NPR 2008-11-26

The Federal Reserve has signed off on a measure to spend 800 billion dollars to try to thaw¹ the frozen credit markets. 600 billion will go towards buying mortgage-related debt and securities while another 200 billion will support consumer debt securities. Treasury² Secretary Henry Paulson said the latest initiative is part of the biggest government bailout in history. It's needed to get the credit markets and the housing market back on track. "What this does is really to help families and get affordable³ mortgage finance. And it's, I think, clearly a strong signal of support." Policymakers hope the actions will help reduce the cost and increase the availability of credit and also bring down mortgage rates. Paulson defended the latest government initiative saying there is no one response to counter what he has termed "a once or twice in a century financial crisis."

President-elect Barack Obama is promising⁴ big government cuts in spending to help offset⁵ the costly⁶ stimulus⁷ package which he wants Congress to pass to boost the economy. From Chicago, NPR's David Schaper reports.

In a Chicago news conference to announce the top two officials who will serve at his White House budget office, Mr. Obama said that in order to invest the needed government spending to stimulate⁸ the economy, he would have to change federal spending priorities to eliminate government waste. "We can't sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer⁹ dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness, or exists solely¹⁰ because of the power of politicians, lobbyists, or interest groups. We simply can't afford it." Of his choice to be White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, Mr. Obama says Orszag doesn't need a map to tell him where the bodies are buried in the federal budget. President-elect Obama also nominated Robert Nabors to be his deputy budget director. David Schaper, NPR News, Chicago.

A judge has unsealed documents that show why the FBI suspected Steven Hatfill killed people with anthrax seven years ago. Justice Department eventually cleared Hatfill. NPR's Ari Shapiro has more.

The documents include applications for search warrants and lists of the items FBI agents seized from Hatfill on their searches. They took a classified document, a biohazard bag, a plastic tube with a band-aid inside, and a silencer, but no gun. The documents also rehashed the circumstantial evidence that made investigators¹¹ focus on Hatfill in the first place. Hatfill told friends he kept mad cow disease in his refrigerator; just before the attacks he ordered Cipro, a drug that treats anthrax. And he wrote a work of fiction describing how someone would stage in anthrax attack in the US. But those were all false leads. Last summer the Justice Department paid Hatfill millions of dollars for falsely accusing him. Then investigators focused on his colleague, Doctor Bruce Evans. Evans committed suicide before prosecutors¹² could charge him with the attacks. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 36 points today to end the session at 8, 479. The S&P 500 rose 5.5 points. The NASDAQ was down seven points today.

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Authorities in Afghanistan now say they have arrested a group of Taliban militants¹³ suspected of carrying out acid attacks against more than a dozen school girls and teachers. The governor of Kandahar says ten Taliban members were arrested with several of the suspects confessing to the attacks. Suspects are slated¹⁴ to be tried in open court. Afghanistan's president has called for a public execution in the case.

The nation's cancer diagnosis¹⁵ rate both for men and women is declining for the first time. The news is in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. NPR's Richard Knox reports.

The cancer death rate has declined in  recent years, but experts weren't sure if the rate of new cancer cases would go down too. The report shows the overall rate of new cancers is down, that's largely due to fewer cases of lung, colorectal and prostate cancer among men, and breast and colorectal cancers among women. Experts say that's because fewer Americans are smoking and more are getting colonoscopies and mammograms. But Robert Carol of the National Cancer Institute says there's more work to do. "The one concerning area in terms of cancer rate as a whole, concerns obesity¹⁶, we're seeing upticks in some of the obesity-related cancers." For instance, thyroid cancer rates are going up by 6-7% a year. Richard Knox, NPR News.

 Michigan Congressman¹⁷ John Dingell has been hospitalized. The 82-year-old Representative, currently the longest serving member of Congress, was taken to a Washington D. C. area hospital after he complained of feeling ill today while in his office. Officials say Dingell was fully¹⁸ conscious and joked with staffers by cell phone as he was taken to the hospital. Hospital officials say he was only being admitted as a precaution.

1 thaw   

v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和

参考例句：

• The snow is beginning to thaw.雪已开始融化。
• The spring thaw caused heavy flooding.春天解冻引起了洪水泛滥。

2 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

3 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

4 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

5 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

6 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

7 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

8 stimulate   

vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋

参考例句：

• Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
• Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。

9 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

10 solely   

adv.仅仅，唯一地

参考例句：

• Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
• The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。

11 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

13 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

14 slated   

用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Yuki is working up an in-home phonics program slated for Thursdays, and I'm drilling her on English conversation at dinnertime. Yuki每周四还有一次家庭语音课。我在晚餐时训练她的英语口语。
• Bromfield was slated to become U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. 布罗姆菲尔德被提名为美国农业部长。

15 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

16 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

17 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

18 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。