NPR News 2011-07-29 加文本

NPR News 2011-07-29

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Jim Howard.

The House of Representatives is now debating Speaker John Boehner's plan to cut the deficit with a vote expected later today. Boehner's plan would raise the debt ceiling in exchange for deep cuts in spending. However, as NPR's Ari Shapiro reports, President Obama is not backing down from his threat to veto the plan shouldn't get to his desk.

White House spokesman Jay Carney says he is still confident that Congress will raise the debt ceiling before Tuesday's deadline. But he says Speaker John Boehner's bill is not the way to do it.

"There's no question that this bill is a political act that has no life beyond its current existence in the House."

More than 50 senators have promised to oppose the Boehner plan. That means it won't pass Congress, but it's not clear that any other option can either. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, the White House.

For his part, Speaker Boehner says his plan is the result of a compromise, and now he says it's time for others to support his proposal and move forward.

"Our solution was put together by the bipartisan leaders here in Congress. There's no reason for them to say no. It's time for somebody in this town to say yes. And we've said yes on a budget. We've said yes on a plan last week. Now we're saying yes again this week on a plan. When is somebody on the other side of the aisle going to take yes for an answer?"

Lawmakers are working against the deadline of next Tuesday to raise the nation's debt ceiling. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department says it will soon be out with its list of priorities of which bills the government will pay; should Congress not reach an agreement on the debt ceiling. The government makes about 80 million individual payments a month.

Irving, Texas-based energy giant ExxonMobil is reporting second-quarter profits of more than 10.5 billion dollars. That is, that's its best showing in years as Bill Zeeble with member station KERA reports.

It wasn't a record-breaking second quarter, but ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, still saw profits soar 41% over a year ago. The company reported 10.7 billion dollars income. Analysts expected better, and earnings did not meet expectations. ExxonMobil's bottom line was helped by rising oil prices above 100 dollars a barrel for much of the quarter. The global economy improved too. To help meet that energy demand, CEO Rex Tillerson says the company spent a record 10.3 billion dollars to develop new energy supplies. From NPR News, I'm Bill Zeeble in Dallas.

A Muslim soldier who'd been granted conscientious objector status could be facing new charges after the FBI says bomb-making components were found in his hotel room near Ford Hood, Texas. Naser Abdo has allegedly been in AWOL since July 4th. The 21-year-old had argued that his religious belief would prevent him from fighting in any war.

On Wall Street, first bullet by better jobless claims this month, the stocks are now turning mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 57 points at 12,244; the NASDAQ Composite Index is up one point at 2,766.

You're listening to NPR News from Washington.

The way states gather and report high school graduation rate has been so unreliable. The federal government has ordered all states to begin using a more transparent, uniformed method. NPR's Claudio Sanchez has this story.

The US Department of Education wants schools to report the number of students who graduate in four years and then divide that number by the number of students who enrolled four years earlier. Schools will be allowed to count poor kids who transfer in and out or who may require in next three year[s] to graduate. Most states have used a hodgepodge of methods to count high school graduates, resulting in widely different rates state to state, so much so that the data in 26 states was considered useless. The new method is based on a 2005 agreement among the nation's governors to create a tracking number for every student that would allow schools to confirm with greater certainty when or if the student completed high school. States must begin using the new method this fall. Claudio Sanchez, NPR News.

One hundred eighty public school employees in Atlanta are receiving notices that they're being put on paid administrative leave as part of a widespread cheating investigation. A state report out earlier this month implicates employees in 44 schools were cheating on state tests. Officials say at least 41 individuals suspected of cheating have already quit or retired. Atlanta school superintendent Erroll Davis says he wants to begin termination proceedings as quickly as possible.

The head of Norway's Police Security Service says that Anders Breivik, the man who allegedly bombed a government building and attacked a youth camp, appears to be a sociopathic lone wolf. He said he was not parted. He claimed he was part of a militant group. Officials in Norway say they now doubt those claims.

I'm Jim Howard, NPR News in Washington.