Flu; Companies dropping DEI; Egg prices; Pam Bondi : NPR

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Today’s top stories

At least a dozen of the U.S.’s largest companies are quietly eliminating their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. GM, Pepsi, Disney and other companies have deleted some or all DEI references from their annual reports to investors, an NPR analysis of regulatory filings has found.

• 🎧 Most companies did not disclose the reasoning behind these decisions, but a few referenced President Trump’s new executive orders ending DEI in the federal government, NPR’s Maria Aspan tells Up First. Trump’s orders have threatened to sanction private companies that are federal contractors if they have DEI programs. Google, which is a federal contractor, informed Aspan that the company is “evaluating the changes required” by the president’s orders. Other companies that are not federal contractors are also following suit. Becky Baker, an employment lawyer with Vinson & Elkins, says DEI was a buzzword five years ago, but now it’s becoming politically toxic. Editor’s Note: Google is among NPR’s corporate funders.

Pam Bondi took over the Justice Department this week after receiving a confirmation vote to be Trump’s new attorney general. Bondi steps into the role at a tumultuous time. Over the past few weeks, the new administration has already pushed out senior career officials at the department and the FBI, setting off fears of possible mass firings.

• 🎧 One of the first things she has done is sign 14 memos to advance Trump’s agenda and the Justice Department’s role in it, NPR’s Ryan Lucas says. One memo raises questions about whether, under her leadership, the department aims to go after the people who investigated Trump. The memo establishes a Weaponization Working Group that’ll review the criminal and civil cases that were brought against the president over the past four years by federal and local prosecutors.

Many people are getting sick due to a winter stew of respiratory viruses — flu, COVID and more. A couple of unusual trends are driving all the coughing, sneezing and fevers this year.

• 🎧 People are still getting COVID-19and some even end up in the hospital. But this winter’s COVID-19 surge appears to be the mildest since the virus emerged, NPR’s Rob Stein says. The flu season started unusually early and has been intense. A second winter surge of the flu appears to be on the way. It’s a mystery why this is happening, but it could be the kind of natural variation that happens with the flu.

From our hosts

By Michel Martin, Morning Edition and Up First host

Because hosts like me get up so early to get ready to go on the air for Morning EditionI was already asleep (or trying to be) when the two aircraft crashed over the Potomac River last Wednesday night.

I woke up to a flurry of notifications that were both personally and professionally important: A family member had flown out of that same airport that morning. Was she okay? (She was) Needless to say, I knew I’d be covering it that day. Of course, I also thought about all the people whose lives would be marked by that tragedy: family members left to cope with their grief and professionals whose judgment would be called into question, fairly and unfairly.

But the other thing that came into my mind was another event I covered as a young reporter: the crash of Air Florida 90 on January 13, 1982. The plane was trying to take off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after a heavy snowfall but couldn’t get adequate altitude and crashed into the icy Potomac. It was a horrible day made even more horrible by the fact that there was also a fatal accident on the Metro just 30 minutes later — the first in the history of the system. Along with every other available reporter, I remember rushing from one assignment to the other; at one point, trying to reach family members of passengers; at another, standing outside for so long in my one pair of dress shoes that I thought I might get frostbite (I didn’t).

There was one bright spot: Lenny Skutnik.

He was a 28-year-old federal office worker whose agency had sent workers home early because of the weather. He was standing on the riverbank when he saw one of the only survivors: a woman who was too exhausted to hold onto a helicopter rescue line. He threw off his coat, jumped into the icy water and pulled her to safety, no doubt saving her life. Ronald Reagan asked him to sit next to first lady Nancy Reagan at his State of the Union address two weeks later, beginning a tradition that continues to this day.

By the time Skutnik retired from the Congressional Budget Office in 2010, he had received many honors but always denied he was a hero. He continued to work at the CBO as if nothing had happened. Just another federal employee doing his job.

Weekend picks

Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:

🍿 Movies: The action movie Love Hurts features hand-to-hand fighting and a touch of romance. The film stars Ke Huy Quan as a real estate agent who has reinvented his life after leaving the employ of his intimidating gangster brother.

📺 TV: Mo is about a man navigating work as someone who can’t legally work and the asylum process as a Palestinian refugee in Texas.

📚 Books: The coming-to-New-York genre is alive and well with two new books: Kay sohini’s graphic memoir This Beautiful, Ridiculous City and Gay Talese’s A Town Without Time.

🎵 Music: Are you rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles in this Sunday’s Super Bowl? If so, gear up for the game with this Philly-centric playlist.

🎮 Games: In Stardew Valleyplayers inherit farmland from their grandfather. They then decide to leave their corporate job and live off that land, building a new life by making friends, planting crops and fighting monsters.

🍳 Food: If you haven’t noticed… egg prices are up. If you can’t afford a carton of eggs, try one of these alternatives.

❓ Quiz: Even the answers I didn’t know… I got right! Give it a try and test your luck as well.

3 things to know before you go

1. Palmerston the cat, who formerly worked as chief mouser for the U.K.’s Foreign Commonwealth Office in London, has come out of retirement. This time, he is in Bermuda.
2. Do you know someone making history in the Black community right now? If so, the Up First newsletter team wants to know. Fill out this form by Feb. 14 and your entry could be featured in this newsletter.
3. Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic Black church in Washington, D.C., has been ordered by a judge to the take control of the name of the extremist group the Proud Boys.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.