rates, in part because of death qualification. What we're seeing in Kansas is emblematic of the problems with the death penalty throughout the country. Valdez hopes the evidence brought here could help cases against capital punishment in other states. For NPR News, I'm Zane Irwin in Kansas City, Kansas. NPR News Reporter US futures are flat in after hours trading

on Wall Street. This is NPR. Kentucky will soon join the list of states that legalized marijuana for medical use. As Karen Czar of Member Station WUKY reports, the state has used the Kentucky Lottery to award the first round of licenses. More than 5,000 businesses applied to either grow, process or dispense medical marijuana in Kentucky, but only 26 initial licenses were handed out, and they were chosen through a lottery draw.

This group will cultivate and process the crop. Another lottery will be held for the state's dispensary licenses. Karen Zahr reporting from Louisville. Artificial intelligence uses a lot of energy that can put a strain on the electrical grid. As NPR's Dara Kerr reports, some tech companies are looking to use nuclear power for their AI data centers.

Both Google and Amazon announced this month that they're investing in small nuclear reactors for alternative power sources, and Microsoft is planning to revive Three Mile Island, the power plant that had a partial meltdown in the 1970s. Those companies have seen skyrocketing emissions over the last few years with the boom in AI. That technology uses about 10 times as much energy as traditional web search. The companies say they're turning to alternative power sources like nuclear to cut down on their emissions. Building nuclear reactors, however, is expensive and time consuming.

These projects are just in the agreements phase and could take more than a decade. Dara Kerr, NPR News. And I'm Shae Stevens. This is NPR News. When voters talk during an election season, we listen. We ask questions, we follow up, and we bring you along to hear what we learn. Get closer to the issues, the people, and your vote at the NPR Elections Hub. Visit npr.org slash elections.