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Shea Stevens
Live from NPR News. In Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. A federal judge in San Francisco says the Trump administration's mass firings of federal probationary workers may not be legal. Labor unions and civic groups challenged the firings, prompting the Office of Personnel Management to argue that it had only asked the agencies to review whether the probationary employees were needed. As NPR's Andrea Hsu reports, the ruling by U.S. district Judge William Allsup protects some of those workers.
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Andrea Hsu
He ordered a partial halt to the firings. And this is where the issue of jurisdiction comes in. The government argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to even hear these complaints, that the plaintiffs needed to channel their complaints through the independent agencies that are set up up to handle personnel actions within the federal government. And the judge agreed that this was the case for the unions who had sued, but not for those civic groups like the veterans group and the small business group. He said those groups had shown they were suffering harm from these firings.
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Shea Stevens
NPR's Andrea Hsu reporting. The national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is also laying off employees. Hundreds of probationary staff there began receiving layoff notices on Thursday. More than 1300 people, or about 10% of NOAA's workforce, are expected to be let, including weather forecasters. President Trump says US Tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada will take effect next week and that his 10% levy on imports from China will be doubled. More from NPR's Emily Fang.
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Emily Fang
In a post on social media, Trump says the tariffs would go into effect March 4. Earlier, he'd proposed 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, but paused them after both countries said they'd work on stemming fentanyl trade across the border. Trump writes that drugs are coming into the US From Canada and Mexico at, quote, very high and unacceptable levels. He also threatens to double tariffs on China, on which he's already slapped a flat 10% tariff. And Trump says he's considering additional tariffs of 25% on European goods and has floated the idea of separate tariffs on electric vehicles, semiconductors and medicines. Emily Fang, NPR News, Washington.
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Shea Stevens
The Justice Department has released more documents on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. As NPR's Ryan Lucas reports, a lot of the data was already public.
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Ryan Lucas
The documents include flight logs from Epstein's private plane, an evidence list, a contact book and a masseuse list. The last two of which are heavily redacted. There are no major revelations contained in the materials, and most of the files were already known to the public. Epstein was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019. He died by suicide shortly after that in a federal lockup while awaiting trial. The Justice Department says it intends to release the remaining Epstein documents after reviewing them and redacting them to protect the identities of Epstein's victims. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
- [03:14]
Shea Stevens
This is npr. Friday is the deadline for the nation's colleges and universities to comply with the Trump administration's civil rights standards or possibly lose federal funding. In a letter issued earlier this month, the Department of Education said the institutions could lose federal funding if they teach or promote ideas about race that the administration deems unacceptable. DOE says many schools have indoctrinated students with the false premise of systemic and structural racism and that they routinely use race in admissions, financial aid, training and hiring. A prehistoric fish drew hundreds of people to northern Michigan this month in what claims to be the shortest fishing season. From member station WCMU, Theresa Homsie has that story.
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Theresa Homsie
Nearly 800 anglers hit the ice this year for a chance to spear seven lake sturgeon, known as the dinosaur fish. The season broke a record for fastest time lasting only 17 minutes before the quota was met. Jay Widerski with Sturgeon for Tomorrow, a nonprofit that supports sturgeon conservation says the species is threatened in Michigan, but their population in the region has more than doubled in the last 25 years.
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Jay Widerski
Obviously, we're bringing awareness to it through the whole country. It's such a well regulated season. We're restricted to 1.2% of the total population in this lake.
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Theresa Homsie
The largest fish caught this year was 5 foot 3 and weighed nearly 80 pounds. For NPR News, I'm Teresa Holmsie in Sheboygan, Michigan.
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Shea Stevens
U.S. futures are mostly flat in after hours trading on Wall Street. On Asia Pacific, market shares are lower, down nearly 3% in Tokyo. This is NPR News.
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