NPR 2009-02-22

The proposed budget that President Obama will deliver to Congress this coming week will reportedly seek to cut the federal deficit 1 in half over the next four years. Mr. Obama says it's a goal that is crucial to the nation's financial future. "It will require doing all we can to get exploding deficits 2 under control as our economy begins to recover. That work begins on Monday, when I will convene 3 a fiscal 4 summit of independent experts and unions, advocacy groups and members of Congress, to discuss how we can cut the trillion-dollar deficit that we've inherited." Mr. Obama speaking in his weekly radio and Internet address today.

Even before the stimulus 5 plan was enacted 6, this year's deficit was projected to be the largest since World War II, nearly 1.2 trillion dollars. Officials say the administration proposes to cut away that number mainly by raising taxes on the wealthy and on businesses and by winding 7 down spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some Republican governors are expressing their dissatisfaction with the president's stimulus plan by refusing to accept part of the money. One of them declared his stance today at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington as NPR's Kate Davison reports.

Republican Haley Barbour of Mississippi said he refused a portion of the stimulus money meant to extend the state unemployment insurance. Barbour said that to take the money he'd have to change Mississippi state requirements about who qualifies for unemployment. He said that he'd rather give up 50 million stimulus dollars than tax job creation. "Once the federal money is gone, we would have to replace it with state money, which means we would have to raise the unemployment insurance tax on employers, which is a direct simple tax on employment."

Republican Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said he'd also declined the money, but the chair of the Governors Association said the controversy 8 is overblown. Democrat 9 Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania said that state legislatures have the power to step in if their governors refuse the money. Kate Davison, NPR News, Washington.

A green house, a gymnasium and a barber shop are part of the new Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad that reopened today more than two years after the US handed it back to the Iraqis. Abu Ghraib was a place of torture under Saddam Hussein and later 11 US soldiers were convicted of breaking military laws in a scandal involving abuse of inmates 10. The BBC's Jim Muir has this report from the prison.

This is the rehabilitation 11 area where the prisoners are given activities. In the north of the garden it was a fountain. It's all a far cry from the days of the Abu Ghraib as the Americans knew it from the early years. It's now being pitched by the Iraqi authorities as a kind of model institution under the way that people are being treated here or will be treated here. There're only 300 to 400 inmates so far and will be going up to about 12, 000 eventually. The way they are being treated is very different from the battle days and hence of course the change of name from Abu Ghraib to Baghdad Central Prison. The BBC's Jim Muir.

This is NPR News from Washington.

The US military is now acknowledging that 13 civilians 13 and three militants 14 were killed in an air strike by US-led forces in Afghanistan this week. The victims included a half-dozen women and two children. Earlier, the military had said 15 militants were killed before investigating reports of civilian 12 casualties. The inadvertent killing 15 of civilians has become a source of growing tension between the Afghan government and the US and other NATO countries.

On the eve of the Academy Awards ceremony, producers of the telecast of the event are hoping that changes in the format 16 will draw more viewers this year. Ratings for the Oscars have been declining for years now. NPR's Carrie Kahn has more.

The hyper around the slimmed down and hipper 17 show have been getting a lot of press. But just what it will look like has been a closely guarded secret. Hugh Jackman, as the X-Men and People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive, is the host and will undoubtedly 18 dazzle audiences with his Broadway talents. But a list of the presenters 19, which is usually public by now, is as secret as the actual winners. Many of the surprise presenters have been asked to enter Hollywood's Kodak Theater from a side entrance instead of down the red carpet. But if producers of the show are hoping to build suspense 20 to drive up rating, the actual race for the Oscars is not. Slumdog Millionaire, the story of a poor kid winning a big on an Indian game show, is said to be all but showing for the best picture win. Carrie Kahn, NPR News.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been holding talks with China's leaders in Beijing, last stop on her weeklong trip to Asia. She is announcing plans to expand regular talks on economic issues to include security matters as well. Clinton has also been encouraging China to keep investing in US government securities.