NPR 2008-05-16

For a crowd of 150 people waiting outside the California Supreme 1 Court today in San Francisco, it was an emotional moment .The crowd erupted with cheers when word came down that the state court, on a four-to-three vote, had decided 2 to overturn a state law banning same sex marriage . Speaking after the announcement, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told gay marriage supporters the court's ruling was long overdue 3. "It's about civil rights. It's about time in California.”  With the decision by the State Supreme Court , California becomes only the second state in the nation , besides Massachusetts, to officially sanction gay marriage .Opponents ,meanwhile, have vowed 4 to work to try and get a measure on the ballot 5 that would place laws prohibiting gay marriage in California's constitution.

US House voted today to bring the troops home from Iraq and rejected additional war funding .NPR’s Debbie Elliott has more.

A bill to provide 163 billion dollars to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan failed after House Republicans sat out the vote in protest of how Democrats 7 handled the legislation. Leaders bypassed the usual committee process to push through Democratic priorities, along with the spending bill. One amendment 8 changes war policy and includes a non-binding timeline to bring troops home, another extends jobless benefits and uses a surtax on millionaires to give veterans a free college education. The White House has promised to veto the two amendments 9, and the war funding measure is set to come up again in the Senate next week. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, the Capitol.
 
On Capitol Hill today,  President Bush drew both praise and criticism for an assertion he made in a speech before the Israeli Knesset. The president’s claim that (quote) "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals 10" was seen by many as a veiled attack on Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. More from NPR's David Welna.

Citing an unnamed senator who rued 11 not having spoken with Adolf Hitler before the Nazis 12 invaded Poland, President Bush derided 13, what he called, "the false comfort of appeasement 14". Connecticut independent Senator Joe Lieberman issued a statement saying Mr. Bush (quote) "got it exactly right", adding that the commander-in-chief must be able to distinguish between America's friends and enemies. But another Senator ,Michigan Democrat 6 Carl Levin, chided the president. "For him to use purple prose, such as "somebody is appeasing 15", it seems to me is totally inappropriate. It has no place to be said anywhere ." Joe Biden, the Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said for the president to call appeasers those who rightly see the need for change is truly delusional 16. And for him to have done so abroad, truly disgraceful. David Welna, NPR News,the Capitol.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day up 94 points today to close at 12,992. The NASDAQ gained 37 points to end the session at 2,533. The Standard & Poor's 500 added 14 points today .

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The power is slowly starting to come back on in parts of earthquake-ravaged China, though with an estimated 12,000 people still believed to be buried beneath rubble 17 following Monday’s earthquake there. There are fears the death toll 18 could reach as high as 50,000 people. Chinese authorities say the confirmed death toll has now risen to nearly 20,000. Electricity was restored to some areas that lost power after the quake. Though, Chinese state media says other areas near the quake’s epicenter remain blacked out. China is easing up on resistance to foreign help, allowing teams from Japan and long-time foe 19 Taiwan to join in rescue efforts there .
 
The director of a museum in Thailand died yesterday in custody 20 at a federal prison near Seattle. Roxanna Brown was 62 years old. From member station KUOW in Seattle, Phyllis Fletcher reports.

Brown had been scheduled to speak in Seattle at the University of Washington last week. But federal authorities arrested her first in a Seattle hotel. A US attorney charged her with wire fraud. The charges were the result of an undercover operation that sent a federal agent to a gallery in Los Angeles. The agent allegedly got Brown's signature on a form that inflated 21 the appraised 22 value of antiquities 23 from Thailand. Charging papers accuse Brown of overstating values for tax purposes. Brown's brother told the Associated Press that Brown apparently 24 died of a heart attack, that the stress of the arrest was to blame, and that his sister said she was not guilty. A spokesperson for the US Attorney's Office in Seattle says the prison medical staff checked Brown on Monday. For NPR News, I'm Phyllis Fletcher in Seattle.

CBS has agreed to pay 1.8 billion dollars for online news and information provider, CNet, in a deal that would significantly expand the media giant's online reach. The price represents a 40% premium 25 over the company's closing stock price.