NPR 2009-03-21

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From NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack¹ Speer.

The White House is trying to downplay congressional estimates that President Obama's budget will create 9.3 trillion dollars in deficits³ over the next decade, saying that it will not keep the president from achieving his goals. NPR's Allison Keyes has more.

The Congressional Budget Office says for fiscal⁴ 2009 the deficit² will be 1.84 trillion dollars. But the president's Budget Director and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Mr. Obama will still be able to focus on health care reform, reduce dependence⁵ on foreign oil, target clean energy and education and cut the deficit in half in four years. "The president remains⁶ confident that he has put forward a budget that meets the critical investments that he think, he thinks America must be making in order to move past the bubble and bust⁷ economic era into some sustained economic growth. But there are concerns that the deficit figures could make it harder to get president's budget passed. Maryland's Democratic Senator Ben Cardin calls the CBO's figures disturbing. Allison Keyes, NPR News, Washington.

Federal Appeals Court today ruled the disgraced financier Bernard Madoff will remain behind bars until his sentencing in one of the largest financial frauds in U. S. history. Madoff last week pleaded guilty to 11 counts of securities fraud and perjury⁸ in connection with what prosecutors⁹ maintain was a more than 60-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson is concerned about computer hackers¹⁰ sometimes from foreign countries penetrating¹¹ government computer networks and for good reason. Nelson says unknown people have hacked¹² in computer network in his Capitol Hill office three times in the past month. From Miami, NPR's Greg Allen reports.

Senator Nelson says the attacks targeted at workstations used by three of his staffers, a foreign policy aide, his deputy legislative¹³ director and a former adviser¹⁴ on NASA. Nelson says the attacks are believed to have originated in China. And one of the incursions he says was serious. The hackers didn't retrieve¹⁵ any classified material he says, which in any case isn't held on office computers. Nelson is a member of the Senate's Intelligence, Armed Services and Finance Committees. And he is not the only member of Congress who's been hacked. Last year Virginia Republican Congressman¹⁶ Frank Wolf revealed his computer had been penetrated¹⁷ by hackers from China. In 2006 a virus that originated in China infected computers in several congressional offices. Senator Nelson says incursions on congressional computer networks are up in the past a few months. He is working with other senators on a bill that will establish a national cyber-security czar. Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.

Postal¹⁸ Service said today it will close six of its 80 district offices and offer early retirement¹⁹ to as many as 150, 000 workers. The administrative²⁰ offices being closed will be Spokane, Washington, Manchester, New Hampshire, Edison, New Jersey²¹, Erie, Pennsylvania, North Reading, Massachusetts and Lake Mary, Florida. Combined, the post office is expected to reach savings²² of 100 million dollars a year.

On Wall Street today, the Dow fell a 122 points. The NASDAQ dropped 26 points today.

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The sixth anniversary of the war in Iraq was marked with demonstrations²³ in Baghdad and a number of other Iraqi cities today. Followers²⁴ of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets following prayer services demanding the release of their allies currently being held at Iraqi and U. S. -run prisons. In Baghdad, marchers chanted "No, no for occupation and yes, yes for liberation." The Protest came a day after a U. S. airstrike at the military hideout north of Baghdad. The US says at least 11 insurgents²⁵ were killed. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber²⁶ struck today in Fallujah killing²⁷ six people, including an Iraqi police officer.

A small army plane on a training flight crashed into the site of apartment building in Ecuadorian capital Quito last night, killing all five people aboard and two on the ground. Sean Bowditch has more.

Rescue personnel are still coming to the wreckage²⁸ in search of additional victims. The twin-engine Beechcraft plane was preparing to land at Mariscal Sucre International Airport. It went down a few miles short of the runway in the upscale neighborhood of Guapollo in northeast Quito. Though a heavy fog reportedly blanketed the city at the time of the crash, the exact cause is not yet known. Eyewitnesses²⁹ told the Associated Press that the plane clipped a house before slamming into the six-story apartment complex. The crash set off a blaze that took firefighters more than an hour to bring it under control. Among the casualties on the plane were the pilot's wife and son. For NPR News, I'm Sean Bowditch in Cuenca, Ecuador.

State Senate Committee in Vermont has unanimously approved a gay marriage bill that takes the state close to having a law that would allow the marriage of same-sex couples. If the measure is approved, Vermont would join Massachusetts and Connecticut as the only U. S. states that allow gays and lesbians to marry. Legislature is expected to approve the bill, though Vermont governor said he opposes it.