CNN 2009-07-25

（单词翻译）

Good morning, I m Melissa Long here at the CNN center in Atlanta. It's Friday, July 24th. Here is a look at some of the stories that are happening NOW IN THE NEWS.

FBI agents hold in mayors, state legislators and rabbis by the busload. All were accused of bribery¹ and dirty politics. 44 people from New Jersey² and the State of New York were taken into custody³. Accusations⁴ range from money laundering⁵--international money laundering, bribes⁶ and even trafficking in kidneys. The FBI says the story is all about greed.

President Obama wants to spend five billion dollars to fix America's schools. But school districts will have to compete for the money. Later today, Mr. Obama would be laying out a plan on how that's going to work. The money is to be used to tighten⁷ academic standards and find better ways to recruit and keep good educators.

Lawmakers are voting on a complex deal to rescue one of the world's largest economies. State lawmakers pulled an all-nighter to try to eliminate a projected 26-billion-dollar budget gap in the State of California. The proposed deal would slash⁸ money for health care, education, welfare and prisons. Also it would raise city and county governments for 2 billion dollars.

Those are the headlines for you this hour. Do stay with CNN and CNN. com for more on these stories or other news that develops today.