CNN news 2009-02-05 加文本

Good morning from the cnn center in Atlanta. I am Reggie Aqui. Here is what's happening NOW IN THE NEWS.

We are gonna start with the president who wants to set a $500,000 pay cap for executives at companies that got some bailout money. New rules are gonna be announced later this morning. cnn.com Live will carry that for you when it happens. And these rules say that any additional pay must be restricted to stocks that can only be sold after companies pay back tax payers. The president says the top execs have a responsibility to tax payers. Meantime, the debate continues in Capitol Hill as to that stimulus bill, it is now in the Senate.

More job cuts to tell you about this morning. Panasonic says it is axing 15,000 staff and expects to lose more than four billion dollars in the current fiscal year. And as a part of an overall cost reduction program, Electronic Arts is cutting more than 1000 jobs and closing twelve of its facilities. EA is known for such video games as Rock Band and Madden Football.

Old man winter has acted again as extremely low temps can be felt from the Great Lakes to Florida. A one-degree wind chill is what Atlantans woke up to this morning. Over in the Midwest, the Chicago Tribune reports the city has had at least an inch of snow on the ground for 29 straight days. And in Kentucky, hundreds of thousands of people remain without power, a week after a deadly winter storm.

The Madoff whistleblower goes to Capitol Hill this morning to tell his story. He says he warned regulators about Bernard Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme for years and no one listened. Madoff is accused of swindling more than 50 billion dollars from investors. (www.hXen.com)

Michael Pheps, Phelps I should say could be looking at criminal charges. A sheriff in South Carolina says he's conducting an investigation into whether to charge Phelps with a crime for a photo of him allegedly smoking pot. The sheriff says the case could be relatively easy since there is a photo and partial confession. If he is convicted, Phelps could get up to 30 days in jail.

Please stick with us here in cnn.com and cnn.com Live as we bring you the updates throughout the day.