美国国家电台 NPR 2012-08-16

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A security guard has been taken to a hospital after he was wounded in the gun attack. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, says his first concern is for the health and welfare of the guard. Metropolitan² Police Chief Cathy Lanier and James McJunkin, head of the FBI office in DC, said they'd recovered a weapon at the scene. It's been traced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Authorities say they are investigating whether the shooter had any prior contact with the Family Research Council. The conservative Christian³ group was founded to support traditional family values. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

 

President Obama has taken another verbal swipe at the Romney-Ryan campaign over Medicare, disputing their claims that he’s raiding a Medicare trust fund to help pay for health care overhaul⁴. He campaigned in Dubuque, Iowa today as his challenger Mitt⁵ Romney prepared for fundraisers in North Carolina and Alabama. As Alabama Public Radio's Maggie Martin tells us, immigrant advocates will hold a rally at the Birmingham, Alabama event to protest Romney's stance on immigration.

 

The Immigrant Youth Leadership Initiative of Alabama, also known as the DREAMers, will hold a rally outside a Romney's fundraising event tonight. The former Massachusetts governor has said if elected president, he'll veto the DREAM Act. The protest comes on the same day illegal immigrants can start applying for President Obama's deferred⁶ action program. It allows illegal immigrants 30 or younger who were brought to the country as children to apply for relief from deportation⁷ as well as a two-year renewable work permit. For NPR News, I'm Maggie Martin in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

 

Unfortunately, it's another hot and windy day for crews battling wildfires across the West. In Idaho, one of those fires has people ready to leave their homes. Sadie Babits of Boise State Radio reports a massive wildfire burning northwest of the town of Stanley is growing. 

 

The Custer County sheriff in central Idaho went door-to-door Tuesday night, hand delivering evacuation orders. People leaving along a popular highway outside of town are packing up valuables. Merry Senacheck, a fire information officer, says once a thick cloud of haze⁸ lifts, the fire will take up, fueled by trees that have been killed by beetles¹⁰.

 

“A lot of pinewood dead standing¹¹ beetle⁹ killed. You get crown fires or fires that are leaping from the tops of trees to the next trees. And it allows the fire to cover a lot of ground very rapidly.”

 

Senacheck says crews will focus on protecting a major power line that provides electricity to Stanley and communities in the high country. She says that line is in the path of the fire. For NPR News, I'm Sadie Babits.

 

This is NPR.

 

Nine years after a wildfire led to several deaths in San Bernardino, California, a conviction. Today jurors found Rickie Fowler guilty of murdering five people who suffered heart attacks after he set the fire in the foothills above San Bernardino in 2003. That fire damaged or destroyed about 1,000 buildings over nine days. 

 

The longest freighter on the Great Lakes is grounded in St. Mary's River. WCMU's Mike Horace reports coast guard investigators¹² are now trying to assess the damage.

 

The Paul R. Tregurtha grounded early this morning south of Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a rocky area known to be particularly dangerous to mariners¹³. Lieutenant¹⁴ Rob Scott is with the US Coast Guard.

 

“There was some damage to the vessel¹⁵ in way of the bow. We don't know the exact amount of damage. The divers¹⁶ are en route now. But there was some water intrusion as a result of that initial grounding on the bow of the vessel.”

 

Scott says the pumps onboard the Tregurtha are keeping up with the leaks. And no collusion has been observed coming from the vessel. The Tregurtha is blocking all southbound traffic through the St. Mary's River, tying up one of the nation's busiest shipping¹⁷ lanes. For NPR News, I'm Mike Horace in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

 

Consumer prices in the US remain flat for the third time in four months. Energy costs edged down, while food prices increased slightly, the Labor¹⁸ Department saying today core consumer prices which exclude the volatile¹⁹ food and energy sector²⁰ rose 0.1% last month.

 

Dow is up six points at 13,178; NASDAQ gaining 13 and the S&P 500 up three.

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