NPR 2011-10-12

 The Republican presidential hopefuls are gathered tonight in Hanover, New Hampshire. The eight Republican GOP candidates for the nomination 1 embarking 2 on a wide-ranging discussion on the economy, what might be done to fix it. Mitt 3 Romney, the current front-runner, bristled 4 at one point when asked about whether he would support another Wall Street bailout.

 
"I'm not interested in bailing 5 out individual institutions that have wealthy people that wanna make sure their shares are worth something. I am interested in making sure that we preserve our financial system, our currency, the banks across the entire country, and I will always put the interest of the American people ahead of the interests of any institution."
 
Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, is the current front-runner. He opened tonight's debate sponsored by the Washington Post and Bloomberg, pledging to work across party lines. Earlier today he received the endorsement 6 from New Jersey 7 Governor Chris Christie.
 
President's jobs bill faced its first congressional test and it failed to get the votes needed to overcome a procedural hurdle 8 in the Senate. As NPR's Tamara Keith reports, the opposition 9 from Republicans was unanimous.
 
Two Democrats 10 joined the Republicans in voting "no". As a result, the bill came up well short of the 60 votes needed to begin debate. The bill included a payroll 11 tax cut for workers and businesses, spending on infrastructure 12 projects and an extension of unemployment benefits. Republicans said these ideas were a rehash of failed policies. In a statement President Obama said the fight isn't over. He says he plans to work with Senate Democrats to bring individual proposals in the bill up for a vote. Tamara Keith, NPR News, the Capitol.
 
US government says it has thwarted 13 a plot by the government of Iran to arrange the murder of Saudi Arabia's ambassador here in Washington. The alleged 14 Iranian plan was to hire Mexican drug cartel to carry out the assassination 15. NPR's Tom Gjelten says the Obama administration is promising 16 to hold the government of Iran accountable for the alleged plot.
 
Attorney General Eric Holder 17 did not say upper reaches of the Iranian government knew about the plot but he did point a finger at senior members of the Quds Force, part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. He described them as elements of the Iranian government.
 
"I think one has to be concerned about the chilling nature of what the Iranian government attempted to do here, and one of the things that our State Department will be doing. We'll be getting in touch with other of our allies and nations around the world."
 
Secretary Hillary Clinton says the US will be consulting on how to send a strong message to the government of Iran and how to deepen its international isolation 18. Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.
 
Announced flight reductions by American Airlines could cost some employees their jobs in the coming quarter. The Dallas-based airline says it will cut passenger capacity for the current quarter by roughly 3% compared to a year ago. Citing a weak economy, analysts 19 say the cuts along with similar actions taken by other airlines show the industry is taking steps to control costs.
 
On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 16 points to close at 11,416. The NASDAQ was up 16 points.
 
This is NPR.
 
One witness testifying at the trial of the accused underwear bomber 20, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, today described hearing a large pop after the Nigerian man tried to detonate a concealed 21 explosive device after returning to his seat. Mike Zantow, a passenger on the flight, says he tried to move Abdulmutallab away from the burning seat. Prosecutors 22 in opening remarks for the jury have said the Nigerian man was on a martyrdom mission for al-Qaeda.
 
Democrats in Wisconsin say they will begin gathering 23 signatures next month to try to recall Governor Scott Walker from office. Wisconsin Public Radio's Shawn Johnson reports it continues what's been a tumultuous year in the state.
 
Democrats have been talking about recalling Governor Walker ever since he introduced his plan to roll back union bargaining rights for public employees. November is the soonest as they can start. Once they begin circulating recall petitions they'll have 60 days to get the 540,000 signatures they need. State Democratic Party chair Mike Tate told MSNBC's "The Ed Show" that organizers would hit that goal.
 
"I think we can, you know, we saw people of Ohio get about a million signatures for an initiative there last month. We've done the math; we've done the number; we're very well-prepared."
 
If Democrats are successful, a special election for governor could be held as early as March. For NPR News, I'm Shawn Johnson in Madison.
 
A Los Angeles company's announced it's recalling more than 375,000 pounds of ground beef products shipped to restaurants in California and Nevada. That's because of a possible E. coli contamination. The announcement from US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection 24 Services comes after routine monitoring confirmed a positive test for E. coli in the meat sent by Commercial Meat Co. No illness has been reported so far.