NPR 2012-01-06

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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said there will be cuts in the size of the Army and the Marine⁴ Corps⁵. Both those services were increased to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the Pentagon officials said there will likely not be any large stability operations. In the future, there would need a large number of troops. So they can make tens of thousands of cuts in those forces. 

 

 

 

NPR's Tom Bowman.

 

 

 

Critics say the plan makes some American troops and the US more vulnerable to attacks. Penetta says while some risk is expected with a smaller military, national security will not be compromised. 

 

 

 

Well, the new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says he’s not worried about the controversial way he came into the job through a presidential recess⁶ appointment. NPR's Tamara Keith reports Richard Cordray gave his public remarks today one day after becoming director of the bureau.

 

 

 

Richard Cordray, the new head of the consumer bureau, says he hopes to win over critics by doing well what the agency was created to do—protect consumers. Now the bureau is launching its program for supervising non-banks, something that had been on hold without a director.

 

 

 

“We will begin dealing⁷ face to face with payday lenders, mortgage servicers, mortgage originators, private student lenders and other firms that often compete with banks but have largely escaped any meaningful federal oversight⁸.”

 

 

 

Cordray says this will have a wide reach. For instance, some 20 million American households use payday lenders. Tamara Keith, NPR News, Washington.

 

 

 

Some encouraging news ahead of the release of the monthly jobs report tomorrow. Today a private payroll⁹ survey reveals 325,000 new jobs were added in December. The ADP report says it's the biggest change in a year. And as NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports, it's another positive sign in the jobs market.

 

 

 

The job gains came mostly from small and medium-sized businesses and mostly those in the service sector¹⁰. It also comes as the Labor¹¹ Department says firing activity has slowed. Although there is not always a direct correlation¹² between various surveys and reports on job gains, the ADP reports much larger than anticipated increases added to optimism ahead of the official government unemployment reports due out Friday. Economists¹³ are anticipating the jobless rate could rise 0.1% to 8.7% for the month on a gain of about 165,000 jobs. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.

 

 

 

US stocks up slightly with the Dow gaining six points; it’s at 12,424. NASDAQ up 22 points at 2,670. 

 

 

 

This is NPR News.

 

 

 

In Chile, the National Education Council has ruled that the late dictator, Augusto Pinochet's government, would be called a military regime rather than a dictatorship in textbooks. NPR's Juan Forero reports that the new description is igniting more controversy¹⁴ in a country where Pinochet's government is accused of killing¹⁵ thousands of people.

 

 

 

It may sound like a minor¹⁶ change, but many in Chile are upset, saying the new description softens¹⁷ the image of Pinochet's government. After taking power in a 1973 coup¹⁸, Pinochet and his henchmen killed 3,000 people, jailed tens of thousands more and assassinated¹⁹ opponents overseas, killing one in a car bombing in Washington DC. His rule ended in 1990 with democracy restored. A digital newspaper Adilamo reported that the National Education Council had in December quietly opted²⁰ to stop calling Pinochet's dictatorship exactly that. Education Minister Harald Beyer acknowledged the change but said teachers could continue to call Pinochet's government a dictatorship, but he also defended the process that led to the council's new designation. Juan Forero, NPR News.

 

 

 

The Egypt prosecution²¹ is seeking the death penalty for former President Hosni Mubarak. The ousted²² leader’s charged with being complicit in the deaths of protesters during last year's uprising. In a hearing today, one of the prosecutors²³ also requested the death sentence for Mubarak's security chief.

 

 

 

More sectarian strifes have been reported out of Iraq. At least 67 people have been killed in a series of bombings targeting Shiite Muslims that included an attack in Nassiriya where 38 people were killed.

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