NPR 2009-03-12

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President Barack Obama chose to sign in private today a 410-billion-dollar omnibus spending bill that keeps the federal government in business to September. Nearly 9,000 individual projects known as earmarks were included in the measure and the president called on Congress to follow new procedures with future earmarks. More from NPR's David Welna.

 As a candidate, President Obama promised to scrutinize  earmarks line by line in spending bills. But his aides called this five-month overdue¹ omnibus spending bill last year's business. Mr. Obama ignored Republicans' calls to veto the bill. “I am signing an imperfect omnibus bill because it's necessary for the ongoing² functions of government and we have a lot more work to do.”  The president said lawmakers are within their right to seek earmarks. But he called on them to post their earmark requests on their websites to have them scrutinized³ in public hearings and to require competitive bidding on all earmarks going to for-profit contractors⁴. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.

 NPR has learned the president will name Doctor Margaret Hamburg as the next commissioner⁵ of the Food and Drug Administration. Hamburg, a public health and bio-terrorism expert served as New York City health commissioner for six years. If confirmed by the Senate, Hamburg would face a number of challenges at the agency which has come under fire in recent years for lax enforcement of food and drug safety regulations. The White House has not made the nomination⁶ official yet, while not confirm or deny that Hamburg is the selection.

 The FBI, state and scores of local police departments are investigating a serious of shooting in two rural Alabama counties yesterday. 28-year-old Michael McLendon killed 10 people before killing⁷ himself. From Dothan, Alabama NPR's Kathy Lohr has more.

Alabama State Trooper Kevin Cook says McLendon was briefly⁸ employed as a police officer in Samson, Alabama, but failed to complete the required training at the police academy. And Cook says he intended to inflict⁹ a lot of damage. "McLendon was armed with two assault rifles, an SKS and a Bushmaster, using high-capacity magazines taped together; a shotgun and a 38-caliber handgun. At this time we believe that he fired in excess of 200 rounds during the assaults." A local district attorney says McLendon was keeping a list of people who had "done him wrong". Reportedly on that list were a food processing company where the gunman quitted his job last week, and Reliable Medals where McLendon had worked in 2003 and where he ultimately killed himself. Kathy Lohr, NPR News, Dothan, Alabama.

Treasury¹⁰ Secretary Timothy Geithner said today the global recession is deepening and he called for a strong action on the part of the major nations to combat the downturn. Geithner briefed President Barack Obama ahead of his trip to Britain for talks with the finance ministers of the 20 advanced and developing nations.

On Wall Street today the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up just over three points to end the session at 6, 930. The NASDAQ was up 13 points today.

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A court in Italy has thrown out charges against more than two dozen Americans accused of involvement in the alleged¹¹ CIA kidnapping over an Egyptian terrorist suspect in Milan in 2003. Ruling by Italy's highest court sides with the government in saying prosecutors¹² use classified information to build the case against 26 defendants¹³ and throw out some dickey evidence on which the indictment¹⁴ was based. A state lawyer said that means prosecutors while they have to seek new indictments¹⁵ base on remaining evidence or reopen their investigation¹⁶.

Pope Benedict XVI has written a highly personal letter through words of bishops¹⁸ acknowledging Vatican mishandling of the case of a Holocaust-denying bishop¹⁷ and warning against the danger of internal disputes within the church. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.

The Vatican will officially release the letter tomorrow. But portions have already been quoted by bloggers and Italian media. It is rare in church history for a pope to feel compelled to explain his actions, actions which strained the Catholic-Jewish relations and drew sharp criticism from many Catholics. The letter follows Benedict's lifting of the excommunication of four schismatic bishops including Richard Williamson whose Holocaust-denying statements have been circulated on YouTube. According to media reports, the pope says in his letter that he has learned a lesson and in the future the Vatican must pay more attention to the Internet as a source of information. The most anguished¹⁹ parts of the letter allegedly referred to the storm of vehemence²⁰ unleashed²¹ by the affair, which he said hurt him deeply particularly the criticism that came from Catholics. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.

Crude oil futures²² fell $3.38 a barrel to close at $42.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.