NPR 2010-01-23

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

President Obama is predicting a fight over financial regulatory reform at a town hall meeting in Elyria, Ohio today. The president said he knows there will be heavy opposition 1 to his plan to tighten 2 rules on banks and other firms to reduce risky 3 practices that he says led to a financial crisis in the first place. President Obama also addressed growing congressional worries over health care overhaul 4. He pledged to keep going.

"I'm not gonna walk away just because it's hard. We're gonna keep on working to get this done with Democrats 5, I hope with Republicans, anybody who’s willing to step up."

Passage of a health care bill was further complicated when the party lost a Senate seat to a Republican. This week, Scott Brown was elected to succeed the late Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy.

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians may relocate out of Port-au-Prince. As NPR's Jason Beaubien reports, officials are working to move people out nearly two weeks after the earthquake struck.

The communications minister did confirm she said that they are looking at, at setting up camps, they are looking at ways of moving large numbers of people out of Port-au-Prince into what basically, the way she described, would be like tent cities on the outskirts 6 of Port-au-Prince. She confirmed that that is the plan that something they are gonna try to move forward with and it's something that they are still working out the details of right now. But they definitely are gonna attempt to get more people out of this terribly damaged city.

NPR's Jason Beaubien reporting from Port-au-Prince.

An Obama administration task force has finished reviewing the cases of nearly 200 detainees who remain at Guantanamo. The plan calls for about 50 men to be held indefinitely under law of war detention 7. NPR's Ari Shapiro has details.

For the last year, a task force of officials from the State Department, the Justice Department, the Pentagon and more have been going through the detainee files one by one, deciding what should happen to each man at Guantanamo. According to an administration official, the task force finished its work this week. The team approved about 110 men for transfer either to the detainees' home countries or to a third country. Roughly 35 will be prosecuted 8 in either military or civilian 9 court. And about 50 will be held without trial under what the administration is calling "law of war detention.” The Obama administration wants to set up a system of periodic review to evaluate whether those who do not get a trial remain dangerous. President Obama had hoped to close Guantanamo Prison by now, but there are still 196 detainees at the base. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 142 points at 10,249. NASDAQ Composite Index down 42, at 2,223.

From Washington, this is NPR News.

A sixth California county is under a state of emergency because of the damage caused by a week's worth of storms. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says San Bernardino County storm costs are more than a million rather 11 million dollars, damages, emergency response and debris 10 clean-up.

The governor of Arizona has declared a state of emergency in his state after four consecutive 11 days of severe winter weather. From member station KNAU in Flagstaff, Gillian Ferris Kohl has details.

From Tucson to the Grand Canyon 12, Arizona residents are enduring another day of heavy rain and snowfall. Widespread flooding, power outages and roof collapses 13 are being reported across the state. Flagstaff Mayor Sara Presler has called on local residents to help during the crisis.

"This is absolutely a community moment. Make sure you are checking on the elderly in your community, take care of that heavy snow and rain on the roof and asking folks to please remove their cars from the on-street parking. That way I can get our plows 14 to the street in a more effective manner."

Schools, county agencies and at least two major highways in northern Arizona remain closed today. Forecasters predict conditions should worsen across the state over the next 24 hours with another three feet of snow possible at higher elevations 15.

For NPR News I'm Gillian Ferris Kohl in Flagstaff.

International teams in Haiti are getting a clearer picture of the devastation 16 that last week's earthquake caused. An estimated two million people are now homeless and authorities are estimating as many as 200,000 people have died. It has been nearly two weeks since the 7.0 quake struck, increasingly testing the collective fate that survivors 17 will be found.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News, Washington.