NPR 2009-6-24

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President Obama said today the US is appalled¹ and outraged² by the crackdown on opposition³ protesters in Iran. But he stopped short of outlining any consequences to the Iranian government. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
 
President Obama turned up the rhetorical heat during a White House news conference, denouncing the Iranian crackdown in his strongest language today. The president's underlying⁴ message though was unchanged as he said what’s most important is what happens inside Iran and he insisted he was not responding to US critics who’ve urged him to be more outspoken⁵.
 
"Only I'm the president of the United States and I've got responsibilities in making certain that we are continually advancing our national security interests."
 
Mr. Obama repeated that the US does not want to provide ammunition⁶ to Iran's government by appearing to meddle⁷ in that country's politics. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
 
Washington DC emergency officials joined by officials with the National Transportation Safety Board now say all of the victims of yesterday's DC Metro⁸ rail crash have been found. But the death toll⁹ in what is being described as the system's worst ever accident now said at nine. Scores of others were injured when one train ran into the rail of another during rush hour. The NTSB is in the earlier stage of its probe. It has been focusing on the subway train involved in the crash one of the oldest in Metro's fleet. The agency raised alarms about older model trains after a crash in 2006. It's not clear what caused the crash.
 
Ford Motor Company is receiving billions of dollars in loans from federal government to retool¹⁰ US plants. From member station WDET in Detroit, Brian Larsen has more.
 
Ford will get $5.9 billion in loans to refit 11 plants. It's part of a total of $8 billion in federal money announced by the Department of Energy aimed at building more fuel-efficient vehicles. Nissan will receive $1.6 billion and Tesla Motors will pick up $425 million. Energy Secretary Steven Chu made the announcement at Ford's research and innovation center.
 
“These loans will help the auto¹¹ industry meet and even exceed the president's tough new fuel standards, while creating jobs, reducing our dependence¹² on foreign oil and ensuring America's competitiveness."
 
Ford CEO Alan Mulally says the money will help the automaker transform two truck plants to manufacture cars. He says the automaker already has a plan to pay the loan back. For NPR News, I'm Brian Larsen in Detroit.
 
The interest rate setting arm of the Federal Reserve began the first day of a two-day meeting in Washington today, though most analysts¹³ expected when all are said and done, the Federal take no action on rates. The Fed pushed interest rates to near zero at the end of last year and is expected to maintain that rate possibly through the remainder of this year.
 
On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 16 points to end the day at 8,322. The NASDAQ lost a point. The S&P 500 was up two points today.
 
This is NPR.
 
Airplane builder Boeing announced today it is again postponing¹⁴ the test flight of its long-awaited 787 dream liner. The company says part of the plane needs to be reinforced before that can occur. Inaugural¹⁵ test fight of the 787 was originally expected in late 2007. However, it's been put off because of production problems. Customers are expected to get the first of new jets in the first quarter of next year, some two years behind schedule.
 
National Commission on prison rape¹⁶ is out with a report today on the state of sexual abuse in the nation's prisons saying it found many facilities reporting problems that need to be addressed. NPR's Laura Sullivan has more.
 
The commission's report is several years late and cost twice as much as planned. But it found that almost 5% of all inmates¹⁷ reported being sexually assaulted in the previous year. The report finds some prisons don't have enough outside oversight¹⁸ to correct the problem and they don't do enough inside to make sure the assaults don't happen. The panel recommends our prison and jail officials create a written zero tolerant policy, create a standardized¹⁹ system for inmates to report rape and provide counseling when it does happen. According to the commission, rape cuts across all groups, both male and female. But some are more vulnerable than others, juveniles²⁰, small inmates and those new to prison. The attackers were also slightly more likely to be prison or jail staff members. Laura Sullivan, NPR News, Washington.
 
Even Harvard is apparently²¹ feeling the heat with the dwindling²² endowment resulted from the current economic downturn. The university announced today it is cutting 275 staff jobs. Harvard President Drew Faust says the cutbacks come at the time the Ivy²³ League schools endowment has fallen by 22% to around $28.7 billion.
 
I'm Jack²⁴ Speer, NPR News in Washington.