National News
National News
![Radioactive waste shipped to Idaho from a Midwestern nuclear weapons facility during the Cold War has been compacted and sent out of state for permanent disposal. A U.S. Department of Energy contractor on Wednesday said nearly 26,000 cubic yards of waste contaminated with plutonium-238 has been sent to a storage facility in New Mexico. CREDIT: KEITH RIDLER/AP](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Idaho-radioactive-waste-Idaho-National-Lab-CREDIT-Keith-Ridler-AP-500x500.jpeg)
Federal Report Says Radioactive Cleanup Work At Idaho Nuclear Site Is Working
Ongoing Superfund cleanup work of radioactive and other contamination at the Idaho National Laboratory in eastern Idaho has been successful at protecting humans and the environment, U.S. and state officials say. The five-year review by the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality also said that potential exposures in areas that aren’t yet cleaned up are being controlled.
![World Health Organization investigative team member Peter Daszak (shown here during a trip to China in February) tells NPR that the group's report calls for additional research on farms that breed exotic animals in southern China. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/peter_slide-5a3eb1b1f821a82aa11d3d589489ce07a8acffe7-500x500.jpg)
WHO Report: Wildlife Farms, Not Market, Likely Source Of Coronavirus Pandemic
The highly anticipated World Health Organization report on the origins of the coronavirus that sparked a global pandemic is due out Tuesday. NPR has obtained an early copy. According to the report, data suggests that the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was not the original source of the outbreak.
![Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC's director, said Monday that she is "scared" by the rising number of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the United States. Susan Walsh/Pool/AFP via Getty Images](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gettyimages-1231790930-218267448c79a1d8fcea5b4f38c53d5639cc6527-500x500.jpg)
CDC Director Fears ‘Impending Doom’ If U.S. Opens Too Quickly
Amid growing optimism about the rising pace of vaccinations in the U.S., the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has one request for the American people: Don’t act as if the pandemic is over – it’s not.
![Defense attorney Eric Nelson (left) with his client, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, on Monday. Chauvin is on trial for murder in the death of George Floyd in police custody in May 2020. AP](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Defense-Attorney-Eric-Nelson-with-Derek-Chauvin-032921-CREDIT-AP-500x500.jpg)
Trial Begins For Derek Chauvin, Former Minneapolis Officer Accused In Killing Of George Floyd
The prosecution and defense made opening arguments in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on Monday morning. The trial is starting in earnest 10 months after George Floyd’s killing triggered outrage and protests against racial inequality across the United States.
![Constable placing eviction notice on door in Texas](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gettyimages-1279347616-76a02d472540e71cd69569d43e0ba9691d12c677-500x500.jpg)
Federal Eviction Moratorium Extended Just 2 Days Before Expiration
With many Americans behind on their rent during the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is extending an order aimed at preventing evictions through June.
![Graphic of unaccompanied minors crossing US-Mexico border - today and through 2014](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/migrant-data-promo-06cc5e7016a22d2f15724755f6f70e2bc65273fe-500x500.png)
President Biden Says ‘Nothing Has Changed’ But Child Migrants Crossing Border At Higher Pace
It is true, as Biden states, that numbers often rise during the early months of the year when temperatures begin to warm. But the number of children arriving today without their parents is considerably higher than at the same time in 2019 and 2020. In fact, the number of unaccompanied children being apprehended by the Border Patrol were higher in February than they’ve been any previous February since 2014, according to data shared with NPR by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
![A memorial with flowers for victims of the Boulder King Sooper shooting](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gettyimages-1308741804_custom-acfc79a590a9eebc6664a53d9c37f3e4b9c2de54-500x500.jpg)
Why Nearly All Mass Shooters Are Men
A staggering 98% of these crimes have been committed by men, according to The Violence Project, a nonpartisan research group that tracks U.S. mass shooting data dating back to 1966.
![Employers are supposed to stop withholding the payroll tax on Sept. 1. But companies need guidance from the IRS on exactly who is eligible to have their taxes suspended and how to keep track so those taxes can eventually be repaid. CREDIT: Elaine Thompson/AP](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/ap_20105837161788-a82b3511e3783a125ed00f6189f17feac841334e-500x500.jpg)
How To File Your Taxes For Free, Get Help And Avoid Traps Trying To Get You To Pay
Most Americans are eligible for free tax-preparation services, but the truly free options can be hard to find. If you’re not careful, you could end up using a service that says it’s free but demands payment after you’ve spent time entering your information.
![High-resolution satellite imagery shows the Suez Canal and the container ship Ever Given that remains stuck north of the city of Suez, Egypt. CREDIT: ScapeWare3d/DigitalGlobe/Getty Images](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Suez-Canal-Ever-Given-block-CREDIT-ScapeWare3d-Digital-Globe-500x500.jpg)
Here’s How A Long Shutdown Of The Suez Canal Might Roil The Global Economy
Now, with the ship lodged sideways in the canal, closing off the main oceangoing highway between Europe and Asia, much of that cargo is sitting idle. It’s either waiting to transit the canal or stuck in port while owners and shippers decide what to do.
![U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gettyimages-1231648319_wide-decf86aa10c9945d61f1adf5e3bc460f465ab451-500x500.jpg)
DOJ Has Charged Nearly 500 With COVID-Related Fraud In The Past Year
On the anniversary of the CARES Act, the Justice Department says that over the past year it has charged 474 defendants with fraud or other criminal schemes tied to the pandemic. The grand total that fraudsters tried to scam from the government and the public in those cases is more than $569 million.
![A makeshift memorial in front of a downtown Boulder store that shooting victims Tralona Bartkowiak co-owned with her sister. CREDIT: Kirk Siegler /NPR](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/img_9301_wide-3bb75c86fa52a33a6f4f5b935abe5cc9b5c0c107-500x500.jpg)
Why Boulder Is Trying To Keep The Focus On Victims, Not The Shooter
As police in Boulder, Colo., search for a motive in Monday’s mass shooting that left 10 dead, community leaders are trying to keep the focus on victims and the needs of their families, not the alleged gunman.
![A member of the Minnesota National Guard stands outside the Hennepin County Government Center during jury selection in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on March 11 in Minneapolis. Chauvin is facing murder charges in George Floyd's death. Among the 12 jurors and three alternates selected are three Black men, one Black woman and two multiracial jurors. CREDIT: Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/chauvin_custom-46881d2c3e3ef1dc5b19d95218aa756fffba87b1-500x500.jpg)
Half Of The Jury In The Derek Chauvin Trial Is Nonwhite. That’s Only Part Of The Story
The jury chosen for the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, charged with murder in the death of George Floyd, is notable because it is significantly less white than Minneapolis itself.