NPR 2008-11-26

The Federal Reserve has signed off on a measure to spend 800 billion dollars to try to thaw 1 the frozen credit markets. 600 billion will go towards buying mortgage-related debt and securities while another 200 billion will support consumer debt securities. Treasury 2 Secretary Henry Paulson said the latest initiative is part of the biggest government bailout in history. It's needed to get the credit markets and the housing market back on track. "What this does is really to help families and get affordable 3 mortgage finance. And it's, I think, clearly a strong signal of support." Policymakers hope the actions will help reduce the cost and increase the availability of credit and also bring down mortgage rates. Paulson defended the latest government initiative saying there is no one response to counter what he has termed "a once or twice in a century financial crisis."

President-elect Barack Obama is promising 4 big government cuts in spending to help offset 5 the costly 6 stimulus 7 package which he wants Congress to pass to boost the economy. From Chicago, NPR's David Schaper reports.

In a Chicago news conference to announce the top two officials who will serve at his White House budget office, Mr. Obama said that in order to invest the needed government spending to stimulate 8 the economy, he would have to change federal spending priorities to eliminate government waste. "We can't sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer 9 dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness, or exists solely 10 because of the power of politicians, lobbyists, or interest groups. We simply can't afford it." Of his choice to be White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, Mr. Obama says Orszag doesn't need a map to tell him where the bodies are buried in the federal budget. President-elect Obama also nominated Robert Nabors to be his deputy budget director. David Schaper, NPR News, Chicago.

A judge has unsealed documents that show why the FBI suspected Steven Hatfill killed people with anthrax seven years ago. Justice Department eventually cleared Hatfill. NPR's Ari Shapiro has more.

The documents include applications for search warrants and lists of the items FBI agents seized from Hatfill on their searches. They took a classified document, a biohazard bag, a plastic tube with a band-aid inside, and a silencer, but no gun. The documents also rehashed the circumstantial evidence that made investigators 11 focus on Hatfill in the first place. Hatfill told friends he kept mad cow disease in his refrigerator; just before the attacks he ordered Cipro, a drug that treats anthrax. And he wrote a work of fiction describing how someone would stage in anthrax attack in the US. But those were all false leads. Last summer the Justice Department paid Hatfill millions of dollars for falsely accusing him. Then investigators focused on his colleague, Doctor Bruce Evans. Evans committed suicide before prosecutors 12 could charge him with the attacks. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 36 points today to end the session at 8, 479. The S&P 500 rose 5.5 points. The NASDAQ was down seven points today.

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Authorities in Afghanistan now say they have arrested a group of Taliban militants 13 suspected of carrying out acid attacks against more than a dozen school girls and teachers. The governor of Kandahar says ten Taliban members were arrested with several of the suspects confessing to the attacks. Suspects are slated 14 to be tried in open court. Afghanistan's president has called for a public execution in the case.

The nation's cancer diagnosis 15 rate both for men and women is declining for the first time. The news is in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. NPR's Richard Knox reports.

The cancer death rate has declined in  recent years, but experts weren't sure if the rate of new cancer cases would go down too. The report shows the overall rate of new cancers is down, that's largely due to fewer cases of lung, colorectal and prostate cancer among men, and breast and colorectal cancers among women. Experts say that's because fewer Americans are smoking and more are getting colonoscopies and mammograms. But Robert Carol of the National Cancer Institute says there's more work to do. "The one concerning area in terms of cancer rate as a whole, concerns obesity 16, we're seeing upticks in some of the obesity-related cancers." For instance, thyroid cancer rates are going up by 6-7% a year. Richard Knox, NPR News.

 Michigan Congressman 17 John Dingell has been hospitalized. The 82-year-old Representative, currently the longest serving member of Congress, was taken to a Washington D. C. area hospital after he complained of feeling ill today while in his office. Officials say Dingell was fully 18 conscious and joked with staffers by cell phone as he was taken to the hospital. Hospital officials say he was only being admitted as a precaution.