NPR 2012-05-10

 President Obama now says same-sex marriage should be legal. NPR’s Ari Shapiro reports the White House has been under pressure to clarify the president’s position since Vice 1 President Joe Biden expressed support for gay marriage on Sunday.

 
The president sat down for a hastily arranged interview at the White House with ABC News. He said he’s been going through an evolution on this issue, initially 2 thinking that several unions would be sufficient.
 
"At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to be get married.”
 
Gay rights advocates are calling this a monument day. On Monday, North Carolina became the latest state to ban gay marriage. President Obama says he still believes the issue should be left up to the states. Expressing support for same-sex marriage during a reelection campaign could be a political risk for the president. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.
 
The FBI’s getting a closer look at the latest al-Qaeda bomb that was intended for a US-bound airliner 3 in Yemen. Today FBI Director Robert Mueller updated the House Judiciary Committee.
 
"We in the bureau are currently exploiting an IED, improvised 4 explosive device, seized overseas, which is similar to the devices used by AQAP in the past.”
 
An agent working for the CIA and Saudi intelligence agencies had infiltrated 5 the terror group as the would-be-bomber. Instead he delivered the sophisticated device to the US government.
 
The Postal 6 Service is bowing to congressional pressure in backing off the plan to close more than 3,500 rural post offices that are losing money. Details from NPR’s Craig Windham.
 
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe insists the goal is to keep open as many rural post offices as possible.
 
"Rural communities in America will be served by the US Postal Service.”
 
Under the plan, lobbies and PO boxes would remain accessible, but window service at many rural post offices would be cut from eight to as little as two hours a day. Postal Service Chief Operating Officer Megan Brennan says that’s one of several options being offered to rural communities.
 
"We believe nearly every community will prefer the reduced window hours, and that many will wanna supplement their service with the village post office.”
 
Those village post offices would be set up in stores, government buildings or libraries. Craig Windham, NPR News, Washington.
 
Pioneering hairstylist Vidal Sassoon has died at the age of 84. Los Angeles police are quoted as saying that Sassoon was found dead in his home this morning. The London born stylist was celebrated 7 for his geometric “wash-and-wear” cuts. He’s been called an artist by some, a rock star, by others, a figure who forever changed the way. Many women felt about their hair reaffirming it with this slogan: “If you don’t look good, we don’t look good.”
 
This is NPR News.
 
Further threatening an already fragile ceasefire in Syria, a Syrian military truck that was escorting a UN convoy 8 to Daraa was hit by a roadside bomb today. Ten Syrian soldiers were injured. The head of the UN observer mission, Major General Robert Mood, says the attack is an example of what many Syrians endure every day.
 
"This is exactly the graphic 9 example of the kind of violence that is challenging the life of the civilian 10 population every day in many cities around the country.”
 
The UN envoy 11 to Syria Kofi Annan has said the ceasefire Syrian forces and rebels agreed to is Syria’s last chance to avoid civil war.
 
One of the best and brightest in the legal field certainly is gone. Former US Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach has died. NPR’s Carrie Johnson reports he had a long record of public service.
 
Katzenbach filled several top jobs at the US Justice Department, second-in-command to Attorney General Robert Kennedy until he became the nation’s top law enforcement officer under President Lyndon Johnson. In 1963, Katzenbach famously confronted Alabama Governor George Wallace, as he stood in the way of black students trying to integrate the state university. One of those students became the sister-in-law of Eric Holder 12, the country’s first black Attorney General. Katzenbach wrote a memoir 13 of those years called "Some of It Was Fun." He died Tuesday at age 90 from undisclosed causes. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
 
World markets still affected 14 by the political impasse 15 in Greece. Before the close, the Dow was down 97 points at 12,835.