NPR 2010-03-13

President Obama is putting off next week's trip to Indonesia, his first overseas trip of the year to stay close to the latest action on healthcare. Democratic leaders in the House are looking to pass an overhaul 1 bill this month, but President Obama is encountering division, especially over concerns about abortion 2 language. The president has delayed his trip to Indonesia until March 21st.

The Commerce Department is reporting a jump in retail 3 sales of 0.3% in February to $355 billion. Danielle Karson reports the increase took analysts 5 by surprise. They expected sales to tumble because of last month's snowstorms.

Nothing could be more logical. People didn't shop because two monster snowstorms paralyzed the East Coast. Instead, there were across-the-board gains in consumer spending. Scott Hoyt is a retail analyst 4 of Moody's Economy.com.

"That is actually a bit of a puzzle. The segments that historically have been hurt by the type of weather that we had in February posted healthy gains. Restaurants sales were up 0.9%; building supply stores sales were up 0.5%. Those are two segments in particular where we were expecting the weather to result in significant declines."

Auto 6 sales were weak, just as they were in January's report partly because of Toyota's troubles. Hoyt says consumer spending won't drive the economic recovery, so long as unemployment hovers 7 near double digits 8 and personal income growth remains 9 anemic. For NPR News, I'm Danielle Karson.

Senate and House negotiators say they are optimistic about an agreement that includes a reform of the student loan industry in a major budget bill. Some Democratic Senators had objected to including changes to that student loan system which has already been passed by the House. We have more on this from NPR's Larry Abramson.

House leaders have been calling on the Senate to pass the student loan bill which would push out the private banks that now handle many loans. Instead, the Department of Education would issue all student loans. The Obama administration says that would save billions of dollars they could be plowed 10 into grants for low-income students. Banks opposed to the bill had won the support of six Democratic Senators who said they would not support including the reform in a budget reconciliation 11 bill that will include healthcare reform. But those Democrats 12 have now dropped their objections, saying the leadership has agreed to adjust the cost estimate of the loan reform package. The loan industry continues to fight the bill, saying it will eliminate thousands of jobs in the industry. Larry Abramson, NPR News, Washington.

At least 43 people are dead and nearly 100 are wounded from bombings in Lahore, Pakistan today. It began with two suicide bombers 13 who are on foot when they detonated their explosives within seconds of each other. They were near two trucks carrying soldiers. Authorities reported a series of smaller explosions within hours that injured at least three more people.

Last check on Wall Street, Dow was up eight points.

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The latest rebuke 14 against Israel's settlement expansion comes from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Today, she phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and asked him to drop plans for new settlements in East Jerusalem. Clinton warns it’ll undermine peace talks with the Palestinians and could damage US ties. Israel announced its settlement expansion while Vice 15 President Joe Biden was visiting, a move widely viewed as a slap in the face.

Researchers are now saying that blood pressure readings that shoot up only periodically could be as much a predictor of a stroke as consistently high readings. NPR's Brenda Wilson has more.

It's generally known that persistent 16 high blood pressure increases a person's risk of heart disease and chances of a stroke. But London researchers in this week's journal, the Lancet Neurology, say episodic hypertension is just as risky 17 and doctors shouldn't be reassured 18, if a patient's blood pressure is sometimes normal. The researchers followed 8,000 patients who were being treated after a heart attack. Those whose blood pressure rates tended to spike 19 occasionally were six times more likely to have a stroke. Other scientists noted 20 that this is an important finding but does not mean that guidelines for starting an escalating 21 treatment for hypertension should be changed. It would be difficult, they said, to put these findings to use in everyday practice without further study. Brenda Wilson, NPR News.

British Airways 22 passengers may find themselves caught in the middle of strikes. The union representing 12,000 cabin staff are planning two of them, one starting March 20th and another about a week later. They’re fighting over better pay and work conditions.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.