NPR News 2014-03-29 加文本

NPR News 2014-03-29

From NPR News in Washington, I’m Jack Speer.

Rescuers searching for scores of people still missing five days after a massive mudslide in Washington state appear to be preparing the public for a steep rise in the death toll. Officially 16 bodies have been recovered and examined, but officials said they found the bodies of at least nine others taking the death toll to 25. Ninety others are listed as missing or unaccounted for. At a news briefing these past hours, Snohomish County Emergency Management Director John Pennington said he’d like to make those names public.

“Why can we not release the names of the 90 unaccounted for, missing individuals? I think that that’s a question we should ask, and if we are able to release that, then my call as the director would be that we begin the process of looking at the sensitivities and maybe doing that and helping to solve the puzzles of where some of those individuals may be.”

Authorities admit there’s little chance of finding any survivors beneath the one-square-mile wall of mud that came down on a neighborhood near the town of Oso, Washington Saturday morning.

Top air force officials have fired most of the Command at the Montana airbase that was at the center of a cheating scandal by nuclear missile launch officers. As NPR’s Tom Bowman reports, dozens of launch officers will face punishment ranging from reprimands to courts-martial.

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said nine commanders were fired for failures of leadership in a scandal that lasted several years.

“None of these leaders were directly involved in a test compromise, but the commander-directed investigation indicated that they failed to provide adequate oversight of their crew force.”

Seventy-nine missile launch officers had some role in the cheating, James said, the test answers were spread through Malmstrom Air Force Base by cell phone messages. James said there’s a cultural problem within the entire Missile Command that includes pressure to come up with perfect test scores. But investigators found no evidence of cheating at other bases. Tom Bowman, NPR News, Washington.

The Obama administration is calling on Congress to enact new rules for the US regarding data about telephone calls in terrorism investigations. As NPR’s Tamara Keith reports, the president wants the government to stop collecting that data.

The administration is out with new details of what the president wants the program to look like. The government would no longer collect telephone records in bulk. Those records would stay with the phone companies until government investigators had a target in mind. Then the government would get permission from a judge before asking the companies to share their records. There’ll be an exception for emergency situations. Either way the companies would be required to hand the records over in a usable format and in a timely manner. The query of those numbers would be ongoing, but for a limited period of time. How limited? That is one of many questions senior administration officials said would have to be worked out with Congress. Tamara Keith, NPR News, Washington.

Upward revision to the government’s main economic barometer for the final three months of last year. The Commerce Department says the gross domestic product was up 2.6 percent.

Stocks closed lower today. The Dow was down four points; the NASDAQ dropped 22 points. This is NPR.

Now some senators standing together in terms of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and their opposition to it, Senate today by a voice vote approving a measure to provide help to Ukraine and impose sanctions against Russia. The House by a 399-19 vote passed its own measure. The vote is seen as support for President Obama, who’s already announced sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and others.

Former Cabinet Secretary and CIA chief James Schlesinger has died at the age of 85 of complications from pneumonia. NPR’s Craig Windham reports Schlesinger was known for being outspoken and for implementing unpopular policies as he served both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Schlesinger was defense secretary under Presidents Nixon and Ford and was the nation’s first energy secretary under President Carter. As CIA director for Nixon, he forced out 10% of the agency staff. In an interview last year well before the crisis in Ukraine, Schlesinger expressed concern about how likely NATO allies in western Europe seem to be taking Russia in the post-Cold War era. He said eastern European nations see things differently.

“The Baltic states and others continue understandably they’ll be terrified of Russia”.

After leaving government Schlesinger was a business executive and consultant with presidents and lawmakers on a range of national security issues. Craig Windham, NPR News, Washington.

John and Christine McVie have announced a 33-city North America tour that will also include other members of the popular 1970s band Fleetwood Mac. It’s the first set of shows since performances were canceled last year while bassist John McVie was being treated for cancer, while it’s Christine McVie’s first return to the band since a tour in 1998. Other bandmates include Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

I’m Jack Speer, NPR News in Washington.