NPR 2009-02-27

President Barack Obama today released a more than 3.5-trillion-dollar spending plan that will raise taxes for the richest Americans while also laying the groundwork for universal health care. The plan also forecast the biggest deficit 1 since World War II, upwards 2 of 1.75 trillion dollars for the current fiscal 3 year something the president acknowledged in announcing his new budget. "Having inherited a trillion-dollar deficit that will take a long time for us to close, we need to focus on what we need to move the economy forward, not on what's nice to have." Proposed spending package will be for FY2010 which begins October 1st and is likely to be expanded upon on a more detailed 4 plan as unveiled in April, while raising taxes for families with earnings 5 of more than 250,000 dollars a year would make permanent a middle-class tax cut.

There's more data out today showing weakness in the US economy. New jobless claims jumped to a 26-year high. NPR's Chris Arnold reports.

There were 667,000 people looking for unemployment benefits for the first time last week, the most since 1982, though the labor 6 force was smaller then. There're now more than five million people receiving jobless benefits. Meanwhile, companies are cutting back on equipment purchases at a faster rate than analysts 7 expected. Nigel Gault is an economist 8 with IHS Global Insight. "The speed of which things are happening, the speed of the deterioration 9, it's what's alarming. And the fact is, yet there really isn't any sign of any light at the end of the tunnel at the moment."

Gault says eventually the government's stimulus 10 and bailout effort should take hold and turn the economy around, but he says the latest numbers make it seem unlikely that a recovery will get underway until 2010. Chris Arnold, NPR News.

General Motor's executives are in Washington today amid more steep losses. The carmaker says it lost 9.6 billion dollars in the fourth quarter. NPR's Giles Snyder has that story.

Top GM executives are meeting with the Obama administration's auto 11 task force. They're talking about GM's restructuring plans and additional government help. GM has been keeping itself uphold with the emergency loans from the government. That assistance has totaled more than 13 billion dollars so far and GM says it needs up to 30 billion to stay out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy 12 protection. 2008 was a difficult year for GM and automakers in general. GM says it suffered its second biggest annual loss nearly 31 billion dollars for the year, plus it burned through more than six billion dollars in cash in the year's final three months. GM says its auditors 13 could question the company's ability to continue operations when its annual report is issued next month, but the carmaker says that could depend on whether GM gets more government loans. Giles Snyder, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 88 points today to close at 7182. The NASDAQ Composite was down 33 points. The S&P 500 fell 12 points today to close at 752.

This is NPR News in Washington.

According to the mayor of a Dutch town near the Amsterdam airport, four Americans were among the nine people killed in the crash of a Turkish Airlines/ jet this week. The mayor says families of victims have all been notified, but names are not being released until all of the bodies have been formerly 14 identified. Investigators 15 are still trying to determine what caused the Boeing 737-800 to crash in a muddy field as it was coming in for landing. A total of 135 people were on board the plane.

Crumbling 16 economy has claimed the first major metropolitan 17 daily newspaper - Scripps Company has announced the Rocky Mountain News will publish its final edition tomorrow. NPR's David Folkenflik reports.

Scripps CEO Rich Boehne told the staff at the Rocky "While you were out doing your part the business model changed and you became a victim." The Rocky Mountain News has been a feisty tabloid 18 competitor to the broadsheet Denver Post. For the past eight years, the two papers have shared business expenses. But Scripps says the News lost 16 million dollars last year and it couldn't find a viable 19 buyer. Papers in San Francisco and Seattle are also imperiled while the Los Angeles Times, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Philadelphia Inquirer are working under bankruptcy protection. Scripps says the paper's masthead, archives and website are for sale, but the online story announcing the paper's demise 20 has a cruel teaser in bold encouraging readers to "subscribe 21 to the Rocky Mountain News". Its newsroom gets to put out one more edition. David Folkenflik, NPR News.

The Senate signed off on legislation that would give presence for the nation's capital to vote in the Congress. The measure approved by the Senate today would give a district to vote in the House of Representatives, at the same time, offsetting 22 will be almost a certain gain for Democrats 23 by adding one seat in Republican-leaning Utah. The House takes up the measure next week.

I'm Jack 24 Speer, NPR News in Washington.

Glossary:

Groundwork: 基础，preliminary preparation as a basis or foundation

FY2010: 财政年度，fiscal year 2010

Make permanent a tax: 使税率保持不变

cutting back on: 减低， a reduction in quantity or rate

deterioration: 变坏, 退化, 堕落， process of changing to an inferior state

underway:进行中的,，currently in progress

uphold: 维持；批准，keep or maintain in unaltered condition;

feisty: 易怒的, 活跃的，showing courage

tabloid: 小报, 药片，newspaper with half-size pages

viable: 可行的；可实施的，capable of being done with means at hand and circumstances as they are

imperil: 使处于危险, 危害，pose a threat to; present a danger to

Demise: 死亡，the time when something ends

Republican-leaning: 共和党倾向的