What We Need To Know: November 20, 2025

What We Need To Know: November 20, 2025

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Sybil Wilkes with what we need to know Today.
It's Thursday, November twentieth, twenty twenty five. Number one. Former
Vice President Dick Cheney's funeral is scheduled for Thursday morning,
and it's being viewed as symbolic of a fading establishment
style Republican Party that has largely disappeared in the Trump era.
Many GOP figures note that Cheney now feels like a

(00:22):
figure from a different political America, one no longer dominant
in today's party. His break with Donald Trump, including calling
him a threat to the Republic and supporting Kamala Harris
in twenty twenty four, underscores how far the modern GOP
has shifted from the brand of politics that Dick Cheney
once defined. Number two Federal agents intensified immigration enforcement in Charlotte,

(00:45):
North Carolina, smashing a US citizen's truck window during one arrest,
as schools report tens of thousands of absences and immigrant
owned businesses close out of fear. The surge has expanded
into other Democratic led cities like Durham and Raleigh, creating
widespread anxiety. Many residents and officials are questioning why a

(01:05):
state far from the border, and one that backed President
Trump in the last three elections has become a focal
point of the crackdown. Number three. Artificial Christmas trees are
expected to cost ten to twenty percent more this year
and holiday lights up to sixty three percent more as
tariffs drive up import prices. Since mass market Christmas de

(01:28):
corps has not been made in the US for decades,
shifting production back home would be massively expensive. One major
vendor estimates that eight hundred dollars tree could cost roughly
three thousand dollars if manufactured domestically. Number four from our
good News file. Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice
paid off more than six hundred and sixty seven thousand

(01:51):
dollars in student lunch debt, expanding a local effort into
a nationwide initiative benefiting over one hundred schools. After visiting
a Bay Area elementary school and learning about the burden
that lunch debt places on families, he and his wife
broadened their philanthropy across the country. Rice says helping kids

(02:12):
in this way is a victory bigger than any trophy
he's ever won. Number five Black America two fifty and
the Spotlight continues to shine on black female military veterans today.
Hazel Johnson Brown, the first black female general and first
black chief of the United States Army Nurse Corps. Hazel Johnson,

(02:32):
born in nineteen twenty seven and long determined to be
a nurse, was denied admission to her local nursing school
because of racial discrimination, pushing her to train instead at
the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing. After returning to Pennsylvania
and working at the Philadelphia VA she joined the Army
Nurse Corps in nineteen fifty five, just years after its integration,

(02:54):
and went on to hold several leadership positions. She later
earned a master's degree from Columbia University and spent her
career educating nurses for both hospital and combat service, including
during the Vietnam War. Salute, here's your daily inspiration from
Yogi's jewels. Hope fuels the heart, helping us rise each

(03:14):
morning with gratitude and purpose, no matter what yesterday held.
All Right, uncivil wilks, be informed, be empowered.