NPR 2011-04-06

The budget standoff in Washington is weighing on negotiators as a government shutdown draws near. Hours after meeting with Congress's GOP leadership, President Obama made an unexpected appearance at the White House daily briefing, apparently 1 frustrated 2 that no agreement's been reached.

"I shouldn't have to oversee 3 a process in which Congress deals with last year's budget where we only have six months left."

From the White House, NPR's Ari Shapiro reports on a particular point of contention 4.

One question seems to be whether there was ever an agreement over this cut of $33 billion. Now, that's the number that President Obama says the Democrats 5 moved to in order to compromise with Republicans. Speaker Boehner now says there was never a deal about $33 billion in cuts. When he returned from the White House to the Capitol, he told reporters that Republicans are going to continue fighting for whatever cuts they can get. He says Washington doesn't have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem.

That's NPR's Ari Shapiro.

Southwest Airlines is done inspecting its fleet of 737s. NPR's Wade 6 Goodwyn reports that out of 78 planes, six are now known to have cracks in the fuselage.

Imagine two zippers 7 at the top of a jet that run the full length of the plane. It's where the skin of the plane is attached. They're called "lap joints 9". And every few inches as you move down the seams of the lap joint 8, there's something called "tear straps 10". They're positioned across the lap joints, and they reinforce the whole thing. Now, the plane that ruptured 11 on Friday and the other Boeing jets now showing cracks have tear straps every 20 inches down those lap joints, but Boeing engineers later decided 12 that was insufficient 13 and started putting tear straps every ten inches on later models. The FAA says the older 737s are going to have to be inspected every 500 cycles or 10-12 weeks the way Southwest flies. Wade Goodwyn, NPR News, Dallas.

The US service sector 14 is still expanding, although it did so at a slower pace in March than in the previous 15 months. A private trade group, the Institute for Supply Management, put service sector activity at 57.3. That's down from more than 59 in February. It was the first decline in several months.

Huge celebrations today at the University of Connecticut as the national champions of men's college basketball, the Huskies, returned home. They arrived moments ago at Bradley International Airport, where WNPR's Harry 15 Grassley was caught up in the fanfare 16 of Uconn's NCAA win over Butler last night.

A lot of people here, and the UConn colors are blue and white. Huskies pride, as far as you can see. Everyone that I've talked to is very excited about the win and said they were gonna come out here today no matter what the weather was.

That's WNPR's Harry Grassley.

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow was down six points at 12,394.

This is NPR.

The death toll 17 from the latest storms to plow 18 through the Southern US since last night now stands at eight. Edgar Treiguts of Georgia Public Broadcasting reports six of the victims were in Georgia.

A young father and his son were killed when high winds toppled a tree yard to their house south of Atlanta. In another part of the state, a mobile home was destroyed, killing 19 its resident. Georgia was pounded with heavy rain, hail and high winds, bringing trees and power lines down. Power crews in the state continue to work to restore service to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. Lisa Janak with Georgia's Emergency Management Agency says the severe weather system played no favorites.

"The interesting thing about this storm is that it did not target one particular area of our state. It targeted the entire state. We have damage reports all the way from North Georgia to South Georgia."

The same storm system is blamed for fatalities 20 in Tennessee and Mississippi. For NPR News, I'm Edgar Treiguts in Atlanta.

Syrians threaten more rallies against one of the most authoritarian 21 regimes in the Middle East. They're spreading the word through Facebook for Syrians to rise up again despite the deaths of dozens of people since anti-government protests began in the country nearly three weeks ago.

Chinese interest rates are up for the fourth time since October as the central bank tries to offset 22 inflation. The Chinese central bank lifted the one-year lending rate to 6.3%. After the rate increase was reported and Moody's lowered Portugal's credit rating, Wall Street opened the day lower, and world stocks ended their five-day winning streak 23. But before the close on Wall Street, stocks were mixed. At last check, the Dow was down six points at 12,394; NASDAQ was up two at 2,791; S&P 500 down slightly.