NPR 2008-09-30

On a day that House lawmakers handed the White House a major defeat ,shooting down the 700-billion-dollar financial rescue plan, Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd remained confident some kind of  bill will pass. The Senate Banking 1 Committee chairman said while it may take more time, he believes the respective sides will come to some kind of accord.

Our hope is that people will think about this over the next day and half. In the next day or so, it's gonna be impossible to act, but we can certainly work. And then our intention is to do that, to listen to people, and then hopefully come back Wednesday and get a different result from the one we had today.”

Dodd said up to some kind of financial rescue plan, it will not be just big banks and financial firms, but small businesses across the nation that will suffer as they are unable to obtain credit. House lawmakers today defeated the bill to help prop 2 up the nation's financial system by a vote of 228 to 205. Both President Bush and Treasury 3 Secretary Henry Paulson expressed disappointment with the vote.

Not surprisingly, reaction on Wall Street was quick in coming. The market once worded the House vote leaked out, went into free fall today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its biggest single day point drop on record. The other major stock market indexes were also sharply lower with some investors 4 fleeing into the safety of Treasuries 5. But while the drop was dramatic, Sam Stovall, economist 6, Standard and Poor's, said there have actually been more difficult days for the markets. "While it might feel like October 19th of 1987, we would actually have to a fallen more than 2, 400 points to equal the 22% one-day decline that we experienced more than 20 years ago.”

Financial markets had widely been anticipating passage of the plan which among other things would permit the Treasury to buy up bad mortgage debt from struggling banks.

On Wall Street, the Dow fell 777 points, a plunge 7 of nearly 7%. The NASDAQ lost almost 200 points today.

The Justice Department inspector 8 general has issued a scathing 9 report on the mass firing of US attorneys two years ago. NPR's Nina Totenberg has more.

The report concludes that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and virtually all of his high command at the Justice Department abdicated 10 their responsibility in the unprecedented 11 firing of nine federal prosecutors 13 for political purposes. The report concludes that Gonzales and others misled Congress and federal investigators 14, but Inspector General Glenn Fine said that without the power to convene 15 the Grand Jury, he could not say whether criminal charges are warranted. Moreover, he said that top White House aides like Karl Rove refused to answer questions and that the White House itself refused to provide key documents. That prompted this response from Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse. "There is a cover-up, and it continues." Attorney General Michael Mukasey today appointed a federal prosecutor 12 to continue the investigation 16, but questions remain about whether she will succeed in getting any more information. Nina Totenberg NPR News, Washington.

Crude oil futures 17 fell $10. 52 a barrel today. This is NPR.

NASA has announced that it will postpone 18 its scheduled mission of the space shuttle Atlantis to the Hubble space telescope until next year as due to an unexpected breakdown 19 of the telescope. Atlantis with the crew of seven astronauts was scheduled to lift off in two weeks on a mission to upgrade the telescope. Over on Saturday, Hubble stopped sending science data. Now NASA says it had to regroup and perhaps consider sending up a replacement 20 part which could require additional training for the astronauts as on top of almost two years of training they've already undergone to make a series of upgrades the 18-year-old space telescope.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi today hailed the release of 19 people including five Italian tourists who had been kidnapped in Egypt. But Berlusconi advised Italian to stick to safer vacations sponsored at home. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli has more.

Egyptian officials announced that 11 European tourists and eight egyptians were released unharmed, but half of the kidnappers 21 were killed. Ten days ago, kidnappers had seized five Germans, five Italians, one Romanian and eight Egyptians from a desert safari 22 near Egypt's borders with Sudan and Libya and demanded a multi-million-dollar ransom 23. Officials say no ransom was paid. Sources say Egyptian forces ambushed 24 and attacked the kidnappers at dawn. The Egyptian Defense 25 Minister said half the kidnappers have been liquidated 26 without giving further details. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Italian Special Forces took part in the operation. In Rome Prime Minister Berlusconi said there are many beautiful sites in Italy that are perhaps preferable to seeking pass whether there is a high level of risk. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.

Again in the reaction to failure of the House financial bailout bill, bailout bill've cleared the House rather, market plunged 27 777 points.