NPR 2012-06-30

 Congress has cleared three major items off its to-do-list. NPR’s Tamara Keith reports both the House and Senate today passed a measure combining the highway bill, a long-term flood insurance extension and another year of reduced student loan interest rates.

 
“It’s amazing how legislative 1 problems that seem intractable suddenly come together as a deadline approaches. That was the case with what became the combined highway, student, flood bill, which passed both chambers 2 with overwhelming bipartisan support. California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer 3 was deeply involved in the negotiations 4.
 
“We all know whether we are Republicans or Democrats 5 that our focus is on boosting this economy. And this bill will do that like no other.”
 
The bill extends the National Flood Insurance Program by five years, continues transportation funding at current levels for another two years and avoids the doubling of interest rates on subsidized federal student loans. Tamara Keith, NPR News, Washington.
 
President Obama’s touring the fire damaging Colorado, one of the nation’s top battleground states this year. Looms 6 of smoke rose from the mountains as Air Force One made its descent. Earlier today, Mr. Obama declared a major disaster in the state, allowing officials to access federal assistance. In Colorado Springs, the Waldo Canyon 7 fire has scorched 8 more than 16,000 acres. Fire Incident Commander Rich Harvey says it is about 15% contained.
 
“The focus for today is to hold what we've got, improve the lines we have in place, use aerial assets as necessary to support the troops on the ground and bring in the heavy equipment wherever we can.”
 
Hundreds of homes have been destroyed. At least one person has died.
 
Eurozone leaders are announcing breakthroughs from marathon talks in Brussels over the debt crisis and the fate of their single currency. NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley reports that France, Italy and Spain joined forces to pressure German Chancellor 9 Angela Merkel to make some concessions 10.
 
Though the German leader remains 11 opposed to the joint 12 pooling of debt, Merkel has agreed to other measures her European partners desperately 13 want. The continent’s bailout funds will now be able to funnel 14 money directly to struggling banks so as not to further indebted governments. And leaders agree the countries following budget rules will have access to bailout money without stringent 15 conditions. Speaking in Brussels this morning, French President Francois Hollande said the agreement was a breakthrough. “I wanted some rapid decisions taken and there were,” said Hollande, “things are improved.” Hollande cited the rapid recapitalization of banks in the full use of crisis tools for rule abiding 16 countries to give them protection against rising interest rates. This will greatly help Spain, he said. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
 
At last check on Wall Street, the Dow was up 240 points at 12,842.
 
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Two days after Barclays was heavily fined for manipulating interbank interest rates, there’s more trouble in the British banking 17 sector 18. Larry Miller 19 in London reports a number of banks face big claims for mis-selling complex financial products to small and medium-sized businesses.
 
Around 28,000 British businesses were sold insurance that protected them against interest rates rising on their loans. The Financial Services Authority says four banking groups mis-sold the policy - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland. In some cases, premiums 20 were so high. Companies were forced out of business, describing them as serious failings. The regulator found exit costs were not disclosed, their customers did not understand the risk, and the protection didn't match the loan. The regulator didn’t give a figure for compensation. But one analyst 21 suggested it could cost the banks more than two billion dollars. For NPR News, I’m Larry Miller in London.
 
The Security and Exchange Commission is charging Bernard Madoff's younger brother Peter with fraud, lying to regulators and falsifying records. Earlier today, Peter Madoff pleaded guilty to charges he helped carry out his older sibling’s Ponzi scheme which bilked investors 22 out of billions of dollars. Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence.
 
The Supreme 23 Court is turning away an appeal for media companies who want to be allowed to own both a newspaper and a TV station in the same market. Today the high court denied the request without comment. The media argue the restrictions 24 no long make sense in the Internet era.
 
US stocks gaining ground with Dow up nearly 2% at 12,843, NASDAQ up nearly 3% at 2,928, S&P500 also up more than 2%.