Newscast for Monday, March 15, 2010

Obama outlines overhaul of federal No Child Left Behind law
President Obama sent to Congress his proposal to overhaul the nation’s school system. The proposal encourages schools to compete against each other to obtain federal funding. It also places a lot of the success or failure of schools on the shoulders of teachers. The teachers’ unions are frustrated. FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.

Financial reform bill to create consumer watchdog group, end ‘too big to fail’
Today, Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd gave details of what he said would be the most comprehensive financial reform since the 1930s. Dodd, who is chair of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, highlighted one of the most hotly contested aspects of the plan: a consumer watchdog group housed at the Federal Reserve. Dodd said the head of the group would be appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate. The agency would also have a separate, independent budget.

"It'll have autonomy to craft rules and the ability to enforce those rules. It'll be there to protect consumers from the abuses that we've seen become almost standard operating procedures: skyrocketing credit card rates, the explosion of checking account fees, predatory lending by mortgage firms and much more."

Dodd also outlined other aspects of the legislation, including ending the too big to fail bailouts of financial giants; creating an early warning system to head off problems like the sub prime mortgage crisis; and bringing more transparency and accountability to derivatives and hedge funds.

Dodd said that the plan was the result of the commission's dozens of hearings and thousands of hours of testimony. The commission did include both Republicans and Democrats. But Last week talks collapsed after leaders from both parties failed to agree on key issues. Today Dodd called the effort bipartisan but did acknowledge that at this point there were no Republicans behind his proposal. Still, he said that the law making process would move ahead.

"Every day we delay is a day we are not prepared for what's around the corner: a day when Americans who have lost so much continue to lose confidence in our economic system, a day when we are refusing to confront these very real threats to our economic way of life."

Dodd pledged that legislation would be passed before the end of the year. While passage is uncertain, President Obama has indicated strong support for the reform.

National census count begins with political representation, funding at stake
2010 Census forms started arriving in some 120 million households today, marking the official start of the nation’s attempt to count every person who’s living in the US. The census count determines how congressional district lines are drawn and how seats are apportioned based on the number of people the census counts in a given area. This in turn directly impacts the amount of federal funding that is given to states, counties and cities to carry out their basic governmental functions. But conducting a count of every single person is not only a highly political issue, it is rife with complexities and obstacles that can affect the final count. The counting problems are especially challenging in New York, which is the third most populous state, just behind California and Texas. New York’s Community News Production Institute and reporter Kyra Lawson file this report.

US top exporter of conventional weapons as global trade rises
Worldwide transfers of conventional weapons rose by 22 percent in the period of 2005 to 2009. That's compared to the previous five-year period, according to new data released today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a global think tank that tracks arms sales worldwide. The US is the largest exporter of conventional weapons, taking up a third of all sales worldwide. That hasn't changed much but other trends have - deliveries to Southeast Asia nearly doubled and the number of arms to India and Pakistan both rose sharply. Siemon Wezeman is a Senior Fellow with the Institute that released the new data. He joins us by phone from Stockholm.

To see the updated database of arms transfers, dating back to 1950: http://www.sipri.org/databases/armstransfers

Conservatives win big in Colombia’s congressional elections
Conservative parties dominated congressional elections in Colombia yesterday, taking more than 65 percent of seats in the senate and a majority IN the house.  The winning parties are allied to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and some say their victory ensures the continuation of Uribe´s hard line security policies.  FSRN's Manuel Rueda has more from Bogotá.