NPR 2009-02-11

The Senate has passed the 838-billion-dollar economic stimulus 1 bill, sending it to a House-Senate conference. The vote was 61 to 37. NPR's Audie Cornish reports.

The Senate passed its bill with the backing of just three Republicans who had considerable leverage 2 to help shape the measure. Now representatives from the Senate and the House will meet to negotiate a package that a majority in both chambers 3 can support. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland says that won't be easy.

"Obviously we're confronted with the reality that if you have three people say, 'look, if you change anything, we are jumping ship, ' you know, that's gonna affect the tenor 4 of the conference. I would think that's not a position we ought to be in. "

Congressional leaders say they want an economic stimulus bill ready for the president to sign by the end of the week. Otherwise, they vow 5 to work through the scheduled February recess 6 to get it done. Audie Cornish, NPR News, the Capitol.

The stock market reacted negatively to the Obama administration's efforts to prop 7 up the financial sector 8. All the major stock market indexes fell sharply in an hour after the Treasury 9 Department's plan was announced. NPR's Jim Zarroli has more.

The administration's plans called for the creation of a public-private investment fund that would absorb some of the hard-to-sell assets now cluttering 10 the balance sheets of financial institutions. The administration also called for banks to undergo a stress test to ensure they are strong enough to receive federal support. But Wall Street didn't much like the plans, and many analysts 11 said that was because they lack specifics. All of the major stock indexes fell at least three percent right after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner spoke 12. And once again it was bank stocks that led the way downward. JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup were all down sharply. Meanwhile, the price of treasury bonds which are often a safe haven 13 in bad times rose after the speech. Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.

On Wall Street, the major stock market indexes all fell more than 4% today. The Dow was down 381 points. The NASDAQ lost 66 points. The S&P dropped 42 points today.

 A second plant owned by Peanut Corporation of America has been temporarily shut down amid concerns the plant in Georgia may be tied to a nationwide salmonella outbreak. The outbreak has sickened at least 600 people and has been linked to eight deaths. The closing of the company's plant in Plainview, Texas came at a behest of health officials who say tests of facilities have turned up a possible presence of salmonella in some of its products. Officials say at least initially 14 it does not seem any of the possible contaminated products from that Texas plant reached consumers.

More job cuts appeared to be in an offering in giant General Motors. Today the troubled automaker, which has already axed tens of thousands of hourly positions, said it will eliminate 10, 000 salary jobs. GM says it will reduce total salary workforce 15 this year from 73, 000 to 63, 000. Salaries for many other employees will also be reduced. The automaker says most of the job cuts will take place by May.

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Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's Kadima Party eked 16 out a surprise victory today in Israel's election at least based on exit polling. However, it also appears a strong showing by hard-line rivals could make it difficult for the more moderate Foreign Minister to form a coalition 17 government or pursue her vision of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Exit polls there gave Livni's party a narrow edge of Benjamin Netanyahu's hard line Likud Party. The exit polls were released by Israel's three main television stations.

Authorities say China state broadcaster set off fireworks that resulted in a massive blaze at its new headquarters last night. The fire killed one fireman and injured seven others. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Beijing.

A Beijing fire department spokesman said the China Central Television had brought in a company to put on a fireworks display on the last night of the Chinese New Year holiday. The fireworks were bigger than those sold on the street and therefore required city government approval. But the company ignored police warnings to stop the display. The 30-story tower that caught fire houses a luxury hotel that's part of Hongkong's Mandarin 18 Oriental group and was due to open later this year. The tower is separate from the main CCTV building designed by the Dutch firm OMA. The main building has two leg-like towers that meet at the top, leading some Beijing residents to nickname the building the "Giant Underpants". Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Beijing.

The price of a first-class stamp will be going up by another two cents in May, the post office announced today, it effective May 11. The price of a first-class stamp will rise to 44 cents. Postal 19 officials say you can still purchase so-called forever stamps at current 42-cent rate though beating the price rise.