NPR 2008-09-27

Congressional leaders are reporting progress today in talks aimed at fashioning a bailout of the country's financial markets. NPR's Debbie Elliott has more.

Negotiations 2 jump-started after House Republicans joined the talks. Minority Leader John Boehner says everyone agrees there's a crisis but GOP members want to see a less government-centered response. "We will not agree to a bill that sells taxpayers 3 out to bail 1 out Wall Street." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the process is back on track. She appears open to at least some of the Republican market-based proposals. "I don't see why the secretary could not accept some of those among the options he has to choose from in order to strengthen these institutions, in order to bring stability to the markets, in order to turn around our economy." Pelosi says Congress needs a bipartisan agreement to send the message to the markets. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, the Capitol.

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama and Republican candidate John McCain are in Mississippi preparing for a debate which is scheduled to begin in about two hours from now. McCain ended several days of speculation 5 over whether he would attend the event on the campus of Ole Miss. Initially 6 he'd called for the debate to be postponed 7 while lawmakers in Washington continue to try and hammer out a financial rescue plan. However, Obama had consistently said he would attend. Tonight's debate is the first of three planned televised face-offs between the pairs sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

As the contenders prepare for this evening's foreign policy debate, Democratic vice 8 presidential candidate Joe Biden is criticizing Republican Homeland Security efforts. Chuck Quirmbach of Wisconsin Public Radio reports.

senator Biden spoke 9 to firefighters at a fish fry lunch in the Milwaukee suburb of Cudahy. The Delaware Democrat 4 said GOP presidential candidate John McCain and other Republicans have not provided enough federal funding to help firefighters and police respond to terrorist actions inside the US. "He votes against giving you the money. He votes against and the president of the United States will not give you the money. Because philosophically 10 he doesn't think it's a responsibility of the federal government. It is a local responsibility." The McCain campaign says the Arizona senator has a long record of supporting firefighters as the leader of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus 11. While in Wisconsin, Senator Biden also met with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. And pledged support for the former Soviet 12 republic. For NPR News, I'm Chuck Quirmbach in Milwaukee.

Following what is being described as the largest bank collapse 13 in US history, depositors of Washington Mutual 14 are being told their holdings are safe. Not so fortunate however, the stockholders in the Seattle-based thrift 15 who pretty much lost everything when the government announced last night it was moving in to engineer the sale of the bank's assets to JPMorgan Chase for 1.9 billion dollars. The acquisition of WaMu Chase will have more than 5,400 bank branches and deposits of nearly a trillion dollars.

On Wall Street, the Dow was up 121 points today.

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House lawmakers today voted to approve legislation that would extend billions of dollars in tax credits for renewable energy but the bill still faces an uncertain future. The measure which passed by a vote of 226 to 166 is similar to a bill that cleared the Senate this week. Though unlike that version, it would include tax breaks that are opposed by many Republicans. Both bills would extend for one year production tax credits for wind energy with an eight year extension of credits for solar energy projects, but also include tax credits for purchasing plug-in electric vehicles. Unclear is whether the respective sides can work out a compromise before lawmakers leave town to begin campaigning for the November election.

Olympic officials in China insist that Olympic athletes and journalists were not served milk contaminated with melamine. That's in response to concerns Chinese suppliers gave some of those products to the Olympics. NPR's Howard Berkes has more.

A spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Committee told aroundtherings.com that milk and yogurt served to Olympic athletes and journalists were checked by inspectors 16 and found not to contain melamine, the toxic 17 chemical at the centre of a growing food poisoning scandal in China. The only milk product served to athletes and media at the Olympic Villages and Venues 18 were made by Olympic supplier Yili. Melamine has been found in Yili products. But Olympic spokesman Sun Wei told Around the Rings that food safety was strictly 19 monitored during the Games. More than 50, 000 Chinese children have been sickened and four died due to melamine contamination. Some Chinese officials knew about the tainted 20 milk products before and during the Olympics, but kept that information secret. Howard Berkes, NPR News.