CNN 2009-02-20（在线收听）

Good morning, hope you’re doing well. Happy Thursday, from CNN center in Atlanta, I’m Reggie Aqui, Thanks for checking in. Here is a quick look at what's happening NOW IN THE NEWS.

 President Obama is heading to Canada. This is his first international trip as head of state. Mr. Obama will talk about trade and energy issues. The war in Afghanistan is also expected to come up. Canada has about 2,800 troops in Afghanistan, but Parliament has voted to pull them out by 2011. This is gonna be the first meeting between the president and Canada’s prime minister.

President Obama has laid out his foreclosure plan that could help nine million homeowners and boils down to two basic solutions: First of all, it will help more homeowners refinance and take advantage of new low interest rates; Second, incentives to lenders to modify loans and help at risk borrowers. Critics wanna know how it’s gonna help the ninety percent of mortgage  holders who are not in the fault.

And the latest jobless claims numbers remain unchanged from the week before. 627,000 people filed for unemployment benefits last week. This comes just a day after the FED said unemployment could hit 8.8 percent this year.

Well they finally have it done. California state lawmakers  approved a massive  budget aimed at closing a multibillion-dollar deficit. Lawmakers have been working all night long on that budget, which includes a package of tax increases, spending cuts and borrowing to close the deficit. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was preparing to shut down hundreds of state projects, if that deal couldn’t be reached by today.

The Southeast is cleaning up from a night of severe weather and it's left at least  one person dead. A number of funneled clouds were spotted last night and the National Weather Service reports several tornados touch down. One was tracked to cross South  Georgia and into the Florida Panhandle. Just east of  Atlanta huge hail and wind gust caused the most damage. One county reported a hundred homes damaged in those storms.

And that’s a quick look at what's happening right NOW IN THE NEWS. Please stick with us here for more of these updates, throughout the day.

 boil down to:if a long statement, argument etc boils down to a single statement, that statement is the main point or cause