NPR 2009-12-10

President Obama said today he welcomes apparent progress in the Senate toward reaching a compromise on whether a so-called public option should be included in a health care overhaul 1 bill. President’s comments come even as the details of the compromise remain sketchy 2.

The Senate made critical progress last night with a creative new framework that I believe will help pave the way for final passage and a historic achievement on behalf of the American people.

The broad agreement the Senate Majority Leader Harry 3 Reid announced last night would not entirely 4 resolve whether a government-run health care option will be taken out of the bill, but instead it will present a number of options proponents 5 say would do the same thing. It would include a tentative agreement to include a health plan to be administrated by the agency that handles federal employees’ health care, while also open Medicare to uninsured Americans that in earlier age. The Senate is in its 10th straight day of debate on the health care overhaul.

NPR has learned a federal grand jury in New York has started looking at the evidence the Justice Department has collected against the mastermind of 9-11 attacks and four others. NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston reports.

Attorney General Eric Holder 6 announced last month that the professed 7 mastermind of 9-11 attacks - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men will be tried in the US district court in New York. Now sources tell NPR the next step in the process, a federal grand jury weigh in whether there is sufficient evidence to bring indictment 8 has just started. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is already under indictment in the southern district of New York for his alleged 9 role in 1995 plot to blow up Airlines over the Pacific. The grand jury is now looking at bringing in entirely different indictment related to the September 11th attacks. Officials expect the grand jury will finish their work in a matter of weeks. It isn’t clear whether the indictment will be kept under wraps or made public. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News, New York.

The Obama administration said today it’s extending the controversial TARP financial rescue program until October of next year, despite calls by some lawmakers vote to be shut down. NPR’s John Ydstie reports.

To extend the TARP, the administration only needed to notify Congress of its intent. Treasury 10 Secretary Timothy Geithner did so in a letter to House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid. Geithner told them the 700-billion-dollar program had helped to bolster 11 confidence in the financial system. So far, most TARP funds have been used to shore up big financial firms and auto 12 companies. In a new report, the TARP Congressional Oversight 13 Panel criticized the program for doing too little to stay of off home foreclosures and boost the lending for small businesses. In his letter, Geithner said the TARP will focus on those issues in the coming year. He also said the government would recover all but 42 billion of the 364 billion dollars disbursed 14 by the TARP in the last fiscal 15 year. John Ydstie, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street, the Dow was up 51 points.

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Officials say a missing US student who turned up in Pakistan is alleged to have left behind what investigators 16 were referring to as a farewell video. They say it features / American casualties in a statement saying the Muslims must be defended. Officials say the student as one of five missing students being detained by Pakistani authorities. The five including a Pakistani-American and an Egyptian-American and a Yemeni-American have been the object of an FBI manhunt for the past week. One was apparently 17 a student at Howard University in Washington. The five were picked up in a raid on a home in eastern Pakistan.

Tens of thousands of people are still without power across Wisconsin that’s after the season's first major snow storm. We have more from the Milwaukee Public Radio’s LaToya Dennis.

Weather conditions across the state of Wisconsin are now a mixed back. Last summer digging out from under the 18 inches of snow that fell over night, people in Milwaukee are dealing 18 with the remnants of rain snow mixture that let the road slippery and the many without power. Suffered school at districts gave students the day off, and all the state government offices have been ordered / closed. According to meteorologists, areas of the state could see wind gusts 19 up to 50 miles per hour. Temperatures are also expected to approach the zero degrees by Thursday morning. Wisconsin is under a state of emergency until midnight. For NPR News, I'm LaToya Dennis in Milwaukee.

The social networking site Facebook has announced a revision to its privacy settings. It says it’s aimed at giving its more than 350 million users greater control. Starting today, Facebook says it will require all its users to review and update their privacy settings. The company says new control should simplify its previous privacy system.

I m Jack 20 Speer, NPR News in Washington.