NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-12-2024 3PM EST

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

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Lai from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. A long-awaited report from the Inspector General of the Justice Department reveals on the day of the pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol nearly four years ago, the FBI properly shared intelligence ahead of the January 6 riot. However, the agency also failed to take a basic step of canvassing its field offices for intelligence that could have helped law enforcement agencies be better prepared ahead of the January 6 event. The City of Louisville has agreed to work with the Department of Justice on policing

reforms. This follows the death of Breonna Taylor during a botched raid in 2020, which helped spark nationwide racial justice protests. Louisville Public Media's Giselle Rodin reports. Louisville leaders agreed to a consent decree with the Justice Department. Kristin Clark is the Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ Civil Rights Division. No doubt this consent decree includes the strong medicine necessary to cure violations of law and to help promote healing in this

community. A DOJ report revealed many cases of police misconduct in Louisville. This includes excessive use of force, unlawful searches and arrests, and faulty internal investigations. U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton will oversee the agreement. Beaton was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2020. For NPR News, I'm Giselle Rodin in Louisville. President Biden's commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people. The White House describes it as the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history. The president's also pardoning

39 individuals who were convicted of nonviolent crimes. Earlier this month, Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, a felony gun and tax charges. He initially said he wouldn't do that and got bipartisan backlash for the about-face, but President Biden defended his decision, saying people were unfairly targeting his son to get to him. Tens of thousands of Syrians disappeared during the reign of Bashar al-Assad, many of them arrested and never heard from again. Now with the fall of the Syrian regime at the hands of opposition fighters, families are now free to look for their loved ones.

And Piers Jane-Raf has more from Damascus. This is a stone monument that's been here for many years in the middle of Damascus and now all around it. It's just covered with photographs. Here they've been photocopied and plastered on the walls, glued and taped by relatives. With the last place that they were seen, behind every one of these photos,

years of families looking for their missing relatives. And now that the regime has fallen, they hope at least they can get some information on what might have happened to them. Jane Araf, NPR News, Damascus. From Washington, this is NPR News. Avalanche forecasters across the country are likely breathing a collective

sigh of relief after avoiding a federal hiring freeze. But Wyoming Public Radio's Hannah Morsebach reports not all seasonal workers are so lucky. Hannah Morsebach This fall, the U.S. Forest Service stopped hiring seasonal workers due to a budget shortfall. That included avalanche forecasters, the people that keep skiers safe in the snow. Hilary Eisen is with the Winter Wildlands Alliance. Freezing it, and that was gonna translate to either a reduced forecast coverage area,

fewer forecasting days that had an immediate public safety impact. But Eisen says her organization and others push back, and now avalanche centers are close to fully staffed. Though it's not a long-term fix. As people flock to the outdoors, there may not be anyone to maintain trails and campgrounds. For NPR News, I'm Hannah Merzbach in Jackson, Wyoming. Humpback whales have a new long-distance swimming record at least 8,000 miles, NPR's Jonathan

Lambert explains. Humpback whales are known for migrating long distances between feeding and breeding grounds, but these migrations are usually confined to the same ocean basin. In the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers report that the same whale, identified by its distinctive tail markings,

was spotted off South America's northwestern coast in 2017 and then again along Africa's southeastern shores in 2022. Scientists don't know the exact route this whale took, nor why it traveled so far. But the whale beat the previous record by nearly 2,000 miles. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. It's NPR.