NPR 2010-09-22

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In a major setback¹ for gay rights advocates, Senate Democrats² were unable today to get the 60 votes they needed to move forward a measure to repeal³ “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the policy that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. NPR’s Audie Cornish says it was part of a broader defense⁴ spending bill.

In addition to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” provision, Senate Democrats wanted to add an amendment⁵ called the “DREAM Act”, providing a path to citizenship⁶ for undocumented young people brought to the US as children if they serve in the military or go to college, but Senate Republicans were unified⁷ in their opposition⁸ to the add-ons. Ohio Senator George Voinovich says Senate Majority Leader Harry⁹ Reid is taking the wrong approach.

“To me, this is a cynical¹⁰ ‘no’. Take care of the “DREAM Act”; take care of, you know, some of the other issues. Handling these issues the way he’s doing it is frankly¹¹ gonna do more harm than good to the issues that you care about.”

The defense bill includes some $725 billion for military and national security spending. Audie Cornish, NPR News, the Capitol.

There is better-than-expected data out today on the housing market. The Commerce Department says the number of homes builders broke ground on rose ten percent last month. More on this from NPR’s Chris Arnold.

The latest numbers on housing starts are somewhat encouraging. Analysts¹² are looking for any signs of life in the market. That’s because after the expiration¹³ of a federal home buyer tax credit, sales fell sharply. But even with the ten percent jump in construction, “this is nothing to write home about”. Karl Case is a housing economist¹⁴ at Wesley College. He says at the start of the year, more than 600,000 homes were getting built every month. That number then dropped off close to 500,000 and now it’s edged up a bit to 598,000. But “traditionally at this stage in a recovery, we’re pushing up against to a million five, a million six, a million seven on the way to more than two million. That’s not happening. This time it’s not going to happen.” Case says home construction still remains¹⁵ at around a 50-year low. Chris Arnold, NPR News, Boston.

A major political shakeup in the Los Angel suburb of Bell today, eight people including the mayor, the former city manager and city council members are under arrest for corruption¹⁶. District Attorney Steve Cooley says the defendants¹⁷ misused¹⁸ public funds and defrauded¹⁹ voters.

“This was calculated greed and theft, accomplished²⁰ by deceit and secrecy²¹.”

The case came to light after residents of the small, working-class city found out officials were paying themselves salaries as high as $800,000.

The Federal Reserve won’t be taking any drastic steps to revitalize the economy. After all, policymakers decided²² today to take a wait-and-see approach on how the economy manages on its own. On news of this, Dow’s up eight points at 10,761 at last check.

This is NPR.

NATO is investigating the deadliest helicopter crash involving coalition²³ troops in Afghanistan in several years. Nine service members died in the southern province of Zabul. It’s unclear if Americans were among the dead. The Taliban says it shot the chopper down, but NATO says there is no evidence of that.

Italian magistrates²⁴ have frozen $30 million of a Vatican bank and put its director under investigation²⁵ for alleged²⁶ money laundering²⁷. NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli reports from Rome that the Vatican said it is perplexed²⁸ and surprised.

Vatican bank director Ettore Gotti Tedeschi is a devout²⁹ Catholic who has taught financial ethics³⁰ at Milan’s Catholic University. He’s under investigation for alleged violations³¹ of European Union money laundering regulations. Italian financial police made the seizure³² following two recent suspicious transfers. Officially known as the Institute for Religious Works, the bank manages funds for the Vatican and religious institutions around the world. It was involved in a major scandal in 1982 when it got involved in a fraudulent bankruptcy³³ of Banco Ambrosiano, whose president Roberto Calvi was found hanged under a London birdge. Today, a Holy See statement said the Vatican has been working for some time to make its finances more transparent³⁴ and it expressed full trust in director Gotti Tedeschi. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.

Thousands of Greek truckers marched to parliament today in Athens, railing against politicians who want to see more competition in the trucking industry. Lawmakers are expected to vote tomorrow on a measure that would make it cheaper for people to own and operate their trucks.

I’m Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.