NPR 2008-06-24

The Supreme 1 Court says it is going to review a lower court ruling protecting marine 2 mammals from Navy sonar. NPR’s Martin Kaste has more.

For years, environmental groups have argued that the Navy’s high-intensity, submarine-tracking sonar can disorient or even kill whales and other marine mammals. They say the problem is especially bad off the coast of Southern California, where the Navy conducts frequent sonar training missions. Earlier this year, a federal court barred the use of the sonar close to marine mammals. Vice 3 Admiral Sam Locklear, commander of the Third Fleet, calls those restrictions 4 “crippling”. “Active sonar today is the only effective means we have available to detect, track and target modern submarines under all ocean’s conditions.” The Bush administration appealed the restrictions and the Supreme Court has now agreed to review the case. The Natural Resources Defense 5 Council says it will try to convince the high court to maintain the restrictions, which it believes are vital for the well-being 6 of dozens of species of marine mammals. Martin Kaste, NPR News.

Constitutional showdown between President Bush and the Congress landed in a DC federal court today. At issue is whether two top White House aides should be forced to cooperate with a congressional investigation 7 into whether US attorneys were fired for political reasons. NPR’s Debbie Elliott reports.

The Bush administration argued the case should be thrown out, that neither the court nor Congress can force Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers to comply with the House subpoena 8. Justice Department lawyer Carl Nichols said presidential advisors 9 have immunity 10. US House attorney Irv Nathan argued that even presidents don’t have absolute immunity and the court should force compliance 12. It’s the first time Congress has gone to court to enforce a contempt of Congress citation 13. And DC district Judge John Bates made it clear he didn’t relish 14 being brought into the constitutional dispute because the two sides can work it out. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Washington.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today the decision by Zimbabwe’s opposition 15 leader to withdraw from this week’s run-off presidential election was “understandable”. Morgan Tsvangirai said he feared for his safety and for his supporters as long-time leader Robert Mugabe has continued to crack down there. Former colonial power Britain said sanctions should be stiffened 16 against the 84-year-old leader. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown addressing parliament said a number of countries are considering taking further measures against those responsible for violence. “We’ll seek to impose travel and financial sanctions on those in the inner circle of the criminal cabal 17 running the regime.” US has said in the absence of a true run-off, Mugabe regime can not be considered legitimate 18.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have settled on the location for their first joint 19 general election appearance since Clinton endorsed 20 Obama in the presidential race. The former rivals will appear together in Unity 11, New Hampshire on Friday.

On Wall Street, the Dow fell a fraction today. This is NPR News.

A Harvard University study is painting a bleak 21 picture of the nation’s housing market. The analysis says because of the record number of properties in foreclosure and continued difficulties in assessing credit, any recovery from the worst housing slump 22 in decades is likely to be slow. The Center for Housing Studies says a two-year drop in house prices is eroding 23 consumer wealth, cutting into spending and making it unlikely buyers will jump into the housing market until they’re convinced that prices have stopped falling.

New coalition 24 of business and labor 25 groups says the country must dramatically increase spending on transportation even if it means raising the gas tax. NPR’s Kathleen Schalch reports.

Tom Donohue, President of the US Chamber 26 of Commerce, says the nation is failing to keep pace with its transportation needs and this is having a dramatic impact “on everything from safety to the environment, from quality of life to economic growth. And the evidence is beyond question”. He says a third of traffic fatalities 27 are linked to poorly-maintained roads. And every year, Americans waste nearly three billion gallons of gas and 4.2 billion hours of their time sitting in traffic jams. “We want faster, better, safer transportation infrastructure 28. And the bottom line is we gotta pay for it.” Donohue’s group generally favors lower taxes, but here’s his reaction to a proposed gas tax holiday: “I think it’s a stupid idea.” In fact, with the Highway Trust Fund running out of money, he says, politicians may have to raise taxes on gasoline. Kathleen Schalch, NPR News, Washington.

Oil prices moved higher. The price of light sweet crude oil for August delivery rose $1.38 a barrel today, ending the session at $136.74 a barrel in New York.