NPR 2010-12-27

Forecasters say the big winter storm blowing up the East Coast could just graze the nation's capital, but other regions may not be so lucky. The National Weather Service's Bob Oravec says the storm will be a blizzard 1 in some areas.

"Blizzard warnings are still in effect across good part of the northeastern US, concentrating around the New York City area and extending northeast where along coastal 2 sections of New England."

Tow trucks in Raleigh, North Carolina have already responded to hundreds of calls and airlines have canceled hundreds of flights. Parts of New York and New England could get up to a foot of snow. Travelers across the eastern US are saying goodbye to their families earlier than planned to beat the storm. At Washington D.C.'s Union Station, NPR's Neda Ulaby spoke 3 to some of the people cramming 4 themselves on the trains.

Here's how one young woman feels about getting on a packed train for the next four hours.

"Pretty excited."

Thirty-year-old Stefanie Smith works in fashion in New York. She spent the past two days with her mom and dad in D.C. She had been planning to leave later today by bus, but

"got canceled and now it's train, cuz there aren't any flights there. It's kind of hard to get a flight now."

"Was it hard to get a train ticket?"

"Actually, I was the last one to get one for this particular journey or whatever"

"We have another daughter coming in from St. Louis, Missouri, and her flight's been canceled."

That's Stefanie's mom, Michelle Smith. Even though over a thousand flights have already been canceled with many more expected for later this afternoon, she says her daughter will make it home eventually. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

A new economic advisor 5 is expected to be the only big change at the White House in the New Year. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports the president's spokesman does not anticipate a big cabinet shuffle 6.

Robert Gibbs told CNN's "State of the Union" television show that there won't be a major cabinet reshuffle in 2011. He said the only switch to expect after the new Congress convenes 7 is a new top economic advisor. Lawrence Summers, the chairman of the president's National Economic Council, is a former treasury 8 secretary and president of Harvard. He announced months ago he expected to leave the administration. Summers was a key player in the administration's decision to enact 9 the 814-billion-dollar economic stimulus 10 package. Gibbs would not say who Summers' replacement 11 might be. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News.

General David Petraeus is reporting progress in fighting insurgence 12 along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

"Operations by a mix of special operations, conventional, and Afghan forces have taken down many of the assassination 13 cells, still some there. And again, this progress is just going to continue through the winter."

Petraeus, who commands US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, says Pakistani forces have been helping 14 with operations against insurgence in strongholds in tribal 15 areas.

This is NPR.

With Mideast peace talks deadlocked 16, Palestinian leaders are pursuing other options including seeking recognition of a Palestinian state by as many countries as possible. Some Latin American nations have recently done so. And an Israeli Cabinet minister is warning without peace talks, more countries will recognize a Palestinian state within a year, possibly even the US.

Iranian officials call the last-minute halt to today's planned execution of a Kurdish student convicted of waging war against God. NPR's Peter Kenyon in Istanbul.

Human rights and pro-opposition Iranian websites said 29-year-old Habibollah Latifi's lawyer was informed on Thursday that his client would be executed in three days. Latifi was convicted in 2008 of cooperating with a banned Kurdish rebel group. Human Rights Watch said the evidence suggests that Iranian authorities tortured Latifi during his detention 17 and called his trial unfair. Latifi's sister told an Iranian human rights group that she believed their efforts to prevent her brother's execution had been going well and the family were shocked by the sudden announcement that the execution had been scheduled. Human Rights Watch said in 2009, Iran executed 388 people, more than any other nation except China. Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Istanbul.

The filmmaker who documented the Olympics for more than six decades has died. Bud Greenspan died at his New York City home apparently 18 of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 84. Even as controversies 19 over politics, commercialism and performance-enhancing drugs hit the Olympics, Greenspan continued to focus on the most uplifting stories from the world's biggest sporting event.