NPR 2010-05-12

The Minerals Management Service and the US Coast Guard have launched the Marine 1 Board of Investigation 2 into the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. NPR's Debbie Elliott says the board is hearing testimony 3 from witnesses of the April 20th incident.

The cargo 4 ship, the Damon B. Bankston, was alongside the rig when it exploded. Its crew eventually rescued the 115 platform workers who survived the blowout. The ship's chief engineer, Anthony Gervasio, testified that the Bankston's rescue boats circled the burning rig to find survivors 5 even as explosions on the rig continued.

"I looked back and I noticed a couple more people jumping off the bridge of the rig. At that time, the fire was pretty intense, the water was on fire."

Federal investigators 6 are trying to identify what went wrong and what could have prevented the loss of life and subsequent environmental disaster created by the oil that's now gushing 7 from the blown-out well. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, New Orleans.

The Senate is backing an amendment 8 to the financial regulatory overhaul 9 bill. NPR's Audie Cornish says the measure calls on the GAO to investigate the Federal Reserve's emergency lending practices since the financial crisis.

Lawmakers approved the amendment by Senator Bernie Sanders, forcing the Fed to put details of its emergency lending on its Web site and requiring the Government Accounting 10 Office to investigate any potential conflicts of interest in those deals. Louisiana Republican David Vitter failed to get support for his provision, allowing the GAO to do regular audits 11 and delve 12 into the central bank's monetary 13 policy.

"We must go beyond the Sanders amendment. We must look forward and not just one time back to ensure the American people that we all know what our Federal Reserve is doing and exactly why it's doing it."

The House approved a similar provision. The conflicting amendments 14 would have to be reconciled upon passage of the Senate's so-called Wall Street bill. Audie Cornish, NPR News, the Capitol.

Conservative Party leader David Cameron is Britain's new prime minister, replacing Gordon Brown who stepped down following last week's election. Cameron has formed a coalition 15 government with the leader of the third-place Liberal Democrats 16. He's promising 17 to work with his new partner.

"Nick Clegg and I are both political leaders who want to put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and for the national interest. I believe that is the best way to get the strong government that we need, decisive government that we need today."

Cameron acknowledged that while it will be hard and difficult work to govern as a coalition, there are important issues at hand.

On Wall Street, US stocks closed mixed as investors 18 held on to most of the profits from the previous session. The Dow lost 36 points.

This is NPR News.

Los Angeles' Budget Chief Gerry Miller 19 is recommending more layoffs 20 to close the city's deficit 21. Miller says 1,000 job cuts should be added to the 761 layoffs already proposed by the mayor. He says the city is counting on revenue it doesn't have yet to close a 492-million-dollar deficit for next fiscal 22 year.

Megadoses of vitamin D given once a year may increase falls and bone fractures instead of preventing them. As NPR's Deborah Franklin reports, the findings are in a study in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne wanted to increase bone strength in elderly women who have brittle 23 bones. Previous work has shown that daily vitamin D supplements can sometimes help - about 800 International Units. But in hopes of producing a quicker response, the researchers gave the women what amounted to more than a year's worth of the vitamin over the course of just a few days. It didn't work as planned. Although the megadose boosted blood levels of vitamin D into what seemed like the right range, these women actually fell more and had more fractures than women who got dummy 24 pills. The researchers still believe many women are deficient 25 in vitamin D and could benefit from supplements. But they say the safety of very high doses merits further study. Deborah Franklin, NPR News.

An ash cloud from Iceland is wafting 26 over Northern Africa, forcing the closure of ten airports there at least through Wednesday morning. The ash could force airport brief shutdowns in Spain and Turkey as well. Meteorologists say air traffic in Europe will continue to be affected 27 as wind shifts the ash in different directions.