NPR 2010-05-28

The Obama administration is making some changes after finding out that the oil spill in the Gulf 1 of Mexico is far bigger than initially 2 thought. Up to 19,000 barrels of crude have spilled each day in the last month, surpassing the Exxon Valdez disaster; it's the worst in US history. Today, President Obama announced plans to extend a moratorium 3 on new offshore 4 oil drilling by another six months. NPR's Jennifer Ludden has that story.

In addition to the moratorium, 33 deepwater drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico are suspended. Mr. Obama said his administration has started cleaning house of the scandal-plagued agency that oversees 5 drilling, but more needs to be done. The president also rejected criticism that his administration has not been fully 6 engaged in the effort to stop the spill and clean up damage.

"This notion that somehow the federal government is sitting on the sidelines and for the last three or four or five weeks we've just been letting BP make a whole bunch of decisions is simply not true."

The fact is, he said, the government does not have better technology than BP for stopping an underwater leak. Whether that should change something he said, his oil spill commission will take up. Jennifer Ludden, NPR News, Washington.

Also today, the administration announced that Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the agency that oversees offshore drilling, is out. The official word is that she had resigned after the Minerals Management Service came under fire for its role in the run-up to the oil spill.

In his first National Security Strategy report, President Obama departed from the Bush administration in a number of key ways. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston has the details.

President Obama stressed that the battle against violent extremism can't come to define this country's relationship with the rest of the world. Instead, he stressed engagement and economic development as key components 7 of US security strategy going forward. The Obama National Security Plan doesn't mention, for example, preemptive attacks against countries and non-state groups who pose a threat to the US. Preemption had been a cornerstone of the Bush administration's national security strategy, and it set the stage for the war in Iraq. The report also focuses on the growing threat of homegrown terrorism. That says the US has to counter relatively 8 unsophisticated attacks launched from inside this country, such as the recent failed car bombing in Times Square. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News, New York.

The US government seeing another drop in the number of Americans filing their first claims for unemployment benefits, it fell to 460,000 last week. David Wyss, chief economist 9 at Standard & Poor's, says there're still too many new jobless claims despite the decline.

"Claims are doing a little bit worse than we would have thought at this stage of recovery. Normally, it used to be of lay-offs dropping off more than this. Critical number is going to be next Friday's employment report, however."

Dow's up more than 200.

This is NPR News.

An American woman, who's spent 15 years in a Peruvian prison for her role in an insurgency 10 group, is out. Lori Berenson was released today, 48 hours after a court granted her parole. The New York native was arrested on a bus in 1995 on charges of being a leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. Her family says Berenson never took up arms and was wrongfully convicted.

In the US, a new poll shows that Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal still holds a large lead in the race for the Senate seat now held by Christopher Dodd. Blumenthal has been the subject of national criticism following a New York Times' article about his service during the Vietnam War. From member station WNPR, John Dankosky reports.

A full week of negative press has taken a small toll 11 on Blumenthal, once thought to be a shoo-in to replace Dodd. But he still holds a 25-point lead over his main Republican challenger, Linda McMahon, in a poll by Quinnipiac University. Last week's New York Times article shows Blumenthal referring to service in Vietnam during a war. He did actually serve stateside in the Marine 12 Corps 13 Reserves. He's since apologized for what he called "misstatements". Doug Schwartz, director of the poll, says that Blumenthal still has a commanding lead.

"That says that people really like him, and because they really like the job that he's done for 20 years as attorney general, they're willing to cut him some slack on this controversy 14."

The poll does show that fewer Connecticut voters found the Democrat 15 honest and trustworthy since the incident. McMahon's negatives also went up by 13 points. The former executive of World Wrestling Entertainment had claimed credit for feeding the Vietnam story to the Times. For NPR News, I'm John Dankosky in Hartford.

US stocks rallied into the close, up 285 points for the Dow at 10,260.