NPR 2009-09-20

President Obama promised to work with other G20 leaders next week to end loopholes in regulations that led to last year’s global financial meltdown.

"We know we still have a lot to do in conjunction with the nations around the world to strengthen the rules governing financial markets and ensure that we never again find ourselves in the peculiar 1 situation we found ourselves in just one year ago."

The President said in his weekly address that major steps have been taken since the last time the leaders met in London last April to produce real progress toward halting the global economic crisis. He hosts a summit of the group of 20 next week in Pittsburg.

Conservatives are gathered in Washington today for the fourth annual Values Voter Summit. The event is organized by religious groups as we hear from NPR’s Chris Arnold. House Republican leader John Boehner was among prominent Republicans who spoke 2 at the gathering 3. Boehner criticized what he said was excessive government spending by Democrats 5.

“When I look back over the first eight months of these new majorities in the Congress and policies coming out of the White House, all I can do to sum this up is to say that my Democrat 4 colleagues are bankrupting America.”

Democrats counter such criticisms by pointing out that the Iraq War which was started by the Bush administration has ballooned the federal budget deficit 6. They say many of the multi-billion-dollar Wall Street bailouts likewise were backed by the then Republican administration. Still, Boehner says Americans are fed up with the Democratic majority, referring to recent so-called "Tea Party protests". He said a "political rebellion" was underway in the country. Chris Arnold, NPR News.

Pakistani police raided a local security firm charged with protecting the US embassy and seized dozens of weapons that were allegedly unlicensed. From Islamabad, NPR’s Julie McCarthy has more.

News agencies including Dawn News, the country’s largest English media outlet 8, say police detained two people from the company Inter-Risk and registered the case of fraud against the security firm. Authority said police confiscated 9 pistols and some 60 assault rifles, all of which were allegedly unlicensed. The focus on the company contracted by the US State Department to protect its diplomats 10 here comes as scrutiny 11 over America’s use of private contractors 12 has intensified 13. Scandals in Iraq and Afghanistan involving private security firms have deepened apprehensions 14 about such groups operating in Pakistan. Expansion of the US embassy has also fueled speculation 15 about security. Embassy officials say the US has contracted with Inter-Risk in Pakistan and that they understood that the company had obtained a proper license 7 in weapons to meet the contract. Julie McCarthy NPR News, Islamabad.

Najibullah Zazi, the man at the center of a joint 16 terror investigation 17 in Denver and New York, was expected to report for a fourth day of FBI questioning today in Denver. But a spokesperson for Zazi’s defense 18 says Zazi would not be meeting with the FBI because he needed to meet with his attorney. She says the FBI meeting was canceled. The airport shuttle driver insists he had no roles in a terrorism plot and has no ties to al-Qaeda. This is NPR.

A war of words is heating up over the health care debate that will be played out on a television talk shows tomorrow. President Obama will appear live on no less than five shows. The Senate Finance Committee begins work on Senator Max Baucus’s overhaul 19 bill on Tuesday. He spent the better part of two years, laying the groundwork for a bipartisan solution to revamping the nation’s health care system. Not one Republican stood behind Baucus as he announced the outline of his ten-year plan this week.

Union members at Goodyear Tire & Rubber plants around the country will begin working Monday under a contract that guarantees six plants will stay open. From member station WKSU, M.L. Schultze has details. The deal with the United Steel workers Union ensures Goodyear will keep six US plants open for the four years of the contract. It also commits Goodyear to 600 million dollars in plant upgrades. The protected plants are in Ohio, Alabama, New York, Kansas, Virginia and North Carolina. Not protected is a plant in Tennessee. But the steel workers say there is hope for that plant if tariffs 20 on imports of Chinese tires are effective. President Obama approved those tariffs last week. The Goodyear contract covers more than 10, 000 workers. For NPR News, I’m M.L. Schultze in Canton, Ohio.

A 20-year-old man wanted for the murders of four people in Virginia was nabbed by authorities at Richmond International Airport as he was about to board a flight to California. Airport police officers found Richard Alden Samuel McCorsky III sleeping in the baggage claim area after they were tipped off by an airport employee who recognized the man. Police say McCorsky did not resist arrest. Four bodies were found yesterday in a home near the Longwood University campus some 50 miles from Richmond.