NPR 2009-5-16

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

General Motors has become the latest domestic automaker to sharply slash³ its dealer⁴ network. GM said today it has told more than a thousand of its dealer franchises⁶ they will be terminated by late next year. George Magliano is an auto² industry analyst⁷ at IHS Global Insight.

"It allows them to focus on the good dealers⁸, or the dealers that are existing and get more sales out of those dealers and support them in a better way."

GM declined to reveal which of its dealers are being eliminated, saying it would be left up to franchise⁵ owners to determine how to report the decision to customers. With the cuts, GM will lose about 20% of its US dealers. The automaker has till June 1st to restructure or face possible bankruptcy⁹. Yesterday Chrysler, which is currently in bankruptcy, said it's eliminating around a quarter of its US dealers.

President Obama is planning to restart military tribunals for some of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay but only after rewriting the rules to give the prisoners additional rights. NPR's Scott Horsley has more.

President Obama said in a statement that the use of military tribunals in some cases is the best way to protect the country while upholding its deeply / held values. Mr. Obama had objected to the way tribunals were run under the Bush administration. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says the new President is planning a number of changes to the tribunals, including a ban on evidence obtained through cruel or degrading interrogation methods and more freedom for detainees to choose their own lawyers.

"The President believes that in dealing¹⁰ with certain detainees at Guantanamo Bay that this is an appropriate avenue."

The President has promised to close the Guantanamo prison housing roughly 240 detainees by January. Prisoners who aren't prosecuted¹¹ by military tribunals could be tried in civilian¹² courts, transferred to other countries or released. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.

CIA director Leon Panetta is responding to charges that the agency misled Congress. Panetta says the agency records show CIA officers briefed lawmakers truthfully. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly reports.

In a letter to CIA employees, director Panetta writes "It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress". Panetta writes that the political debates over interrogation reached a new decibel¹³ level yesterday. That's when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi charged that the CIA misled her and other lawmakers about the use of waterboarding. Documents show that terror suspect Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August of 2003. A CIA memo¹⁴ says Pelosi was briefed on Abu Zubaydah the next month including the techniques that were employed. Pelosi says that's a lie. The CIA's Panetta writes, “our task is to tell it like it is even if that's not what people always want to hear”. Panetta's advised his workforce¹⁵ "ignore the noise and stay focused on your mission". Mary Louise Kelly, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 62 points today to close at 8,268. For the week, the Dow was down more than 3.5%.

 This is NPR.

A measure that would give corporate¹⁶ stockholders more of a say when it comes to executive pay and the nomination¹⁷ of corporate directors is expected to be introduced in the Senate as early as next week. That's according to a source familiar with the matter. The legislation, which is expected to be introduced by New York Democrat¹⁸ Charles Schumer has been dubbed¹⁹ "a shareholder²⁰ bill of rights". It would require companies to hold an annual advisory²¹ vote on executive compensation. The bill would also confirm the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission to grant shareholders²²' access to the corporate proxy²³ for nominations²⁴ to the board of directors.

Dredging has begun on the Hudson River. It's the start of a multi-year effort to remove some of the more than one million pounds of PCBs discharged into the river by General Electric more than 30 years ago. Gale²⁵ Wheelman reports from Fort Edward, New York.

The PCBs were released from the 1940s until the mid²⁶ 70s by GE facilities north of Albany. Over the years, some of the chemicals have drifted down the Hudson toward New York City, earning that entire section of the river a designation as the longest Superfund site in the US. George Pavlou is the acting²⁷ administrator²⁸ for Region 2 of the EPA. He says what began today was one of the largest environmental cleanups of its kind, in the country.

"The dredging of the Hudson River is a symbol of victory for the environment and for the river communities as well."

This first phase of dredging is essentially²⁹ a test phase. Once all the dredges are working in two months, they are expected to remove up to 265,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment³⁰, that's about 1/10 of the total amount they hope to remove when the full project is completed. For NPR News, I'm Gale Wheelman in Fort Edward, New York.

Crude oil prices fell today. Crude oil futures³¹ were down $2.28 a barrel to close at $56.34 barrel in New York.

I'm Jack Speer, NPR News in Washington.