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Giles Snyder (0:14)
Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles. A powerful holiday storm is lashing Southern California with heavy rain and gusty winds. Parts of LA scorched by wildfires nearly a year year ago under evacuation warnings. Kavish Harjai is with Elis, the NPR member stationed in Los Angeles.
Kavish Harjai (0:38)
Of course, with any storm in this area, burn scar areas are of concern. So these are portions of land where, because of wildfires, vegetation has been removed and the nature of the soil has changed. And as a result, water isn't absorbed by that burned land as it usually might be. And so that creates dangerous runoff conditions for the land below and makes those burn scar areas susceptible to debris flows.
Giles Snyder (1:04)
Much of the state under weather warnings, forecasters warning of whiteout conditions in parts of the Sierra Nevada Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer calling the discovery of more than a million additional documents that could be connected to the Jeffrey Epstein case a Christmas Eve news dump. The Justice Department said today it needs more time to review the files to comply with the law that required the full release by last week. New York is leading a multi state coalition suing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Over transgender care. NPR's Selena Simmons Duffin reports that Kennedy is aiming to essentially ban such care for youth nationally, even though it's supported by all major US Medical associations.
Selena Simmons Duffin (1:44)
Secretary Kennedy published a declaration last week calling gender affirming care for youth, quote, neither safe nor effective to treat gender dysphoria. The declaration then says that if hospitals and doctors provide this care to young patients, they could be barred from getting Medicare and Medicaid payments entirely. Now a coalition of 19 Democratic led states in D.C. are asking the U.S. district Court in Eugene, Oregon, to rule the HHS declaration unlawful and block its enforcement. In a statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James said, quote, secretary Kennedy cannot unilaterally change medical standards by posting a document online. HHS declined to comment on the lawsuit. Selena Simmons Duffin, NPR News.
Giles Snyder (2:27)
New research suggests that drugs for ADHD don't work the way scientists once thought they did. NPR's John Hamill Hamilton has more on a study in the journal Cell.