NPR 2010-04-01

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From NPR News in Washington, I’m Korva Coleman.

Making good on his promise to pursue a comprehensive energy strategy, President Obama has announced plans to expand offshore¹ oil drilling off the East Coast. NPR’s Scott Horsley reports.

President Obama says he didn’t make the decision to allow more offshore drilling lightly. That decision has already angered some environmental groups. But Mr. Obama says new technologies will help to limit the impact of drilling, and the most sensitive areas will still be off-limits. He said additional domestic oil production is just one part of a broader energy strategy.

“We’re gonna need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp² up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy.”

The president’s also taken steps to promote nuclear power by embracing proposals usually put forward by Republicans. He hopes to win some bipartisan support for an energy bill that would also limit greenhouse gases. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.

A federal judge has ruled government investigators³ illegally wiretapped phone conversions⁴ between members of an Islamic charity and two lawyers. US District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled the investigators needed a search warrant to eavesdrop⁵ electronically on the now defunct⁶ Al-Haramain organization. The judge says Congress created a system to allow agents to spy on phone conversations, if they got permission from a secret federal court, but the agents didn’t do that.

Emergency Management officials in Massachusetts are watching rivers in the state as the second major storm this month subsides⁷. Some rivers won’t crest⁸ until late tonight or tomorrow, as Phillip Martin of member station WGBH reports.

A record amount of rain from the month of March has put a lot of strain on the 19th-century Moody⁹ Street dam. Over the past two weeks, the Charles River rose a foot above the previous highest level, cresting¹⁰ at about 7.5 feet. That’s a lot of water, worth about 33,000 gallons pouring through the structure per second. That has put considerable pressure on both the dam and on residents who live near it. Some of the water seeped¹¹ into a nearby apartment complex. Concerned that another major storm would push the overflow¹² into the dangerous zone, workers with the Department of Conservation Recreation two weeks ago were forced to literally¹³ get into the water to loosen up logs and other debris¹⁴ that might impede¹⁵ the flow. Emergency crews remain on standby alert until the storm is absolutely over. For NPR News, I’m Phillip Martin in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Rhode Islanders have been hard hit by flooding. Governor Don Carcieri says it’s the worst in 100 years. All state residents are being asked to conserve¹⁶ water and electricity. That’s because Rhode Island’s sewage treatment plants and power substations have been flooded. Hundreds of people have been stranded¹⁷, others are in shelters because they’ve been evacuated¹⁸.

On Wall Street just before the close, the Dow Jones industrials were down 51 points at 10,855. The NASDAQ is down 11 points; it was at 2,398.

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In southern Afghanistan, a bomb blast has killed 13 people and wounded dozens more, including a child and a police officer. There’s been no immediate¹⁹ claim of responsibility. NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Kabul.

Officials say the bomb was hidden on a bicycle in the southern province of Helmand. It exploded near a crowd of people who had gathered to collect free seeds provided by the British government. Such giveaways are aimed at encouraging Afghan farmers not to plant opium²⁰ poppy. Some Afghan officials say they believe drug dealers²¹ trying to stop farmers from giving up their opium crops were behind the attack. The opium and heroin²² trade in Afghanistan earns them billions of dollars and helps fund the Taliban. Meanwhile in Kabul, US Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint²³ Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that about half of the 30,000 additional US troops being sent to Afghanistan have not yet arrived. Most of those will be sent to Kandahar where the US and NATO are planning a major Taliban clearing operation this summer. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Kabul.

A militant²⁴ leader from Chechnya is claiming responsibility for the suicide bombings Monday on Moscow’s subway system. Doku Umarov is the leader of an Islamist militant group based in Chechnya. He says the subway attacks are in revenge for the murder of Chechen civilians²⁵ by Russian troops. Separately, a suicide bomber²⁶ killed at least 12 police officers in the Russian province of Dagestan today.

The Pentagon reports a US Navy aircraft crashed in the North Arabian Sea today, and a crew member is still missing, three others were rescued. The aircraft was operating from the USS Eisenhower. The Defense²⁷ Department says the crash was a mishap²⁸.

I’m Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.