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See Terms Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. President Trump's nominee to head a whistleblower protection office has announced that he will withdraw from consideration. As NPR's Elena Moore reports, the decision by Paul in Gracia follows reporting Politico that he sent racist texts.
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President Trump nominated In Gracia to lead the watchdog agency which handles whistleblower complaints and investigations into federal employees. His confirmation hearing had been set for Thursday, but on Tuesday night he released a statement that he didn't have enough Republican support in the Senate to move forward. The announcement follows a Politico story revealing that Ingrazia appears to have made racist comments in a text chat disparaging black Americans and other minority groups. NPR has not independently confirmed POLITICO's reporting, but a lawyer for Ingracia told the outlet the messages could have been manipulated. Elena Moore, NPR News.
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Plans are on hold for President Trump to sit down with Russia's Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the Ukraine war. Trump floated the idea last week. The decision was made following a call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart. North Carolina's Republican controlled legislature has formally begun redrawing the state's congressional map. It's an effort to help the GOP gain another U.S. house seat. North Carolina is the latest Republican led state to take up President Trump's request to redistrict. He wants the GOP to keep control of Congress after next year's midterm elections. As North Carolina Newsroom's Adam Wagner explains.
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They'Ve been pretty clear this is to help the GOP hold the House and to boost the Trump administration agenda. Here's Senate Republican leader Phil Berger answering questions on the Senate floor.
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The redrawing of District 1 was done based on political calculation and a determination that that district could be redrawn for a Republican to have a better chance of winning. That's the only reason it was done.
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There's some thought that insisting that this gerrymandering is being done for partisan reasons is an attempt to get ahead of lawsuits that everybody's expecting. Both state and federal courts have said that they can't overturn maps because they offer one party or the other an unfair advantage.
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Adam Wagner from the North Carolina newsroom federal funding for a project that uses artificial intelligence to solve weather related problems was terminated recently. The recipients say they were not given an explanation. As NPR's Katia Riddle reports, the project.
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Was a multi year collaboration across several universities. Amy McGovern worked on it. She says the research had widespread application.
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I could talk about the aviation impacts. I could talk about the hurricanes. I could talk about the severe weather. I mean, everything, the winter weather, all of those areas we've been working on, and every single one of those areas impacts business across the United States and the world every hour. So, yes, we had a tremendous impact.
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The Trump administration said in an email statement that the reason for terminating this project is that it promoted, quote, climate change hysteria. Katie Riddle, NPR News.
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And you're listening to NPR News from Washington. The British royal family is under intense scrutiny as Virginia Giuffre's memoir hits bookstores. She accused late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein of forcing forcing her to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was a teen. Her book Nobody's Girl doesn't reveal new details, but reignites accusations against Andrew. He recently announced he'll stop using his royal titles, including Duke of York, but denies the accusation. An appeals court has overturned the conviction of Colombia's ex president Alvaro Uribe for bribery and witness tampering. Uribe has denied any wrongdoing. He was sentenced to 12 years of house arrest for allegedly attempting to influence witnesses who accused him of having ties to a paramilitary group. Americans are expected to spend a record $13 billion on Halloween this year. From Northwest Public Broadcasting, Lauren Patterson tells us where some of that cash is going.
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A survey by the national retail Federation finds 73% of the participants plan to celebrate Halloween this year. That's up from about half in 2005.
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Over the past 20 years, there's been a dramatic increase in the number of people who are celebrating Halloween.
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That's Jay Zagorsky, an economics professor at Boston University who researches holidays. The data also show people are spending billions on costumes this year and more people are dressing up their pets. Zagorsky says that's due to social media.
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One or two influencers start dressing up their pets and then everyone's like, oh, I need to dress up my pet too.
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People are predicted to spend nearly a billion on pet costumes this year. For NPR News, I'm Lauren Patterson in Pullman, Washington.
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This is NPR News.
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