NPR 2010-02-20

From NPR News in Washington, I’m Lakshmi Singh.

President Obama’s been campaigning on behalf of a Nevada Democrat 1 who is in a tight race for reelection to the U.S. Senate. Today, Mr. Obama rallied support for Harry 2 Reid. He credits the Senate Majority leader with fighting for better health care and putting people back to work. “From the tax cuts to the unemployment insurance to the jobs, that was only possible because of Harry's leadership. And as a result, our economy is growing again.” President Obama hosting a town-hall meeting in Henderson near Las Vegas today.

There’s some question lingering whether the suicide flight of a lone 3 pilot who slammed his small plane into an office building in Austin, Texas yesterday was a criminal or a terrorist act. The pilot and a federal employee were killed. NPR's John Burnett has more details from Austin.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo was emphatic 4 in his statement to the press. “I can tell you categorically that there is no cause for concern from a law enforcement or a terrorism perspective.” But not everyone agrees. Representative Michael Markel, the hard-nosed anti-terrorism Republican congressman 5 in whose district this happened, suggested that a person with a grudge 6 against the government flying a plane into a building full of federal employees sounded like a terrorist to him. Markel sits on the Homeland Security Committee and said the panel will look at how to better protect buildings from airplane attacks. On Friday, the global strategic intelligence company STRATFOR released an analysis that concludes the suicide flight is terrorism as defined by the Patriot 7 Act. The FBI has yet to label the incident as domestic terrorism. John Burnett, NPR News, Austin.

The FBI has closed a 2001 anthrax case and will announce a former army scientist was responsible. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston has more.

The anthrax letters arrived in the weeks right after the 9/11 attacks. Letters with the poison were sent to lawmakers and news organizations, and five people died and 17 were sickened by those attacks. The FBI is expected to say that former army scientist Bruce Ivins was responsible for the anthrax mailings, and that he worked alone. The Department of Justice will be unsealing documents related to the case later today and they've already notified victims about their conclusions in the case. The FBI is expected to make an announcement this afternoon. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News.

The Obama administration is asking the Supreme 8 Court to allow the government to force big tobacco to pay for programs that help people quit smoking, and this could cost the industry billions of dollars. Philip Morris also filed an appeal with the high court today. It wants the justices to overturn rulings that found the industry concealed 9 the dangers of smoking.

Last check on Wall Street, Dow Jones Industrial Average up eight points at 10,401.

From Washington, this is NPR News.

Reports from Pakistan today say the son of a Taliban faction 10 leader has been killed in a US missile strike. NPR's Julie McCarthy has more on this latest blow on the Taliban militants 11.

A security source said that missiles fired from a US Predator 12 drone targeted a Haqqani compound yesterday near Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. The Haqqanis have been based in that tribal 13 area since they fought to expel the Soviets 14 from Afghanistan in the 1980s. Mohammad Haqqani, the son of the veteran Afghan guerrilla commander Jalaluddin Haqqani is believed to have been killed in the drone strike. The Haqqani faction which has links to al-Qaeda does not launch attacks in Pakistan but sends fighters over the border into Afghanistan. Another son, Sirajuddin, is a higher-profile target and is described by US forces as one of their biggest enemies in Afghanistan. He has a bounty 15 of five million dollars on his head. Julie McCarthy, NPR News, Islamabad.

Tiger Woods struggling to rebound 16 from his sex scandal has broken his silence on the matter and has told family and fans that he is sorry. He appeared before the glare of cameras in Florida today. The superstar golfer bluntly apologized for having extramarital affairs, admitting to letting down a lot of people. Woods says he’s sticking with therapy and doesn’t know when he will return to golf.

Senator Frank Lautenberg has stomach cancer. Doctors say they do expect the Democrat from New Jersey 17 to make a full and complete recovery. The 86-year-old is scheduled to undergo chemotherapy over the next few months for plans to keep working on congressional matters in between treatments.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News, Washington.