NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-16-2024 6AM EST

Episode Date: November 16, 2024

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. The newly elected Senate Majority Leader for the next term says all options are on the table to get President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks through the upper chamber. Speaking to Fox News, Senator John Thune pledged to get the nominations quickly approved in the Senate. The president got a big mandate. The American people want change in this country. They're tired of the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda and and they want President Trump to fix some things and he wants to get a team in place that can do that and we're gonna work with him to see that he gets his

team installed as quickly as possible so he can implement his agenda. Trump has nominated more than two dozen people to serve in his next administration. They include former Congressman Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, and Robert Kennedy Jr. as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. A House Democrat from New York is pushing back against recent comments by President-elect Donald Trump suggesting he may try running for a third term as president.

NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports the U.S. Constitution bans a person from being elected president more than two times. On his first return to Washington, D.C. since winning his second presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump told a group of House Republicans, quote, I suspect I won't be running again unless you say he's so good, we've got to figure something else out, unquote. That prompted Democratic Representative Dan Goldman of New York to introduce a House resolution to reaffirm that the 22nd Amendment applies to Trump. He likes to float these ideas, which he can claim are jokes, and then they become normalized

and they turn from jokes to reality. The resolution is not expected to go to a vote in the Republican-controlled House, but Goldman says he wants to remind everyone the 22nd Amendment says, quote, no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice. Hansi Luong, NPR News.

A federal judge in Texas has blocked a Biden administration rule that expanded the right to earn overtime to millions of workers. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports the rule was already partially phased in. The overtime rule took effect in July. It required employers to pay time and a half to salaried workers earning less than $44,000 a year when they worked more than 40 hours a week. On January 1st, the threshold was set to rise again

to $58,600 a year. The Labor Department estimated the rule would have made some four million more workers eligible to earn overtime. The ruling came in a case brought by the state of Texas and the coalition of business groups who argued that the rule was unworkable and would have had negative ripple effects across the workforce. The Biden Labor Department could appeal the decision, but the incoming Trump administration

would likely drop that appeal. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. This is NPR News in Washington. A Southwest Airlines plane was struck by a bullet as it was preparing to take off from Dallas last night. The plane was hit on the right side, just below the flight deck. No injuries were reported. An investigation is underway.

Hundreds of housekeepers, bellhops, servers, and bartenders at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas remained on strike after walking off the job on Friday. Nevada Public Radio's Paul Boga reports it's part of the first open-ended strike among hospitality workers in Las Vegas in more than two decades. The culinary union represents about 700 workers at Virgin Hotels, which it says is the last hotel casino in Las Vegas to sign a new five-year contract. Elijah Alter is a server there. We're not doing this to hurt the company or be malicious towards the company but we ask them to give the same respect that we give this

hotel when we serve their guests and their customers every day. The strike comes roughly a year after casinos along the strip narrowly avoided a strike by thousands of hospitality workers days before the city was set to host its first Formula One race. Virgin Hotel said in a statement that it's focused on reaching a quote economically viable deal for its employees. For NPR News, I'm Paul Boger in Reno. Retail spending was up slightly in October from the month before. A 1.6 percent jump in auto sales helped drive the increase. Sales also jumped more than 2 percent at electronics and appliance stores.

The latest report comes ahead of the holiday shopping season. I'm Windsor Johnston, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.