NPR 2011-09-20

 President Obama is challenging Congress to quickly pass his latest proposal to shrink the nation's debt. It includes spending cuts in the most financially weighty programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and also calls for an end to certain tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the White House wants the so-called “Buffet Rule” to be the bedrock of any tax code changes.

 
“How you do it depends on what you do the broader tax system as a whole. We are not going to give the Congress a detailed proposal on how to meet that specific principle now, because there are lots of different ways to do that, but we think it should be a basic foundation of tax reform.”
 
The proposal aimed at the wealthiest Americans as named after billionaire Warren Buffet who has said that loopholes in the tax code allow people as wealthy as he to pay less in taxes than workers who earn far less. The plan is expected to run into heavy opposition from congressional Republicans who are against tax hikes.
 
Stocks are down on continued worries over whether Greece will default on its debts. In the U.S., Dow was down 185 points, or more than 1.5% at 11,324, NASDAQ was off more than 1% at 2,595. NPR's Paul Brown reports that Greece promises to speed up reforms but that's certainly not calming investors.
 
The European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are pushing Greece hard to lower its deficit and raise revenues if it wants a sixth loan installment to keep it from going bankrupt within weeks. IMF representative Bob Traa says Greece must shrink its civil service sector.
 
“Further progress will require a reinvigoration of structural reforms.” 
 
The Greek Finance Minister pledges that the civil service cuts will happen. Still, investors are anything but certain Greece will deliver on promised reforms. And they have been selling stocks, especially financial stocks with possible exposure to Greek debt. Paul Brown, NPR News.
 
A federal appeals court has thrown out the 17-year sentence imposed on an American, Jose Padilla. As NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports a judge has said the man who was once accused of wanting to attack the U.S. with a “dirty bomb”, did not get a harsh enough sentence.
 
When prosecutors first accused Jose Padilla of joining forces with al-Qaeda, they claimed he wanted to use a “dirty bomb” in Chicago. Those charges were eventually dropped. But the mere accusation is the sin for which he may be best known. He and two co-conspirators were convicted in 2007 of sending money, recruits and supplies to al-Qaeda. He was sentenced to 17 years. Now a three-judge panel has ruled that the Padilla's sentence was too light. The case has been sent back to a lower court for a new sentencing hearing. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News.
 
There is reportedly a tentative labor deal involving some of southern California's largest grocery chains.
 
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Students at Roman Catholic high schools in the Philadelphia area head back to class tomorrow. Now that their teacher union has ratified a labor contract with the archdiocese. More than 700 teachers had been on strike for two weeks in a dispute over job security and working conditions. Details of the contract have yet to be released.
 
Netflix is splitting its DVD-by-mail business from its online streaming service and its betting will be a big consumer draw. Its mail order plan has been renamed Qwikster. Starting in a few weeks, Netflix subscribers to DVDs by mail will have to go to a separate website to access Qwiskter. The streaming service will continue to be called Netflix. The company is already under scrutiny from some customers who are paying as much as 16% more for both services.
 
The Lion King is the top draw in the U.S. and Canadian theaters. NPR's Trina Williams reports the 3D version dominates earnings more than double than studio estimates.
 
Ticket sales for The Lion King are an estimated 29.3 million dollars making the animated feature not only king of the jungle but the theater too. Many will remember the Disney Cartoon was a mega hit when it was first released in 1994. The re-released Lion King pushes last weekend's winner Contagion down a notch and shuts out all other newcomers. Drive starring Ryan Gosling opens in third place while the remake of Straw Dogs is fifth. I don’t Know How She Does It debuts in sixth place. Holdover, The Help is No. 4 on the chart. Trina Williams, NPR News.
 
I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News, in Washington.