NPR 2008-11-06

Some of the results from Tuesday's elections are still being deciphered and analyzed 1, but there are four Senate races that have yet to be decided 2. NPR's Ken 3 Rudin has more.

In Minnesota with nearly 3 million votes cast, Republican incumbent 4 Norm Coleman clings to about a 700-vote lead over Democratic challenger Al Franken. A third party candidate got nearly a half million votes. The tiny margin 6 will result in an automatic recount that could drag into next month. In Georgia GOP incumbent Saxby Chambliss leads Democratic Jim Martin but not enough to escape a December run-off. State law says a candidate needs 50% plus one to be elected. Chambliss has 49. 8%. In Alaska with thousands of absentee ballots 9 yet to be counted, Republican Ted 8 Stevens convicted last month on seven felony counts leads his Democratic challenger Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by more than 3, 000 votes. And in Oregon a slow vote count has kept the race between Republican incumbent Gordon Smith and Democrat 5 Jeff Merkley too close to call. Smith has a slight lead. Ken Rudin, NPR News, Washington.

A Democrat has never been elected to the White House without taking the state of Missouri and one day after yesterday's historic presidential contest, it's not known today if that is still the case. At last word the state of Missouri was still too close to call with John McCain leading Barack Obama in that state by less than 6, 000 votes out of a total of more than 2. 9 million votes counted. That's a difference of 0. 2%. Officials there say it could be two weeks till results in the state are official because of the more than 7, 000 outstanding provisional ballots there.

Federal officials are investigating possible arson 10 at a black church in Springfield, Massachusetts last night. Bianca Vazquez Toness from member station WBUR in Boston has more.

The Macedonia Church of God in Christ was almost finished with a two million dollar construction project before it burned to the ground early in the morning. Church bishop 11 Bryant Robinson calls the 3 a. m. fire suspicious coming immediately after the election of Barack Obama. "It's rather peculiar 12, rather suspicious since everybody ever done it was not celebrating, at least not from a positive perspective. " Federal officials are sending a special national response team to investigate the site. For NPR News, I'm Bianca Vazquez Toness in Boston.

Private equity 13 firm that owns most of troubled automaker Chrysler is calling for another economic stimulus 14 package on the part of the federal government. It also says officials need to make sure the U. S. auto 7 industry does not fail. The head of Cerberus Capital Management says president-elect Barack Obama and his choice of Treasury 15 Secretary should work quickly to come up with a bipartisan initiative to deal with the current economic downturn. John Snow himself once a one time Secretary of the Treasury made the remarks in an interview on the business news channel CNBC today.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 486 points to close at 9, 139. The NASDAQ lost 98 points today. This is NPR.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appears to be throwing down a bit of a challenge to the newly elected president Barack Obama. One day after the U.S. election the Russian leader in his first state-of-the-nation speech blamed the U.S. for the war in Georgia and the world financial crisis. He said it would be up to Washington to amend 16 badly damaged relations. Medvedev also said Russia would deploy 17 short-range missiles near Poland to counter U.S. plans to establish an anti-missile battery in Eastern Europe and he indicated that Moscow would not give in to western calls to pull its troops from Georgia's breakaway republics. A move by Georgia on those republics earlier this year prompted a crackdown by Russian forces.

Americans can't read enough about Barack Obama's decisive victory in Tuesday's presidential elections, literally 18. NPR's David Folkenflik reports on what newspaper publishers are doing in response.

In cities across the country, the news was the same: the daily paper had sold out. People lined up at the gates of the Sun Times printing plant to buy copies in Chicago. The original press run had been snapped up, even though the paper sold 50% more copies than usual. It was a similar story in Birmingham, Detroit, Dallas and Newport News, Virginia. The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune fired up the presses again Wednesday to print additional papers. The Washington Post printed a quarter million copies of a commemorative edition. Some newsstands in New York City sold out of all dailies within hours. There was a big appetite for the rough draft of history in all its forms. TV rating's estimates found that about 12 million more Americans watched the election covered on Tuesday evening than did on the election night four years ago. David Folkenflik, NPR News.