NPR 2012-04-25

 Five states are holding Republican primaries today. Mitt 1 Romney is expecting victories in all of them. That will get him that much closer to the number of delegates needed to clinch 2 the Republican Party’s presidential nomination 3. But as NPR’s Ari Shapiro explains, Romney will be a no-show in today’s primary-voting states. Instead, he’ll watch results tonight from New Hampshire.

 
There’s no suspense 4 in tonight’s results. These are the first primary contests since Rick Santorum ended his presidential campaign, clearing the way for Mitt Romney to take the nomination. Today voters will cast their ballots 5 in Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Romney has spent a good amount of time campaigning in Pennsylvania over the last few weeks. That’s because it’s likely to be an important swing state in the general election. He’ll deliver a speech tonight in Manchester, New Hampshire, looking ahead to the contest against President Obama in the fall. New Hampshire is where Romney formally announced his presidential campaign. The state was also his first win during this year’s primary and caucus 6 season. Ari Shapiro, NPR News.
 
President Obama may have been taking a campaign swipe at his likely Republican challenger Mitt Romney when he addressed students at the University of North Carolina Chapel 7 Hill today. He told the crowd that he and the first lady totally related their struggles to pay off their federal student loans.
 
“Michelle and I, we’ve been in your shoes. I guess that we didn’t come from wealthy families. So we, when we graduated from college and law school, we had a mountain of debt. When we married, we got poor together.”
 
The president is urging Congress to extend the 2007 law that had slashed 8 student loan interest rates to 3.4%. He says if the law expires this July, the rates will double.
 
James Murdoch, the former chairman of News International, has appeared before a British inquiry 9 today to talk about how much he may have known about phone hacking 10 on his watch of the now-defunct paper. Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, resigned as chairman in February. His father is scheduled to appear before the panel tomorrow.
 
The UN observers sent to monitor Syria’s ceasefire say they’re not fool. Members have said they’re aware that cities they visit go quiet, but once they leave, the violence resumes. A spokesman for envoy 11 Kofi Annan also said satellite imagery confirms Syria has not withdrawn 12 all of its heavy weapons from populated areas as promised.
 
Ford 13 Motor Company is shutting its junk status for the first time since 2005. Fitch Ratings has restored Ford’s credit rating to investment grade. The spokesman says the automaker’s assets will be released as collateral 14 once it gets a nod from a second ratings agency. Ford’s credit rating suffered when the company mortgaged its assets to borrow enough money to avoid bankruptcy 15.
 
At last check on Wall Street, Dow was up 65 points; NASDAQ off 14. 
 
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A report out today on home prices in the US shows it’s still a buyers’ market. NPR’s Dave Mattingly reports the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index shows a six consecutive 16 monthly decline in home prices.
 
The index tracks home prices in 20 major cities across the US. For the month of February, prices dropped in sixteen of them. The biggest declines were in Atlanta, Chicago and Cleveland. And compared to the same month last year, home prices went down in 15 cities. Sellers did catch a break in Miami, Phoenix 17 and San Diego, cities where home prices rose during the month. 
 
NPR’s Dave Mattingly reporting.
 
The nation’s largest life insurer is making good on money it owes to beneficiaries. MetLife has agreed to pay nearly 500 million dollars in a settlement that, as NPR’s Giles Snyder explains, involves more than 30 states.
 
The states are working together in an investigation 18 into insurance companies’ alleged 19 misuse 20 of Social Security death record. Regulators say MetLife should have been more aggressive about tracking down beneficiaries. California is one of the lead states. John Chiang is a state controller. 
 
“If they were trying to aggressively do the right thing, they would have checked the Death Master File, identified those people who’re entitled to the insurance proceeds and returned the money earlier.” [虚拟语气,But-口误,对应上文的MetLife should have been more aggressive about tracking down beneficiaries]
 
Another state official says the MetLife settlement and earlier agreements with John Hancock and Prudential could force the hands of other companies. MetLife says it’s working with regulators, and that it will pay about 188 million dollars this year, but the remainder over the next 17 years. Giles Snyder, NPR News, Washington.
 
I’m Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.