NPR 2008-12-27

Police in California are providing new details into the Christmas Eve slayings in the town of Covina that left nine people dead and a number of others severely 1 injured. Los Angeles police chief Kim Raney says 45-year-old Bruce Pardo who entered a home and opened fire apparently 2 had cash on him and intended to flee the country. Raney says police have also learned that Pardo, who was wearing a Santa Claus suit when he launched the attack, was severely burnt when he set up a homemade incendiary device inside the home.  "All indications are that he intended to commit this crime and then flee the country. What appears is that he didn't anticipate injuring himself to the point where he obviously took his own life." Authorities are still trying to piece together all the details that led up to the shootings which occurred on Christmas Eve at the home of Pardo's former in-laws. Pardo killed himself after the shootings. A ninth body was recovered from inside the burned-out home today with authorities still trying to ID the victims.

Public utility officials in Tennessee are now doubling the estimate of how much coal ash spilt out of a holding pond covering neighborhoods and a river. A spokesman for the Tennessee Valley Authority estimated today as much as 5.4 million cubic yards of ash from a restraining pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant broke free, enough to flood upwards 3 of 3,000 acres a foot deep. John Morton says a major cleanup is under way there. "We are cleaning the ash from the neighborhood. We are, controlling the ash on the water." And a dozen homes were affected 4 directly, some swamped with mud and knocked off their foundations. However, some residents say the utility is not doing enough to address their fears about drinking the ash-laden sludge, whether it's endangering safe drinking water. The plant is some 40 miles west of Knoxville.

Sluggish 5 pre-Christmas sales have spurred retailers 7 to offer huge discounts today in an effort to lure 8 shoppers back into stores. NPR's Pam Fessler has more.

It almost seems like a repeat of the Friday after Thanksgiving with early store openings and deep price cuts on everything from appliances to clothing. JC Penney's opened its doors at 5:30 am, and even made wakeup calls to those who requested them online. Retailers hope business will benefit from customers who show up to redeem 9 gift cards and to exchange unwanted items, and then linger to spend more. Pre-Christmas retail 6 sales were down sharply from last year according to preliminary estimates. SpendingPulse, a division of MasterCard-Advisors, reported a drop of from 5.5 to 8 percent. If auto 10 and gas sales are excluded, the decline is about half that amount. Stores were hit hard not only by the recession, but by bad weather in many parts of the country. Pam Fessler, NPR News.

Shares of automaker General Motors rebounded 11 today amid word the company's finance arm GMAC has won approval to become a bank holding company. The move by the Fed clears the way for GMAC to access government lending programs under the administration's 700 billion dollar financial aid package.

On Wall Street, the Dow was up 47 points.

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US coalition 12 members say today forces killed at least 11 Taliban militants 13 including a member of a bomb-making cell during an operation in southern Afghanistan. Officials say the raid in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province was targeted at those responsible for roadside bombings that have killed NATO soldiers. Militants reportedly barricaded 14 themselves inside a home during the raid and opened fire on coalition troops who then responded with guns and grenades. Inside the building, coalition forces say they found dozens of landmines 15, grenades, and AK-47s as well as bomb-making materials.

Parts of Colorado are under a blizzard 16 warning today. Meanwhile lots of snow and few breaks between winter storms over the past month have increased the danger of avalanche 17 in the southwestern part of the state. Mitzi Rapkin reports form Aspen Public Radio.

Over the last month there have been many avalanches 18 in the mountainous backcountry as well as some within ski area boundaries. A series of snow storms in December have dumped several feet of snow around the state. The heavy snowfall, coupled with high winds, is a recipe for high danger for avalanches. Bryan McCall is a forecaster for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. "We've seen quite a number of close calls. We had a couple of fatalities 19 in Colorado so far this winter and a number of other ones around the west, and we've seen some very, very unstable 20 conditions. There's also been a few incidents of avalanches happening in ski areas." So far in southwestern Colorado, there have been two backcountry avalanche related deaths reported. For NPR News, I'm Mitzi Rapkin, in Aspen, Colorado.

Crude oil futures 21 ended the session higher today. The contract for benchmark crude was up $2.36 a barrel, ending the session at 36.71 a barrel in New York.