NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-17-2024 10AM EST

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

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Every weekday, Up First gives you the news you need to start your day. On the Sunday story from Up First, we slow down. We bring you the best reporting from NPR journalists around the world, all in one major story, 30 minutes or less. Join me every Sunday on the Up First podcast to sit down with the biggest stories from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Kori Va Coleman. The CEO of SoftBank, Yasuhoshi Sun, is pledging to invest $100 billion in the U.S. over the

next four years. As NPR's Bobby Allen reports, Sun is the latest tech mogul offering to spend big to court President-elect Trump. Masayoshi Sun's SoftBank, a Japanese financial juggernaut, hasn't explained where the $100 billion will come from, but he has said it will be spent on investments in AI startups and other ventures. It comes just as other tech executives like Metta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and OpenAI's Sam Altman have all announced million-dollar donations to Trump's inaugural

fund. Silicon Valley historian Margaret O'Mara says tech companies have have donated to inaugural funds before but this time is different. We're giving lots of money and we're making it very clear how much we're giving and who we're giving it to and why. That's something that was a departure from past forms. O'Meara says for some tech executives like Zuckerberg and Bezos who have clashed with Trump, the publicity over the donations could be fodder for a fresh start.

Bobbi Allen, NPR News. Police in Madison, Wisconsin are searching for the motive for why a 15-year-old girl opened fire at her Christian school yesterday. A fellow student and a teacher were killed and six other people were hurt. Police are also tracing where the gun came from. A federal judge has granted lawyers for ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin access to examined samples of George Floyd's heart tissue. Chauvin is in prison for Floyd's murder

and for violating his civil rights. For Minnesota Public Radio, Matt Sepick has more. Chauvin is trying to rescind his 2021 guilty plea to federal charges of using excessive force. He argues that his original attorney failed to tell him about an email from a Kansas pathologist who believes Floyd died of a heart condition, not chauvin's knee on his neck.

Prosecutors counter that a jury already rejected a similar medical opinion. Matt Cepic reporting. 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 fell about 230 points in early trading. Retail spending rose by seven-tenths of a percent in November. Much of the extra spending

came at car dealers, where sales jumped nearly 3 percent. Spending at home improvement stores was also up, fueled in part by rebuilding efforts after Hurricanes Milton and Helene. By contrast, spending at grocery stores and restaurants was down in November. Sales at online retailers jumped nearly 2 percent. Online giant Amazon is disputing the results of a Senate investigation, which found workers in Amazon warehouses suffer from significantly higher injury rates than other warehouse workers. Investigators blame the fast pace of work at Amazon. The company insists its injury rate is only slightly above average. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street, the Dow is now down 220 points. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. A New York judge has refused to dismiss President-elect Trump's convictions in a hush money case Trump's lawyers are seeking to have them thrown out, citing a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that gave presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution. But the New York judge disagreed. He says the hush money case poses no danger or intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch.

About a third of practicing psychologists do not accept health insurance. NPR's Katie Arittle reports that's according to a recent survey just released of over 800 psychologists. Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's

Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's Katie Arittle, NPR's insurance, but the administrative hassles around it take too much time and the reimbursement rates are too low. Marnie Schoenberg is a psychologist with the American Psychological Association. So you have to be able to have access to health insurance in the first place if you're going to address mental health and you're going to try to improve mental health in a country. Schoenberg says it's not only patients who suffer under this dynamic. Psychologists want to treat a range of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, not just middle-class people who can pay out of pocket for the care.

They say treating everyone makes them better therapists. Katie Ariddle, NPR News. The Transportation Department has unveiled new rules intended to assist air passengers with disabilities. It's to help people who use wheelchairs. That includes specific actions airline staffers need to take to protect passengers when a wheelchair is damaged or delayed during transport. The rules will also require airline staffers to get training every year on working with people with disabilities, especially those using wheelchairs or scooters.

I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News.