--:-- Corva Coleman: Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. The federal government shutdown is over now that Congress has passed short-term spending legislation.
--:-- Corva Coleman: The House approved the bill last night. That happened after an independent and seven Democrats agreed to vote with Republicans in the U.S. Senate earlier this week. In exchange, they won a promise from Republican leaders to hold a Senate vote next month. It will be on a Democratic bill aimed at renewing subsidies for health care insurance premiums. This is for policies through the Affordable Care Act.
--:-- Barbara Sprunt: Looking to see how Senate Democrats craft a bill to address the subsidies. Can they do it in a way that brings enough Republicans on board? If they're successful, they'll start the year with a policy victory. And if Republicans don't support it, Democrats still have what they say is a winning issue, health care, to campaign on.
--:-- Barbara Sprunt: NPR's Barbara Sprunt reporting. But even if the Senate does pass the Democratic health care subsidy bill, it's not clear that the Republican House would even take up the measure.
--:-- Corva Coleman: Although the shutdown is over, the federal government is still continuing to slow air traffic. It has been reduced by 6 percent. Officials say it will hold there until more air traffic controllers are able to return to work.
--:-- Corva Coleman: Congressional Democrats are warning the nation's governors that federal immigration officials are accessing data from people's driver's licenses.
--:-- Jude Jaffe-Block: A group of 40 Democratic senators and representatives sent a letter Wednesday to 19 governors from their party, urging them to block ICE's access to their residents' driver's license data and photos to stop the Trump administration from using them from what the lawmakers call, quote, unjustified politicized actions.
--:-- Jude Jaffe-Block: States share their residents' driver's license data with each other and law enforcement across the U.S. and Canada through a nonprofit called Endlets. The lawmakers say ICE and Homeland Security investigators have made hundreds of thousands of queries through Endlets in the past year. Five states had already blocked ICE's access.
--:-- Jude Jaffe-Block: ICE did not return NPR's request for comment.
--:-- Corva Coleman: Robo company Waymo is expanding its service to include freeway rides in three major cities. They include San Francisco.
--:-- Suni Khaled: From member station KALW, I'm Suni Khaled in San Francisco. The autonomous taxi service began operating on Bay Area freeways Wednesday morning, expanding its service in the region to San Jose as well. Waymo is also adding freeway routes to Phoenix and Los Angeles.
--:-- Suni Khaled: Waymo says freeway routes will initially be offered to riders who have early access to Waymo's advanced features before they're gradually offered to all. The company says it's planning to expand service to other cities over time, including Atlanta and Austin.
--:-- Corva Coleman: For NPR News, I'm Suni Khaled in San Francisco. You're listening to NPR.
--:-- Corva Coleman: Hundreds of people have been evacuated from the city of Weatherford, Oklahoma, because of an ammonia leak. Dozens of people have been hospitalized.
--:-- Corva Coleman: Weatherford is about 70 miles west of Oklahoma City. Authorities say the ammonia leaked last night from a tanker truck in a hotel parking lot. They're monitoring the air quality.
--:-- Corva Coleman: Schools in Weatherford, Oklahoma, are canceled for the day.
--:-- Corva Coleman: People in the U.S. are rapidly becoming less religious according to a new poll from Gallup.
--:-- Jason DeRose: Over the last decade, Gallup has found a 17-point drop in the percentage of U.S. adults who say religion is an important part of their daily lives. Now, just 49 percent say it's key.
--:-- Jason DeRose: Gallup says that decline is among the largest it's recorded in any country over a 10-year period, and that such a large drop is rare among the 160-plus countries it studies.
--:-- Jason DeRose: Chile, Turkey, and Portugal have seen similar declines. Gallup's analysis finds that only a few countries have experienced larger losses in religiosity, among them Greece, Italy, and Poland.
--:-- Corva Coleman: California is preparing for a major storm. The atmospheric river will funnel heavy rain into the state, dropping excessive rain.
--:-- Corva Coleman: Extremely heavy snow will fall in the mountains, possibly up to two feet. Wind gusts could hit around 50 miles per hour.
--:-- Corva Coleman: Officials in Los Angeles have started to evacuate people in areas where wildfires burned. There's no foliage to stop flash flooding. People could get caught in mud and debris flows.
--:-- Corva Coleman: This is NPR.
