NPR 2008-09-19

Treasury 1 Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke are sitting down at this hour with congressional leaders to discuss the widening economic crisis. Stock prices rebounded 2 sharply today. That followed a report the administration has a new plan to contain the crisis. NPR's Jim Zarroli has more.

Media outlets 3 reported that Paulson was talking to congressional leaders about a new credit facility to absolve 4 the bad mortgage debt that's now plaguing the economy. It would be similar to the Resolution Trust Corporation, the body created to help clean up the savings 5 and loan crisis in the late 80's and early 90's. Treasury Department Officials refused to comment. Trying to create such an entity 6 now could present problems. It's unlikely Congress could approve it before the end of the year. And if it tried and failed, it might hurt confidence in the economy. But the reports of the Paulson proposal sent stock prices soaring. The major stock indexes were up sharply with the Standard & Poor's 500 up 4.3%. Jim Zarroli, NPR News New York.

On Wall Street the Dow gained 410 points today. The NASDAQ added 100 points. The S&P 500 was up 50 points.

Comments by Republican candidate John McCain that if he were in the Oval Office, he would fire the head of Securities and Exchange Commission led to a quick statement from the White House, defending SEC Chairman Christopher Cox today. McCain told a crowd in Cedar 7 Rapids, Iowa that federal regulators were asleep at the switch and failed to exercise adequate oversight 8 of Wall Street. The Arizona senator also called for new Mortgage and Financial Institutions Trust to work with regulators in the private sector 9 to strengthen financial institutions. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, meanwhile campaigning in New Mexico today, when asked by a reporter about McCain's comments, said "what we ought to do is fire the economic policies of George Bush."

McCain campaign says the husband of Governor Sarah Palin will not obey a subpoena 10 in a state ethics 11 inquiry 12. NPR's Martin Kaste has more.

Last week, an Alaska state senate committee subpoenaed 13 Todd Pailin and 12 others to give evidence in trooper gate. That's the investigation 14 into whether Governor Palin inappropriately tried to have her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state troopers. Investigators 15 had planned to talk to Todd Palin on Friday but McCain's spokesman Taylor Griffin says that won't happen. "As long as this investigation does not meet the standards of non-partisanship, under which it was originally set up, it would be foolish for the Governor to participate in that." Investigation was started in July by a mostly Republican legislative 16 council and Governor Palin agreed to cooperate at the time. But the McCain campaign says that's no longer possible because the process has become politicized. Martin Kaste, NPR News.

Crude oil futures 17 moved higher today. The near month contract for benchmark crude was up $0.72 a barrel to end the session at $97.88 a barrel.

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In California, regulators say they've now issued a temporary order that would ban train operators from using cell phones while on duty. The move by the California Public Utilities Commission comes less than one week after a deadly head-on collision between a Metrolink commuter 18 train and a freight train in Southern California that left 25 people dead and dozens of others hurt. Federal officials have confirmed that on the day of the crash, the Metrolink engineer was text-messaging with his cell phone while on duty. It's not clear whether that was the case at the time of the crash last Friday.

US Food and Drug Administration spelled out today how it intends to regulate genetically 20 engineered animals that could be used as food or possibly as living pharmaceutical 21 factories. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

The FDA says it considers DNA 22 inserted into an animal during genetic 19 engineering a drug. So first the agency would ask if it's safe for the animal. If it is, the FDA will then look at animals intended for human consumption and see if they meet current food safety standards. The agency says it will also consider environmental issues such as whether engineered salmon 23 could escape and cause ecological 24 problems by breeding with native populations. A consumer group, the Center for Science in the Public Interests, says the regulations are a good start but adds that the process may not be transparent 25 enough to reassure 26 people about the safety of food from genetically engineered animals. Currently no engineered animals are approved as food. The agency is accepting comments about its proposed regulations for the next 60 days. Richard Harris, NPR News, Washington.

Billionaire investor 27 Warren Buffett has moved in to take advantage of some of the market turmoil 28. Buffett, through his Berkshire-Hathaway holding company, announced his MidAmerican Energy Holdings has reached a deal to buy Baltimore-based Constellation 29 Energy Group for 4.7 billion dollars in cash and stock. It's about half what the company was worth just a week ago.