NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-20-2024 8PM EST

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

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This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu slash forward. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. The House Ethics Committee deadlocked on whether to release its report into former Congressman Matt Gaetz. The panel met today while Gaetz met with senators about his controversial nomination to be Attorney

General. More from NPR's Lexi Scherpittle. The House Ethics Committee investigated drug use and sex trafficking allegations against Gaetz when he was a member of the House. Now that he's President-elect, Trump's picked to lead the Justice Department, senators from both parties have said they want to see the panel's report. But after the House committee met for two hours, ethics chairman Michael Guest, a Republican from Mississippi, said there had been, quote, no agreement to release the report. The ranking

Democrat on the committee, Congresswoman Susan Wild, told reporters that members were divided along party lines, but agreed to revisit the matter at another meeting on December 5th. Lexi Shapil, NPR News, The Capitol. House Speaker Mike Johnson is banning transgender people from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender on the House side of the Capitol. NPR's Windsor Johnston reports the move comes several days after Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace introduced a resolution prohibiting transgender women from using women's restrooms. Speaker Johnson says all single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House office buildings,

including bathrooms and locker rooms, are reserved for people of, quote, that biological sex. Johnson also noted that each member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol. A number of LGBTQ plus groups were quick to criticize the move, calling it cruel and discriminatory. It's unclear how the policy will be enforced. NPR's Windsor Johnston. A South Carolina parole board has unanimously ruled a 53-year-old woman convicted of rolling her car into a lake and drowning her two young sons 30 years

ago should remain in prison. Susan Smith appeared before the parole board today saying God has forgiven her who were her ex-husband and the father of the children she killed then argued Smith should remain behind bars. Prosecutors in the case said Smith killed the children because she thought they were the reason a wealthy man she was having an affair with broke it off. The state of Texas has offered President-elect Trump some land for the construction of a mass deportation facility, empires Sergio Martinez Beltran reports. The 1,400 acres of land are to be used to construct deportation facilities. That's in

a letter to the president-elect from Texas General Land Commissioner Don Buckingham. The land is in Starr County, which includes towns on the US-Mexico border. The county flipped Republican for the first time in more than a century on November 5th. Buckingham says her office is ready to enter into an agreement with the federal government to build a facility for the processing, detention and, quote, largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation. Trump has said he'll declare a national emergency and use the military to assist with deportations. Sergio Martinez Beltran, NPR News, Austin. On Wall Street, the Dow is up 139 points. You're listening to NPR.

Currently, the tallest land animals on earth, giraffes, could soon join other animals on the endangered species list. Proposal by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to add the majestic animals to the list comes as their numbers in Africa have plunged in recent years. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the number of giraffes has fallen from over 150,000 in 1985 to about 98,000 in 2015. Loss is due to a combination of deforestation, drought and poaching, and in some cases, trophy hunting. Proposal announced today would protect giraffes that primarily live in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Uganda.

The Country Music Association Awards are happening in Nashville tonight. Luke Combs, Zach Brown Band, and Casey Musgraves, among the artists nominated, because Isabella Gomez Sarmiento has more. It's country music's biggest night. This year, the Knots for Entertainer of the Year include Morgan Wallen, Chris Stapleton, and Lainey Wilson.

Wilson, who took home that title last year, is making her hosting debut, alongside Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning. And though there will be plenty of familiar faces on stage, there will also be two notable newcomers. Rapper turned country star Post Malone, who racked up his first four CMA nominations this year, and Shaboozy, whose hit, a bar song, Tipsy, has topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for longer than any other song this year.

18 weeks and counting. Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR News. Good old futures prices closed lower, oiled down 52 cents a barrel to 68.87 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autographcollection.com.