NPR 2012-03-28

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The US Supreme² Court's conservative majority appears skeptical³ of the constitutionality of the provision in the new health care law requiring nearly all Americans to have medical insurance. NPR's Craig Windham reperts the justices have heard a second day of oral arguments regarding this law.

 

Conservative justices have sharply questioned the administration's lawyers about the law's insurance mandate⁴. Justice Anthony Kennedy is the conservative who in the past has most often sided with the high court's liberals, but his questions indicate he may have serious concerns about the mandate.

 

"Do you not have a heavy burden of justification⁵ to show authorization⁶ under the Constitution?"

 

Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts are emerging as the possible pivotal votes in the court’s consideration of the health care law. The administration is likely to need the support of at least one conservative justice for the law to be upheld. Craig Windham, NPR News, Washington.

 

Trayvon Martin's parents and their attorney are in Washington for a Capitol Hill briefing this hour on racial profiling in the role they say had played in their son's shooting death last month in central Florida. NPR's Greg Allen reports House Democrats⁷ will address constitutional issues they believe may be raised by the shooting.

 

Members attending the forum⁸ will hear from the lawyer for the Martin family, plus the head of the ACLU's Racial Justice Program. They'll discuss issues of racial profiling and the call for the Justice Department to investigate Trayvon Martin's shooting as a hate crime. But yesterday in Sanford Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee said there are other issues. 

 

“The neighborhood watch in all of the nation should be mandatory⁹ solidification¹⁰, and that the Stand and Defend laws will have to be assessed for their disparate treatment, and if they have proven to be discriminatory, they will be ruled unconstitutional.”

 

The Justice Department is already conducting an investigation¹¹ to determine if Martin’s civil rights may have been violated in a shooting by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. Greg Allen, NPR News, Sanford, Florida. 

 

The UN and Arab League's envoy¹² to Syria, Kofi Annan, says he has secured the Syrian government's endorsement¹³ for a negotiated end to the year-old Syrian conflict.

 

“We've had very good discussions about the situation in Syria, and they have offered me their full support, and they’re going to work with me and the other members of the Council to ensure that the six-point plan is implemented¹⁴.”

 

But today Syrian activists¹⁵ in Homs are reporting more violence. They say dozens of people have been killed by troops today. 

 

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow was down three points at 13,230. 

 

This is NPR.

 

Northern Japan has been struck by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake. However, authorities say there was no risk of a tsunami¹⁶ and no injuries have been reported. 

 

In the US, home prices still drifting lower. NPR's Chris Arnold tells us prices fell about 1% from the month before, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

 

With foreclosures continuing to dump more vacant properties onto the market, prices are down a bit from last month and down about 4% compared to a year ago. Still, there are some early signs of recovery. Home sales have been rising, and investors¹⁷ are buying up at least some of those foreclosed homes.

 

“We’re doing 4.5 million sales a year (of) existing homes. So it's not like the market's dead.”

 

Carl Kaysen is a housing economist¹⁸ at Harvard who helped to design the price index.

 

“It's a very mixed bag. It's almost zip code by zip code.”

 

Kay says some neighborhoods are looking much healthier and prices are strong; others are still in big trouble. Overall, though, since 2006, home prices are now down 34% from their peak. Chris Arnold, NPR News.

 

A controlled burn whipped out of control by strong winds in Jefferson County, Colorado is now blamed in at least two deaths and the destruction of two dozens structures. The fire’s burning in the mountain southwest of Denver where some homes are in ruin. 

 

In a legal setback¹⁹ for the government, a federal judge has dismissed the most serious conspiracy²⁰ charges against seven members of a Michigan militia²¹. The group was arrested on suspicion they were extremists plotting war against the US. Two of the defendants²² still face weapons charges.

 

US stocks mixed with the Dow down three points; NASDAQ up nine; S&P 500 up one.

 

This is NPR News.

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