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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. A program that deputizes local police to help ICE with immigration enforcement has grown rapidly since President Trump took office again. As NPR's Meg Anderson reports, Homeland Security is offering millions of dollars in incentives to police who participate.
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DHS has promised to reimburse officer salaries, give bonuses to police for finding undocumented people, and money for new cars and equipment like fingerprint scanners and license plate read. A recent report estimated that if every police agency gets what they've been promised, it could add up to as much as $2 billion this year alone. But DHS hasn't released much information on who has actually gotten funds. Felicity Rose with the advocacy group Forward US says normally federal grants go through an open process and are tracked closely. It's very, very concerning that there's so little transparency in this money. Dhs declined to give NPR more specifics. Meg Anderson, NPR News.
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Campaign staffers bet on their own candidates and made thousands of dollars on prediction markets. As NPR's Luke Garrett reports, staffers use inside campaign information to bet with an edge and win big.
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Two campaign staffers, granted anonymity for fear of retribution, said the method is simple. Campaign staffers would get an unreleased poll, use it to buy advantageous event contracts, and then sell their contracts once the poll was released and their contract price soared. One staffer admitted to doing this themselves. They won thousands, and their bet was verified by Prediction Market reviewed by npr. Current law bars prediction market betters from using insider information to make money, but former commissioner at the Commodities Future Trading Commission, Kristen Johnson, doubted that the agency could police quote election positions. These bets raise serious questions about how campaign operatives can turn private information into a quick payday amid an unsettled legal landscape for prediction markets. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington.
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A cyber attack took the widely used education platform canvas offline today. NPR's Janaki Mehta. The hack seems to have affected schools across the nation.
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When students around the US Tried to access Canvas, they instead got a message that appeared to be from a hacker group known as Shiny Hunters. The message warned schools if they don't contact the group to negotiate a settlement by May 12, the hackers would leak everything. The group claims it has access to data belonging to 9,000 schools and 275 million students and staff. Colleges as well as many K12 schools, have released public alerts about the breach. Instructure, the company that owns Canvas, has confirmed a series of breaches over the last few days that have potentially released student names, emails, ID numbers and messages the company did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment, but it is posting updates about the breach on its website. Janaki Mehta, NPR News.
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This is npr. The Postal Service is considering a rule change that would allow anyone to send handguns through the mail for the first time in nearly 100 years. A 1927 law prohibits the shipment of handguns through the USPS unless they're from licensed retailers. The DOJ has called that law unconstitutional. The Devil's Hole pupfish lives in a single pool in Death Valley National Park. This rare fish almost went extinct in the wild last year. But as NPR's Nell Greenfield Boyce reports, officials took a drastic step to help it survive, and they say the species is now doing much better.
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After two earthquakes shook up the waters of Devil's Hole, its pupfish population plummeted. Only 20 fish were left. Wildlife officials debated what to do just as the federal workforce was experiencing mass firings and a government shutdown loomed. Moving quickly, biologists took some pupfish from a backup population that had been established in captivity over a decade ago and released them into Devil's Hole. Those fish survived, babies started appearing, and biologists later added in some additional captive bred fish. This spring, an official count found 77 devil's hole pupfish swimming around their rocky fishbowl in the desert. Nell Greenfield Boyce, NPR News.
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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is now the second longest serving justice in history, overtaking someone who is nominated by President Lincoln. Thomas tenure as of today tops 34 years. The only justice with a longer tenure is William O. Douglas, whom he would overtake in 2028. This is NPR News. Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon prime members can listen to NPR News now sponsor free through Amazon Music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get NPR plus@plus.NPR.org that's plus.NPR.org.