Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Libby Casey.
President Trump's controversial nominee to be the country's next public lands chief has
“been confirmed by the U.S. Senate on a party line vote.”
NPR's Kirk Seagler reports that is director of the Bureau of Land Management, Stephen Pierce, will oversee public lands he's previously called for selling. Steve Pierce is a fierce Trump loyalist who spread conspiracy theories around the 2020 election while serving as chair of the state GOP in New Mexico. Also once owned an oil-field services company in that state's Permian Basin, the B.O.M.
is the lead agency that approves oil and gas drilling on federal public land. While a congressman Pierce joined the calls of other conservative western lawmakers to sell federal land or transfer it to state control, long a fringe idea in the west that's gained traction in the Trump era. But during his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Pierce said those statements were
in his past. Kirk Seagler and PR News. The World Health Organization has declared a new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda to be an international public health emergency. As NPR's ping-hoong reports, U.S. health officials are working to move exposed Americans
out.
“Dr. Satish Pillai is managing the Ebola response for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
There's one case of Ebola in an American who's exposed as part of their work in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The person develops symptoms over the weekend, and tested positive late Sunday. Pillai says they're being moved to Germany along with six other Americans that are considered high-risk contacts, treatment, and observation.
Germany because their doctors have experienced with Ebola patients and it's quicker to fly there. Ebola disease is rare but deadly. Health officials believe this outbreak started in late April. It has already seconded at least 300 people and killed more than 100.
Ping-hoong and PR News.
NPR is restructuring its newsroom and cutting some jobs as it seeks to trim $8 million
from its budget. NPR's David Folk and Flick says it's an aftershock of Congress's vote last year to end federal funding for public media. Reporting on NPR's newsroom is not reviewed by corporate or news executives before broadcast. NPR offered voluntary byouts to 300 employees in the news division on Monday but is looking
for just 30 to leave. If not enough people accept the offer, the network says it'll carry out targeted layoffs among newsgathering staff and PR executives say staffers on shows and podcasts, including hosts, are not affected. At her and chief Thomas Evans is also consolidating newsgathering desks to ensure that
reporters on related topics work more closely together. David Folk and Flick and PR News. Unions representing workers for the Long Island Railroad and transit officials have agreed to a new contract ending a three day strike. New York Governor Kathy Hokel announced the deal on social media and said that phased service
will resume Tuesday at noon that means tomorrow morning it may still be messy for the commuters. It's NPR news. One of the largest electricity producers in the U.S. could soon grow even bigger. Next era energy plans to acquire dominion energy and peers Steven Bassaha reports that's
raising some concerns about already rising electrical prices. The merged company would cover Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Darrow West is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and says a big utility often comes with more lobbying power and stronger political ties. Any time there's a merger, there's a worry the customers might end up facing raising rates.
But he says state regulators still have power to oversee these companies and to make sure they're not gouging the consumers and that the large users pay their fair share. Specifically the power hungry data centers fueling AI. The merger would have to be approved by state and federal regulators. Next era says that could take 12 to 18 months.
Steven Bassaha and PR news. More than 145,000 American children have likely had a parent attained in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. That's according to a new report released today by the Brookings Institution.
More than one-third of those children were under six years old.
The report estimates that more than 22,000 American kids have likely experienced the detention of both parents, Washington, D.C. and Texas have had the highest ratios of affected children. The Brookings report is based on a statistical analysis of the detainee population. It estimates there are more than twice as many U.S. children with detained parents than
indicated by numbers supplied by the Department of Homeland Security. This is NPR News Live in Washington. This week on up first one trend emerging this election season. President Trump actively opposing Republicans he sees as disloyal and endorsing their primary challengers who've doubled in combates in multiple states.
“We're watching key primaries on Tuesday and Kentucky and elsewhere to see if that narrative”
holds up. And what those races might tell us about November.
