NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-15-2024 10AM EST

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

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Otograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autographcollection.com. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. President-elect Donald Trump today will formally announce he's nominating North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to be the next Secretary of the Interior. NPR's Kirk Siegler has more on Burgum's background. Burgum made a fortune in software and briefly mounted a presidential bid in the 2024 GOP primary before dropping out and supporting and doing a lot of fundraising for Trump.

He's known as a big booster of oil and gas and hails from one of the nation's most productive drilling states, though most of North Dakota's boom has occurred on private land. Historically, Interior Secretaries have come from Western states with huge amounts of public land. North Dakota is about 4% federally owned. And here's Kirk Siegler reporting. There's been reaction to Trump's choice of former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Gaetz was investigated by the Justice Department and the House Ethics Committee for allegations

of sex trafficking. He has denied the allegations. The federal DOJ probe was ended. The House ethics probe was terminated once Gaetz resigned from Congress on Wednesday. There have been calls for the Ethics Committee to release its report anyway. Police organizations are looking forward to a second Trump administration, even as some express concern about his calls for rough policing. NPR's Martin Costey reports. During the campaign, Trump promised greater legal immunity for police, and he suggested

violent tactics against shoplifters. Some reform advocates worry that this will unleash excessive force by local police, but Darrell Stevens, a former police chief now with the Council on Criminal Justice, does not expect police to respond that way. Most of them know that even if they engage in that kind of behavior, that the president's not going to save them. They're going to be held accountable by their own local police agencies. The federal government has no direct control over local law enforcement, though the previous Trump administration did rein in Justice Department investigations of individual police departments

and also tried to tie federal grants to local police cooperation on immigration enforcement. Martin Costi, NPR News. Stocks opened lower this morning as the Commerce Department reported a bigger-than-expected jump in retail sales last month. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones industrial average slipped about 250 points in early trading. Retail sales rose by four-tenths of a percent in October as shoppers bought more big-ticket items including cars, appliances and electronics. Spending at gas stations and grocery stores rose only slightly last month, but spending at restaurants jumped

by 0.7%. Furniture sales were down in October. They've been weighed down by sluggish home sales. General Motors is laying off about a thousand workers around the world. Most of the layoffs are hitting salaried employees, but some blue- workers are also affected. Stocks in vaccine makers are down after President-elect Trump confirmed plans to nominate vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. This is NPR News.

School districts are struggling to find and hold onto special education teachers, especially since the pandemic. The shortage is adding to the learning challenges students with disabilities already face. NPR's Kristen Wright reports federal officials are hearing testimony this morning at a briefing. The Education Department says 39 states report

not having enough special ed teachers this year. The Civil Rights Commission is looking into it. Kate Sable lives in Wisconsin. She has two children with developmental disabilities and learning differences in high school. Your kids just aren't getting what they need and they're not getting enough remediation, they're not getting enough one-on-one time, and so it's just a trickle-down effect. Sable says fixing this is going to take understanding what educators need. Every special ed teacher that I have ever met loves what they do and they really want to help and they need support.

The commission's report, including what the federal response should be, is due out next year. Kristen Wright, NPR News, Washington. California fire officials say the wildfire burning northwest of Los Angeles is more than 90 percent contained. More than 240 buildings were destroyed, many of them homes. At one point, thousands of people evacuated. On the east coast, the Jennings Creek Fire,

burning on the New Jersey-New York border, has been three quarters contained. There's a super moon peaking tonight. That's because it's full and at its closest point in orbit to the Earth. This is the fourth super moon this year. It will appear big and bright for a couple of days. Scientists say the next supermoon won't happen until next October, but next year there will be three monthly supermoons in a row.

This is NPR.