PG&E Says Federal Judge's Safety Plan Is Not Feasible And Too Expensive
Attorneys for utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric say a federal court proposal to require the company to enact a major fire-prevention program could cost as much as $150 billion dollars and the removal of 100 million trees from Northern California. Two weeks ago, Judge William Alsup proposed ordering the utility to inspect its entire electric grid — almost 100,000 miles of power lines — to determine the safety of that system and "remove or trim all trees that could fall onto its power...
Trump's Ex-Attorney Cohen Postpones Hill Testimony, Citing Ongoing 'Threats'
Updated at 3:42 p.m. ET President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen has postponed the public testimony he planned to give next month to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, citing "threats" from Trump. A lawyer for Cohen said on Wednesday that "ongoing threats" against Cohen's family from the president and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, "as well as Mr. Cohen's cooperation with ongoing investigations," had prompted him to decide not to appear as planned. Trump told...
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House Oversight Panel Launches Inquiry Into White House Security Clearances
House Oversight Committee Democrats have launched an investigation into who got security clearances in President Trump's administration following the 2016 election, as well as how and why. Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., outlined the goals of his inquiry in a letter to the White House on Wednesday. The committee wants "to determine why the White House and transition team appear to have disregarded established procedures for safeguarding classified information" and "evaluate the extent to...
Arizona Police Arrest Nurse Suspected Of Impregnating Incapacitated Woman
Updated at 2:44 p.m. ET Police in Phoenix say they have arrested a man suspected of assaulting and impregnating an incapacitated woman who gave birth at a long-term care facility. Nathan Sutherland, 36, a licensed practical nurse has been charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of vulnerable adult abuse, according to officials who made the announcement at a news conference Wednesday. "[Police] have spent endless hours investigating this hideous crime," Interim Mayor Thelda...
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California Doctors Alarmed As State Links Their Opioid Prescriptions to Deaths
About a year ago, Dr. Ako Jacintho of San Francisco returned home from traveling to find a letter from the state medical board waiting for him. The letter explained that a patient he had treated died in 2012 from taking a toxic cocktail of methadone and Benadryl — and Jacintho was the doctor who wrote the patient's last prescription for methadone. He had two weeks to respond with a written summary of the care he had provided, and a certified copy of the patient's medical record. He faced...
Pelosi To Trump: House Won't Host State Of The Union Until Shutdown Ends
Updated at 4:25 p.m. ET President Trump promised to find an alternative setting for his State of the Union address, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insisted he could not speak on the House floor until a partial government shutdown is over. The president and the speaker traded barbed letters Wednesday, with Trump initially saying he wanted to deliver the speech next Tuesday in the House chamber — the traditional location. "It would be so very sad for our Country if the State of the...
Native American Leader: 'A Wall Is Not The Answer'
For one Native American tribe whose land straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, President Trump's proposed border wall would, literally, divide its people. The Tohono O'odham Nation stretches through the desert from just south of Casa Grande in southern Arizona to the U.S. border — and then beyond, into the Mexican state of Sonora. This means that if Trump gets his $5.7 billion border wall, it would cut right through the tribe's land. "It would be as if I walked into your home and felt like your...
Venezuelan Opposition Leader Guaidó Declares Himself President, With U.S. Backing
Updated at 5:15 p.m. ET Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself the country's interim president amid nationwide protests Wednesday, in a bid to seize power from sitting leader Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. swiftly proclaimed its support for Guaidó. Maduro responded by announcing a break in diplomatic relations with Washington. Guaidó, the 35-year-old recently elected head of Venezuela's National Assembly, took the oath of office on an outdoor podium in Caracas, flanked by yellow,...
Concern About Global Warming Among Americans Spikes, Report Says
In 2018, Americans watched as California towns were incinerated by fires, hurricanes devastated coastal communities and a government report sounded the alarm about the impacts of a changing climate. All those factors contributed to significant changes in perceptions of global warming in the U.S., according to the authors of a new public opinion survey. The proportion of Americans who said global warming is "personally important" to them jumped from 63 percent to 72 percent from March to...
Politics From NPR
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist Russell Baker Dies At 93
Russell Baker, the Pulitzer Prize winning writer who penned thousands of columns for The New York Times , and hosted the PBS television program "Masterpiece Theatre," died Monday at his home in Leesburg, Va. He was 93. Baker got his start as a news reporter with the Baltimore Sun , but became known for his "Observer" column in the Times , where he commented on modern life with unmistakable whimsy. Though often pegged to the specifics of the time, many of his observations are just as relevant...
Science, Technology, And Medicine From NPR
From Cover-Ups To Secret Plots: The Murky History Of Supreme Justices' Health
For the first time in her 25-year career on the Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was not on the bench to start the new year. After the 85-year-old justice was operated on for lung cancer, she decided to work from home rather than return to the court two weeks after surgery. She's expected to make a full recovery and be back at the court soon. A fair amount is known about Ginsburg's cancers and surgery, but the history of Supreme Court justices and their health is murkier. That's, in...
Education From NPR
School Shocks Students With Disabilities. The FDA Is Moving To Ban The Practice
Luigi Disisto is a 47-year-old man who has autism and lives at a private special education center based in suburban Boston best known for being the only school in the country that shocks its students with disabilities to control their behavior. Disisto wears a backpack equipped with a battery and wires that are attached to his body to deliver a two-second shock if he misbehaves. The controversial practice at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center has pitted family members, who swear it has...
Arts, Culture, And Media From NPR
Beyond 'Shallow': A Look At The Oscars Picks For Best Original Song
There was some surprises in this year's 2019 Oscar nominations, but for people paying attention to the best original song category, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's "Shallow" from A Star Is Born was absolutely sure to make the cut. Aside from Gaga, other songs in this year's category include: "All The Stars," from Black Panther by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, "The Place Where Lost Things Go" from Mary Poppins Returns by Emily Blunt, "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" from The Ballad of...
For Many With Disabilities, 'Let It Go' Is An Anthem Of Acceptance
This story is part of American Anthem, a yearlong series on songs that rouse, unite, celebrate and call to action. Find more at NPR.org/Anthem . Disney's Frozen remains one of the greatest box-office successes in history. But in terms of impact and influence, it is perhaps most loved and best remembered for one of its breakout songs. No matter which version you know best — the Oscar-winning film version sung by Idina Menzel, the pop version by Demi Lovato or the one currently performed on...
Food, Nutrition, and Cuisine From NPR
You Don't Have To Go No-Carb: Instead, Think Slow Carb
If you like this article, you should check out Life Kit , NPR's new family of podcasts for navigating your life — everything from finances to diet and exercise to raising kids. Sign up for the newsletter to learn more and follow @NPRLifeKit on Twitter. Email us at lifekit@npr.org . Follow NPR's Allison Aubrey at @AubreyNPRFood . It's trendy to go low-carb these days, even no carb. And, yes, this can lead to quick weight loss. But ditching carbs is tough to do over the long haul. For starters,...
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Should Young Americans Be Required To Do Public Service? Federal Panel Says Maybe
Should the U.S. require its citizens to perform public service? Should its young women register for the draft? A federal panel says it is working on answers to those questions — and is considering how the nation could implement a universal service program and whether it should be mandatory or optional. "In a country of more than 329 million people, the extraordinary potential for service is largely untapped," said Joe Heck, chairman of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public...
Is That An Elephant On The Hill Above The 60 Fwy? No, It's An Ancient Mammoth... And A Fun Discovery
If you live in the Inland Empire and are driving on the 60 Freeway from Riverside towards Los Angeles, you might have seen the HUGE steel "elephant"-like statue looming in the distance on the hill above the freeway. Many people don't know it's acutally a sculpture of an ancient mammoth. Lots of drivers have wondered what it is, how it got there, and why it sits on that Jurupa Valley hill. As part of our listener-interactive reporting project, The Inland, KVCR's Shareen Awad went on a mission...