NPR 2009-01-10

It will now be up to the Illinois State's Senate to decide whether Governor Rod Blagojevich should be removed from office. That's after State House lawmakers on a vote of 114: 1 voted to impeach 1 the governor who faces federal charges. He allegedly sought to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. Blagojevich said today he is not surprised by the vote and he is confident he will be exonerated 3. "The House's action today was, of course, not a surprise. It was a foregone conclusion. In fact, what the House did today, they've been talking about doing for the last couple of years. "In a related development, the state Supreme 4 Court today ruled the Illinois Secretary of State does not need to sign paperwork to make the appointment of Roland Burris to fill the vacant Senate seat official. Burris who was appointed by Blagojevich was refused to seat this past week in part because Democratic leaders in Washington said he lacked the proper paperwork.

US economy shed more than half a million jobs in December. That's according to Labor 5 Department. And nation's unemployment rate rose from 6. 8% to 7.2%. NPR's Jim Zarroli has more.

Economists 6 were anticipating a big decline in payroll 7 numbers and the data were almost just bad as expected. The Labor Department says 524, 000 jobs were lost, and the government also raised the number of jobs lost in October and November by 154, 000. The manufacturing sector 8 lost 149, 000 jobs in December. Construction was down 101, 000. The only sectors 9 to gain jobs were education and health care. The government also said the average work week fell which suggested that more layoffs 10 are coming. For the year as a whole, the economy lost 2. 6 million jobs and most of those disappeared in the last four months. That was the biggest decline since 1945. Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.

Airplane builder Boeing which last year fell behind its European rival Airbus in terms of orders announced today it' s cutting 4, 500 jobs. That's around 7% of the employees of its commercial airplane business.

Supreme Court has agreed to rule on whether Congress violated the constitution when it reauthorized the Voting Rights Act. Nina Totenberg reports.

The 1965 law reauthorized two years ago requires certain states and districts with a history of racial discrimination in voting to get approval from either the Justice Department or Federal Court in Washington before making any change to local election procedures. The local government district in Texas challenged the law contending that despite many demographic changes in various parts of the country, Congress did not change which states and districts are covered by the law. A three-judge court here in Washington rejected that argument, concluding that there is sufficient evidence of contemporary voting discrimination in the covered areas to justify 11 the legislative 12 decision. Now it's up to the Supreme Court with two relatively 13 new Bush appointees who in the past have been overtly 14 hostile to the Voting Rights Act. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street, the Dow fell 143 points.

This is NPR.

Baltimore's mayor has been indicted 15 by a grand jury on charges. She accepted illegal gifts including travel, fur coats and gift cards allegedly used for holiday shopping. Grand jury today handed down a 12-count indictment 16 against Sheila Dixon which included four counts of perjury 17 and two counts of theft of more than 500 dollars. Dixon also faces charges of fraud and misconduct in office. Indictments 18 follow what has been a three-year investigation 19 by state prosecutors 20 into alleged 2 corruption 21 at City Hall. Mayor Dixon contends she received the holiday gift cards from several people and says she has been unfairly accused. Prosecutors say the gift cards were supposed to go to help needy 22 families.

Local officials in central China have apologized and paid compensation to a Belgian journalist who was beaten while reporting on the AIDS patients. The officials had initially 23 denied assaulting the reporter and crew. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Beijing.

The Belgian TV station, VRT, quoted a handwritten letter signed by five officials from Henan Province. "Unfortunate things happened that day. " it said, "We feel guilty when we recall it. We want to apologize, forgive us, " it added, with a note, were 150 euros. On November 27th, VRT's crew had just finished interviewing patients who had contracted AIDS from officially sponsored blood-selling schemes. The crew were hauled out of a van and beaten by eight men who took their equipment and money. The crew got some of the tapes back last month, but not those documenting the attack. VRT's Beijing correspondents said the apology was likely the result of pressure from higher government authorities. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Beijing.