NPR News: 10-15-2025 9PM EDT
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. The Trump administration is cutting another 466 federal workers from the Department of Education. The agency had already been hit hard and is now being targeted during the government shutdown, as NPR's Corey Turner reports.
Earlier this year, OCR had 12 regional enforcement offices staffed with attorneys who investigate allegations of schools violating students' civil rights. After March layoffs, the administration closed more than half of them. Now, a union that represents many department employees tells NPR that staffers in four of the five remaining enforcement offices have also received layoff notices. The union says if those offices have been abolished, that would leave the Office for Civil Rights with just one regional office in Kansas City. The Education Department did not respond to a request for clarity. The layoffs will be on hold due to a court ruling, but it's not clear for how long. Corey Turner, NPR News.
Brown University is rejecting President Trump's offer for favorable access to federal funding in exchange for agreeing to Trump's politicized agenda for higher education. The university said doing so would curtail academic freedom and undermine its independence. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the first to reject the proposal last week. The Trump administration is withholding $40 million in federal transportation funding from California. NPR's Joel Rose reports the Department of Transportation says the state is failing to enforce English language requirements for truckers.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says California is the only state
What are the latest developments in federal education layoffs?
that, quote, refuses to ensure big rig drivers can read our road signs and communicate with law enforcement. The Department of Transportation had earlier warned California, Washington State, and New Mexico that they could lose federal funds unless they enforce English proficiency requirements for commercial truck drivers. The warning came after a deadly crash in Florida this summer involving an Indian-born truck driver who made an illegal U-turn. California officials say the state does enforce federal language proficiency requirements and that its commercial driver's license holders have a fatal crash rate nearly 40 percent lower than the national average for truckers. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington.
Delaware's Supreme Court hurt arguments today in a case over Elon Musk's compensation. NPR's Camilla Dominovsky reports on the package worth more than $100 billion.
The pay package in question is the largest in history. A lower court in Delaware had thrown it out, saying Musk had too much influence over his own pay. Tesla appealed, emphasizing that shareholders backed this pay package, which said Musk would only get paid if he met huge, seemingly unachievable targets for growth. Here's Jeff Wall, a lawyer for Tesla, in his closing remarks.
It'd be laughable if we didn't know with the benefit of hindsight that he'd done it. And 73% of stockholders said, I'll take that deal.
Some justices on the state's high court seemed sympathetic to Tesla's arguments, with one justice raising the fact that Musk couldn't take back the work he did over many years. Camila Dominovsky, NPR News.
It's NPR. Oklahoma's new public schools chief says he's rescinding a mandate that forced schools to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans, reversing an order from his predecessor. Superintendent Lyndall Field says he has no plans to distribute Bibles into classrooms. An order from the former superintendent drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and prompted a lawsuit that's pending before the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Many animals have the ability to detect the Earth's magnetic field using it like an internal GPS. NPR's Nate Rott reports a new study finds earthworms have the ability too.
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