NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-19-2024 11PM EST

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

NPR News: 12-19-2024 11PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Announcer 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. Shea Stevens Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. House of Representatives has defeated a bipartisan bill to continue government spending through

mid-March. Republican lawmakers rejected the plan at the request of President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk. Democrats oppose a GOP alternative that U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson is calling a better option. Very disappointing to us that all but two Democrats voted against aid to farmers and ranchers, against disaster relief, against all these bipartisan measures that had already been negotiated and decided upon. Again, the only difference on this legislation was that we would push the debt ceiling to January of 2027. Both parties are accusing each other of trying to push through unnecessary giveaways.

Current government spending will expire at midnight Friday if no stopgap budget plan is approved by then. The Maryland man who's charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is now in New York City where he'll face murder charges. As Samantha Maxx of Member Station WNYC reports, a conviction would result in the death sentence. Samantha Maxx, WNYC Reporter Federal prosecutors charged Luigi Mangione with murder, firearm, and stalking charges. They say he took a bus to New York City and waited outside a hotel where CEO Brian Thompson was staying for an investor conference. Then, prosecutors say Mangione shot the CEO with an untraceable ghost gun and fled to Pennsylvania.

A new criminal complaint cites a letter addressed, quote, to the Feds that police found after Mangione's arrest. It also quotes from a notebook where officials say he wrote about his plans to target the insurance industry. Mangione was already facing state charges in New York and Pennsylvania, including for murder as an act of terrorism. His attorney said in court that she was caught off guard by the federal charges. For NPR News, I'm Samantha Maxx in New York. Sales of existing homes in the U.S. rebound somewhat in November.

NPR's Laura Wamsley reports that the uptick is a highlight in a very slow year for the housing market. It's tough out there for home buyers, and that's been reflected in sluggish sales this year. 2024 is on track to be the slowest for existing home sales in nearly 30 years. But in November, sales bounced higher, about 5% above October and more than 6% compared to a year earlier. More inventory is giving shoppers more choice, and more buyers appear to be resigning themselves

to mortgage rates between 6 and 7%. First-time buyers comprised 30% of sales last month. The median existing home sales price rose to $406,000. Laurel Wamsley, NPR News. On Wall Street, stocks closed mostly lower today, with the Dow Jones industrials adding 15 points, the Nasdaq fell 19, and the S&P 500 lost 5. This is NPR News. Investigators say a would-be mass shooter had contacted Samantha Rupnau, the teenager

who killed two people and injured six others at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin. The FBI says 20-year-old Alexander Paffendorf admitted telling Rupnau that he was planning to attack a government building. Rupnau died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Paffendorf is facing a court hearing in early January. A former top aide to New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on bribery charges. Elizabeth Kim from member station WNYC has that story. As chief advisor to the mayor, Ingrid Lewis Martin was considered the second most powerful person at City Hall. She now joins Adams again, becoming the second member of the administration to be indicted

on corruption charges. Manhattan prosecutors say Lewis Martin helped expedite city approvals on a building project in exchange for gifts that included $100,000 that she and her son used to buy a Porsche. Lewis Martin has denied any wrongdoing. Meanwhile, Mayor Adams is fighting federal corruption charges. Adams has accused prosecutors of being politically motivated by his criticisms of President Biden's handling of illegal immigration. For NPR News, I'm Elizabeth Kim in New York. A Georgia appeals court has removed Atlanta-area prosecutor Fonny Wallace from the election interference case against Donald Trump and

more than a dozen co-defendants. The case had already been delayed because of controversy over Willis' personal relationship with the prosecutor she hired. Willis says she'll ask the Georgia Supreme Court to review the matter. This is NPR.