NPR 2010-08-13

It appears same-sex marriages in California will remain on hold for at least another week. A Federal judge issued the ruling just a short time ago. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates is at NPR West, monitoring development. Karen, how long are same-sex marriages going to be on hold, and why the delay?

The judge has announced in this ruling, Lakshmi, that things will stay on hold until August 18th, which is next Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. After that time, people will begin to be married if they want to. The supposed reason for the hold is people always thought that pro-Prop 1. 8 supporters or Prop. 8 proponents 2 were going to appeal this if the ruling did not go the way that they hope that it would. And so that's happening now as being appealed to the Ninth Circuit. And I think what Judge Walker's probably doing is giving the judges time to review this on their own.

Karen, how does it affect gay and lesbian couples who were, we know, they were all set to tie the knot today.

And a lot of people were all set to marry them including the mayor of Los Angeles who announced he was going to begin marrying couples as soon as it was legally possible, but he's going to have to wait, they're going to have to wait until August 18th at five o'clock. And that's when the dresses and the tuxedos 3 will be put on, and the rings will be exchanged. Then the confetti will be thrown, but not before then.

And we will be watching. Thanks, Karen. Karen Grigsby Bates at NPR West.

General Motors Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre is resigning. Jerome Vaughn of member station WDET has details.

Whitacre made the announcement during a conference call about GM earnings 4 at the start of the day. He says he's stepping down now because the company's financial turnaround is well under way.

"My goal in coming to General Motors was to help restore profitability, build a strong market position and prepare this iconic company for success. Today, we're clearly on that path. We have put a strong foundation in place, so I'm very comfortable with my timing 5."

General Motors posted its second-quarter earnings of $1.3 billion. GM board member Dan Akerson will become CEO on September 1st. Whitacre will continue as chairman until the end of the year, when Akerson will take that title as well. For NPR News, I'm Jerome Vaughn in Detroit.

An Iraqi general reportedly does not think his country's troops are ready for a complete US pullout by the end of next year. Britain's Daily Telegraph quotes Lieutenant 6 General Babaker Zebari at a defense 7 conference in Baghdad saying the Iraqi army won't have fully 8 handled on security until the year 2020.

Stocks appear to be gaining ground, but are still in negative territory after a fresh round of disappointing economic data. Dow's down nearly 60 points at last check at 10,320.

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Workers in the Gulf 9 of Mexico have resumed their efforts to put a final seal on BP's blown-out oil well. NPR's Dan Charles says work had been suspended because of bad weather.

For months now, BP has been drilling a relief well down toward the base of the runaway 10 Macondo well. The original goal was to intercept 11 the well near its base and fill it from the bottom with cement. At least part of that job, however, is now already done. BP managed to plug the well's central pipe with cement just over a week ago, but the relief well still may be needed to plug the narrow space around that central pipe. The relief well has just a few dozen feet to go, but it will take several days to get all the drilling equipment back into place and also to carry out some more tests in the well to see if an additional cement plug is even necessary. Dan Charles, NPR News, Washington.

The Colombian government's calling today's car bombing in Bogota 'a terror attack'. No word yet officially on who detonated the explosives outside Caracol Radio, one of Columbia's most popular radio stations. Authorities say no one was killed, but several people were injured.

Northwestern China's reeling from new landslides 12 touched off by heavy rain overnight. They raised fears that the death toll 13 would rise in the coming days after the region endured one of its deadliest floods and landslides in decades. Since a monsoon 14 hit over a week ago, more than 1,100 people have been killed, hundreds remain missing.

Ecuador was shaken by a 6.9-magnitude earthquake. Some reports were saying that it was a 7.1. It was centered in the Amazon region of the country. No immediate 15 reports of deaths or serious damage.