NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-20-2024 11AM EST

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

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What's good y'all? It's Gene Dembe from Code Switch. And on Code Switch, we are deeply curious about race and identity and the way it shows up in the news headlines or in our personal lives. With a wide range of voices in front of and behind the mic, we see how race shows up all over the place. So come rock with us on the Code Switch podcast, only from NPO. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman, a spokesman for the Trump Transition Team says the incoming administration is using an accelerated schedule to get key cabinet

nominees confirmed quickly. Several are meeting lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week. NPR has learned that vice presidentelect JD Vance will be on Capitol Hill this week to arrange meetings between lawmakers and Attorney General nominee Matt Gates and Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth. Both have drawn intense criticism for their lack of experience and for allegations of sexual misconduct. They have denied the allegations. Trump has nominated his former Small Business Administration leader to be the next Secretary of Education.

Linda McMahon is also known as a pro wrestling business magnet. Trump has vowed to close the education department, but NPR's Corey Turner reports if McMahon is confirmed, it's not clear how she'll do that. In Trump's statement announcing McMahon's nomination, he said he expects her to be a champion for school choice and it would be hard for her to do that without an education department. NPR's Corey Turner reporting. A California ballot measure that would have increased the state's minimum wage has been narrowly defeated according to a

call by the Associated Press. From member station KQED, Farida Javala Romero has more. Proposition 32 would have given what proponents say is as many as two million Californians a raise to $18 an hour by 2026, up from $16 an hour. Joe Sandberg, who spearheaded the measure, said he and other supporters were disappointed but would keep fighting. This is one bump in the longer-term journey to make California a place where everyone who works can afford life's basic needs.

Business groups opposing the measure argued it would lead to price increases and job cuts. For NPR News, I'm Farida Javala Romero in Oakland, California. A woman who drowned her two children in a South Carolina lake in 1994 and blamed their disappearance on a black man is asking to be freed from prison. And Piers Christen Wright reports Susan Smith goes before a parole board for the first time

today. The case made international headlines. Susan Smith said she was carjacked by a black man with her two little boys in the back seat. She repeatedly pleaded for their safe return. Her false claims set off a nationwide search and stirred racial tension. After nine days, Smith confessed to letting her car roll into a lake, drowning Alex and Michael. Her attorneys blamed her mental health and a history of sexual assault. Prosecutors argued she did it because of an affair with a man who didn't want children. Smith is serving life and is now eligible for parole. Her ex-husband, the

children's father, has said she should stay behind bars, and the state reportedly got hundreds of letters opposing her release. Smith has had various disciplinary problems in prison. Kristen Wright, NPR News. You're listening to NPR. The United States has vetoed a resolution at the United Nations Security Council. It demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The U.S. says the veto is because the resolution does not link the ceasefire to the immediate release of hostages kidnapped last year by Hamas.

The language in the resolution does call for the hostages immediate release, but the U.S. says it does not specifically link the two demands. The U.N. resolution has failed. In Washington state, a group of community members has been meeting for years to discuss their political opinions. From Northwest Public Broadcasting, Lauren Gallup reports they're committed to keeping the conversation going. Every Thursday morning, about 30 people get together at a community center in Port Angeles to talk politics. The group has been meeting since at least the 1990s.

For a while, it was mostly Democrats. Now, with some Republicans in the room, things can get a little heated. But they say they like the chance to talk with people they don't agree with. David Fox, a Democrat, says the reason he keeps coming back… The very fact that people come together specifically to talk about current events and to talk about politics, full well-knowing that they may disagree strongly with each other. Some say the first meeting after the election was painful, but most say they still want to keep talking.

For NPR News, I'm Lauren Gallup. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Matthew Whitaker as his NATO ambassador. Whitaker once worked at the Justice Department during Trump's first term in office and opposed a special counsel investigation of Trump. This is NPR.