NPR News 2013-05-22 加文本

NPR News 2013-05-22

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

Emergency workers outside Oklahoma city are racing this hour to find more people who may still be trapped beneath the wreckage of yesterday's menace tornado. They have rescued dozens of people from the rubble of homes and schools, welcome news to first responders, who had earlier recovered 24 bodies including those of nine children.

Betsy Randolph a spokesperson for Oklahoma Highway Patrol says, rescuers are combing through the same areas they previously searched, hoping to find anyone they might have missed.

Some of those were covered with debris under a shelter and that's what we are hoping to continue to find through the remainder of the day. We are very hopeful for that.

So far more than 200 patients and more have been treated at area hospitals. Kurt Gwartney with member station KGOU has been surveying the tornado damage which stretches for about 17 miles and more. He says it's not just homes, schools and other buildings leveled. There are piles of twisted metal of what used to be vehicles.

There are probably, I would guess 80 to 90 cars just piled on each other and you can figure out really how that would happen.

Kurt Gwartney of member station KGOU.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says it was unacceptable and inexcusable for IRS agents to give extra scrutiny to Tea party type groups when they applied for tax-exempt status. But as NPR's Scott Horsley tells us Lew insists there is no evidence the agents were directed by higher-ups in the administration.

Lew says the newly appointed commissioner of the IRS will hit the ground running this week and one of his first tasks will be to hold accountable anyone responsible for this special scrutiny given to Tea party type groups. But appearing before the Senate Banking Committee, Lew pushed back strongly against the idea expressed here by Alabama Republican Richard Shelby that IRS agents were acting with direction from above.

Do you believe that someone  at the Cincinnati office would just own their own start targeting the conservative groups, slow them down, is that part of a culture at the Obama White House.

Lew insisted there was no political influence from the White House on the IRS and argument that's consistent with the findings in a watchdog report. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.

Meanwhile, Tea Party activists reportedly staged rallies across the country today mainly at federal buildings.

Shareholders have spoken Jamie Dimon can keep both his titles, chairman and CEO, only 32% of  shareholders voted today at the bank's annual meeting in favor of a measure that have split Dimon's roles.

Before the closing bell, Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 53 points at 15,388.

From Washington, this is NPR News.

Los Angeles voters are going to the polls today to pick the city's next mayor. NPR's Anna Jaffe reports that in this non-partisan election, the candidates are both Democrats who agree on most policy issues. 

Whoever is elected mayor will make history. City controller Wendy Greuel would be LA's first female mayor, City Council Member and former City Council President Eric Garcetti  would be the city's first elected Jewish mayor. He is also of Latino heritage on his father's side. Greuel has benefited from a lot of outside spending on the part of the union representing workers at the Department of Water and Power. She's also been endorsed by former President Bill Clinton. Garcetti has painted Greuel as beholden to city workers who are paid more than their counterparts in other cities. Meanwhile, he is backed by the Los Angeles Teachers Union. Turnout in the primary was extraordinarily low and just about 1/4 of registered voters are expected to cast ballots in the runoff. Anna Jaffe, NPR News.

While South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius who waits trial for murder. His family is celebrating one long-awaited victory today. His elder brother Carl Pistorius has been acquitted of culpable homicide in a 2008 road accident. The magistrate ruled that the woman killed as a result of that accident, Maria Barnard was driving excessively fast when she crashed a motorcycle into the back of Pistorius' vehicle. Meanwhile, Oscar Pistorius is fighting a charge of premeditated murder in the shooting death of his girl friend on Valentine's Day.

At last check on Wall Street, Dow was up 53 points at 15,388.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News, in Washington.