NPR News: 09-14-2026 10PM EDT
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Why did Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell return to the Capitol after his fall?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. Former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell returned to the Capitol today after a three-month absence from a serious fall. In a statement today, McConnell said his recovery has been a long and often frustrating process. NPR's Claudia Grisales reports.
The eighty-four-year-old returned to the Senate in a wheelchair with a staff by his side. McConnell cast his first vote since his hospitalization in June and subsequent treatment. His vote was needed to vote a judicial nomination forward along a Republican Party line. The Kentucky GOP Senator said in a statement he is not yet 100% but plans to continue physical therapy and return when his conference needs him for the quote tough vote. He also said his recovery has been long and frustrating, and the lingering effects of childhood polio have not made it any easier. McConnell has the remainder of this year left to finish his final term in Congress. Claudia Risalis, NPR News.
The Trump administration has touted its deals with pharmaceutical companies as among the key wins of the president's second term, but one of the promises within those deals to cut drug prices in Medicaid has been slow to materialize.
How are the Trump administration’s Medicaid drug‑price agreements faring and why are they lagging?
And PR Sidney Lupkin has more.
Last fall, the president said companies that signed his most favored nation drug price deals would offer all of their drugs at a discount to Medicaid. But of the more than a dozen companies MPR reached out to, none would say how many they were offering at a lower price for the program. The actual text of the agreements hasn't been made public, but Medicaid can't just lower prices across the board. State Medicaid programs have until September 30th to finalize their participation agreement. payments in what's called the generous model. It's a pilot program that states and drug companies opt into for most favored nations prices on Medicaid drugs. The deadlines have been pushed back, but the agency overseeing the pilot says there's robust interest.
Sidney Lefkin, NPR News.
For the past ten months, NASA has been moving engineers out of their labs at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
What impact is NASA’s relocation of engineers from Goddard had on its space missions?
NPR's Chiara Eisner spoke with NASA employees who say that's been hurting the center's work.
Seven current and former scientists who worked at Goddard told NPR that moving scientists out of their labs has been stalling work on some of NASA's space missions.
Not all the labs were ready for us just to move into, and that then delays that entire project.
One engineer said they couldn't do their work last month on a spacecraft being made to explore Venus because they didn't have room to lay out their materials. Another said they weren't able to test that a satellite could communicate with Earth before it launched this summer. That engineer said NASA's management carted off their equipment during a move. NPR tracked down some of the lost gear and found some of it was thrown away, auctioned, and even donated to a university. Kiara Eisner, NPR News.
Major U.S.
Why did major U.S. stock indexes tumble and what’s the story behind the new crypto ethics bill?
stock indexes fell today. The S P five hundred fell near half a percent. This is NPR. Congressional Republicans say President Trump has agreed to new ethics provisions to help get a sweeping cryptocurrency bill across the finish line. Trump would be required to either divest or place in a blind trust any significant financial interest in an entity that issues cryptocurrencies. The President earned more than one billion dollars from cryptocurrency ventures in twenty twenty five. In Texas, landowners along the U.S.-Mexico border are uniting to sue the Trump administration over its plans to seize private property for border wall construction.
How are Texas landowners challenging the Trump administration’s border‑wall plan in court?
From Marfa Public Radio, Mary Cantrell has more.
The lawsuit takes aim at the Department of Homeland Security's determination that the Big Bend region is an area of high illegal entry, when it only saw 1.5% of the total border apprehensions over the past five years. DHS's determination allowed the government to bypass dozens of federal laws and expedite border barrier construction in the region, which is known for its pristine desert landscape.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why did Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell return to the Capitol after his fall?
0:00–1:16
2
How are the Trump administration’s Medicaid drug‑price agreements faring and why are they lagging?
1:16–2:06
3
What impact is NASA’s relocation of engineers from Goddard had on its space missions?
2:06–2:54
4
Why did major U.S. stock indexes tumble and what’s the story behind the new crypto ethics bill?
2:54–3:32
5
How are Texas landowners challenging the Trump administration’s border‑wall plan in court?
3:32–4:40
6
What did Pulitzer‑winning novelist Hernan Diaz discuss on ‘Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me’?
4:40–5:03