NPR 2011-04-09

The blame game is playing out in Washington and pushes the government ever closer to a partial shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Harry 1 Reid says just when it seemed Democrats 2 and Republicans would have some kind of deal before the midnight deadline, the tide turned.

"I don't know what happened last night, but as I indicated earlier the day at four o'clock in the morning, I got an email saying "We've tried, but they backed off the number they'd agreed to."

NPR's David Welna reports House Speaker John Boehner says budget cuts are at issue, while Democrats say the real issue is Republicans' insistence 3 on cutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

After meeting with his caucus 4, House Speaker John Boehner said there is no agreement yet with Democrats on spending levels for the six months left in the fiscal 5 year.

"Most of the policy issues have been dealt with, and the big fight is over the spending."

But Washington Senator Patty Murray, who's on the Democratic leadership team, insists the last big sticking point is a GOP policy provision that would cut off funding for Planned Parenthood.

"The government shouldn't shut down. We have come to an agreement, very difficult for many of us to move to the numbers they've asked for, but we've agreed to do that."

But Murray says Democrats will not agree to eliminating federal subsidies 6 for Planned Parenthood. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.

A stunning 7 turn of events in Wisconsin could give the state's hotly contested Supreme 8 Court race to the conservative incumbent 9. From member station WUWM in Milwaukee, Marti Mikkelson has details.

The election pitted Justice David Prosser against little-known Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg. It was viewed as a referendum on Governor Scott Walker's measure that takes away nearly all collective bargaining rights from most public workers. Union supported Kloppenburg in the hopes that if elected, she would help strike down the law, if it reaches the high court. Kloppenburg delivered an acceptance speech earlier this week after unofficial results put her ahead by some 200 votes. Then on Thursday, a county with one of the strongest conservative bases in the state revealed that it had incorrectly entered some vote totals on election night. The corrected totals now give Prosser a 7500-vote lead. Meanwhile, the Kloppenburg campaign has formed a committee to begin raising money for a recount. For NPR News, I'm Marti Mikkelson in Milwaukee.

A former Cold War CIA operative, who helped the US combat Cuba's Fidel Castro and other Communist governments in Latin America, is found not guilty. Luis Posada Carriles, now 83 years old, was accused of lying about how he entered the United States in 2005 and about his role in deadly bombings over a decade ago at tourist sites in Cuba.

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 79 points or more than 0.5% at 12,330, and the NASDAQ is down 24 at 2,772.

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The French embassy in Ivory Coast reports it's been hit. In a statement, the embassy says rocket and mortar 10 fire came from positions held by forces loyal to the country's disputed leader Laurent Gbagbo. It's uncertain if there were casualties. Gbagbo and his family are holed up at the presidential residence next to the embassy. He is refusing to relinquish 11 his presidency 12. The international community recognizes challenger Alassane Ouattara as the democratically elected winner of the last presidential race.

The Justice Department is allowing Google to buy a flight search technology company despite concerns that it could hurt competition. NPR's Tamara Keith reports the approval comes with new requirements to make sure Google plays fair with competitors.

Kayak, Orbitz, Bing — some of the biggest names in the travel search business use ITA's software. So when Google announced last year it was planning to acquire ITA, it raised a big red antitrust flag. Now, the Justice Department is saying the sale can go ahead, but only because Google has agreed to ongoing 13 monitoring by the Justice Department. Google will be required to continue selling the software to other travel search sites at reasonable prices. The company will also have to set up a firewall, so Google doesn't get competitively sensitive information from IAT's customers. Tamara Keith, NPR News, Washington.

Sometimes, a seemingly slight mechanical glitch 14 is all it takes to rattle 15 air travelers. Earlier this morning, Cleveland's main airport was hit with delays when a screen machine stopped working properly for a while. The airport evacuated 16 travelers while it conducted a security sweep that lasted nearly an hour. They later declared all clear.