NPR 2012-06-27

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President Obama took office, pledging to work with Congress to control greenhouse gases. But in the meantime, his EPA got to work on its own strategy for eliminating pollution that causes climate change. It crafted rules to curb⁴ greenhouse gases from tailpipes of cars and exhaust stacks of new power plants and factories. These rules were based on the agency's finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health, for example, by increasing the number and severity of heat waves. More than a dozen states and industry groups challenged the EPA's authority. But the court unanimously ruled that the EPA was just doing its job. Elizabeth Shogren, NPR News, Washington.

 

The number of homes destroyed by Colorado's High Park fire is climbing. At least 257 are gone. Hundreds of people are still waiting to return home, weeks after a lightning struck and touched a fire that has burned through 136 square miles. It's about 55% contained. Fire lines are holding, but Colorado is enduring severe heat, much like other western states, where temperatures are topping 100 degrees. 

 

The European Union's top leaders will ask heads of state at the summit this week to give the EU executive expanded powers over national fiscal⁵ policy. Teri Schultz reports from Brussels the recommendations to be presented Thursday will be contentious⁶ since some governments have already announced they won't buy in.

 

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso says the debt-ridden EU has little choice but to accept a deeper integration⁷, and that the economy isn't the only thing at stake.

 

“This crisis is the biggest threat to all that we have achieved through European construction over the last 60 years. Standing⁸ still is not an option.”

 

Barroso and three other top policymakers drafted the plan. Proposals include the eventual⁹ creation of a eurozone treasury¹⁰ and euro bonds, a banking¹¹ union for all EU members and a national budget clearance¹² process by Brussels to keep debt in check. But some parts of the plan are being rejected in advance of its official presentation at the summit. Britain dismisses joining a banking union for example, and France's opposed to surrendering so much sovereignty. For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz in Brussels.

 

Turkey's NATO ally is expressing solidarity¹³ today and condemning¹⁴ a Syrian military's attack on a Turkish jet. Damascus says its airspace was breached¹⁵. However, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an says there were no warning signs that the plane was going to be shot down last Friday. The two pilots onboard are missing and feared dead. Turkey’s already at odds¹⁶ with its neighbor for assisting refugees from Syria's uprising.

 

This is NPR.

 

Republicans are going to polls in Utah to decide if longtime incumbent¹⁷ Senator Orrin Hatch will run for a seventh term. The state's longest-serving senator faces a tough challenge from young conservative, as Terry Gildea of member station KUER explains.

 

At age 78, Hatch says this would be his last term in the Senate if elected. His challenger is former state Senator Dan Liljenquist, a Tea Party conservative, who was only two years old when Hatch was first elected to the Senate in 1976. If Hatch is reelected, and Republicans gain a majority in the Senate, he could be selected to chair the Finance Committee. Liljenquist has played Hatch's 36 years in Washington as a weakness. He hopes to capitalize on a national wave of anti-incumbent sentiment that has driven out moderates like Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana. Hatch got a large percentage of the votes at the Republican state party convention in April. But he needs only a simple majority today to move forward. For NPR News, I'm Terry Gildea in Salt Lake City.

 

The Canadian military could be called in to help prevent an Ontario mall from completely collapsing¹⁸. One person has been trapped beneath the rubbles since part of the building caved in over the weekend. The search was suspended late yesterday. The mayor of Elliot Lake says emergency teams have been waiting to make sure the building is secure enough to go back in. At least one person was killed in the collapse¹⁹. 

 

Tropical Storm Debby’s been generating potentially destructive weather over Florida, though it was about 80 miles offshore²⁰. At last check, some places could see as much as two feet of rain by the time the storm's over. A lot of roads were washed out. Severe flooding’s forcing authorities to shut down sections of Interstate 10 that's the main highway across northern Florida. 

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