BILL WOLFF (Announcer): From NPR News in New York, this is THE BRYANT PARK PROJECT.
(Soundbite of music)
RACHEL MARTIN, host:
Live from the NPR studios at Bryant Park in mid-town Manhattan, this is THE BRYANT PARK PROJECT from NPR News. News and information for your Monday morning. Hey, I'm Rachel Martin.
ALISON STEWART, host:
And I'm Alison Stewart.
It is March 3, 2008. And I would hate to be somebody running for president today. Can you imagine what a tense day this must be…
MARTIN: No. Do these people eat? (Unintelligible) stomach ache.
STEWART: …for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton. Even John McCain. I mean, just what is at stake tomorrow. It's unbelievable to think that tomorrow could be a make or break day for - in life of the Democrats. John McCain kind of had it sewed up, but you wonder about all that money that they've raised. What are they using it for and if you don't get the nomination, where does that money go?
MARTIN: Where does it go?
STEWART: Where does it go? Where does it go?
MARTIN: A big party.
STEWART: I don't think that's allowed.
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STEWART: But we'll ask somebody for the rules (unintelligible). We'll ask somebody who knows about this kind of things.
MARTIN: Also, we're gong to talk about China. China's in the news for its one child only policy. The country is thinking about raising that limit to two. This a lot. It's been on place for more than 30 years. There've been some - it's worked to a certain degree. The population has shrunk. But there've been some negative consequences of that law as well. We're going to talk to the Newsweek correspondent in Beijing about that story.
STEWART: And a couple set off from the New York harbor for - not for a three hour tour, but for a thousand day voyage. Have you ever sailed? Do you like to sail?
MARTIN: I get seasick.
STEWART: Oh, no.
MARTIN: I know.
STEWART: I love…
MARTIN: I could sit right in the middle of the boat and I can't really look at the water. But it's fun if you don't get up.
STEWART: I love to sail. I gone so with my dad since I was a little kid. But a thousand days on a boat? I don't care how big that boat is. Well, this couple set out to break this record. On day 315, one of them had to bail. She will join us. She is freshly back on land for the first time in almost a year.
MARTIN: And these people - I thought the story was that they - you know, whatever. You're on a boat, most of the time you go and you dip in to a little island and…
STEWART: No. They want to stay at sea.
First though, we're going to get you a block of news for this Monday morning.
Russia has a new president and his name is
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STEWART: His name is - I'm going to try this one, Dmitry Medvedev.
MARTIN: Yes.
STEWART: Thank you.
Unidentified Male: Dmitry Medvedev.
STEWART: Thank you Voice America Pronunciation Guide.
Vladimir Putin's chosen successor won more than 70 percent of the vote and that's according to the country's central election commission. But independent election monitors say there are reports of rigged polls. NPR's Gregory Feifer is in Moscow with more.
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GREGORY FEIFER: Thousands of Dmitry Medvedev supporters cheered at a rock concert in Red Square organized by the Kremlin in the poring rain.
President DMITRY MEDVEDEV (Russia): (Russian spoken)
FEIFER: When Medvedev sauntered out from the Kremlin's gates to address the crowd together with Putin, the new leader said his massive victory meant Russia would continue following Putin's policies. Putin has said he wants to remain on the scene as prime minister and it's not clear how much power President Medvedev will have. Later, at a news conference, Medvedev said he, not the prime minister, would set the country's foreign policy. Opposition leaders were barred from running in the election in which observer said the authorities forced people to vote for Medvedev.
MARTIN: That was NPR's Gregory Feifer reporting.
And the Russians may have had it all sealed up but the president race here at home is still chugging along. We are less than a day away from another big round of primaries.
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STEWART: Barack Obama spent this weekend urging voters not to into Senator Clinton's promises that she could bring change. At a rally in Providence on Saturday, he highlighted Clinton's position on NAFTA.
Senator BARACK OBAMA (Democrat, Illinois; Presidential Candidate): The real change, for example, is not calling NAFTA a victory and saying how good it was for the American people until you decide to run for president.
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Sen. OBAMA: Like Senator Clinton did. That's not real change.
STEWART: Obama also responded to a new ad by the Clinton campaign. It suggest he does not have the experience to handle a crisis.
Sen. OBAMA: What precise foreign policy experience makes you prepared to make that - to answer that phone call at 3:00 a.m.?
MARTIN: Clinton was also in Ohio yesterday where she continues to paint Obama as a candidate who talks pretty but lacks substance.
Senator HILLARY CLINTON (Democrat, New York; Presidential Candidate): I don't want to be one of these people running for office. Oh, you know, when I come and you got the bright lights and all the cameras and I give you this big old speech and everybody feels good and you walk out and you turn to your neighbor and you say, well, that was beautiful. But what did it mean?
MARTIN: Clinton also took aim at Republican John McCain and his economic policy. Here she is in Austintown, Ohio.
Sen. CLINTON: We can't continue on the path we're on. That's one of the big differences between my friend and colleague Senator McCain and myself. He says he doesn't know much about the economy except he wants to continue Bush policies.
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STEWART: On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee spent much of the weekend campaigning in Texas and funny thing, the Dallas Morning News, endorsing Huckabee. Senator John McCain go in the low profile route - sort of. He went back to his weekend cabin just outside Sedona, Arizona, on Sunday afternoon. Did a little grilling for some three dozen reporters, staff members and a few Republican friends in the Senate. Back to the trail today for him. He will hold a town hall meeting today in Waco, Texas. Tomorrow, all of the candidates face primaries in Vermont, Rhode Island, Ohio and Texas.
WOLFF: This is NPR.
STEWART: In Obama's home state today, a jury will be selected in a big corruption trial. Illinois real estate developer Antoin Tony Rezko is accused of bribes, kickbacks and, quote, "efforts to illegally obtain millions of dollars." Rezco and Barack Obama had some personal real estate dealings which have come up in the campaign. Here's NPR's Cheryl Corley with more on Tony Rezko.
CHERYL CORLEY: He used to be a man politicians liked to see coming. Real-estate developer and fast food tycoon, Tony Rezco long had a reputation of being a gracious guy and a great fundraiser, whose contributions went to both Republicans and Democrats. In Illinois, it was primarily Democrats — including the state's Governor Rod Blagojevich and U.S. Senator Barack Obama.
Senator Hillary Clinton has blasted Obama for his purchase of land next to his home from Rezko. Since it happened, widely reported before the sale the developer was being investigated. Even Obama has called the land deal a boneheaded mistake.
Clinton appeared in a photograph with Rezko but received no donations from him. And Cindy Canary, the head of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, says the Rezko trial puts the Obama-Rezko relationship back in the spotlight.
Ms. CINDY CANARY (Director, Illinois Campaign for Political Reform): There are no links that we know of that say there was any kind of quid pro quo with Obama and Rezko, but this can't help the senator.
CORLEY: Tony Rezko stands accused of using his political clout to run a multimillion-dollar extortion scheme in the spring of 2004. Prosecutors say his goal was to collect bogus fees from companies hoping to handle investments from a teachers pension fund and other state boards.
When U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald announced the indictment more than a year ago, he said Rezko was a leader in a pay-to-play scheme on steroids.
Mr. PATRICK FITZGERALD (United States Attorney, Northern District of Illinois): When people are talking about getting $1.3 million each out of one deal, they're going to get $250,000 out of another deal, they're going to get a $1 million bribe out of another deal. The amounts of money that were being shaken down in one eight week span was in the millions.
CORLEY: Fitzgerald says those extortion plans were thwarted by federal investigators and that Rezko pocketed no more than a quarter of a million dollars.
In court papers, an anonymous beneficiary of the alleged scheme is listed as only Public Official A. But federal judge Amy St. Eve, who will hear the Rezko case, recently identified Public Official A as Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Prosecutors say Rezko became a powerful operative in state government because he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the governor. Blagojevich has not been charged with any wrongdoing, and this past week, he had little to say about the case.
Governor ROD BLAGOJEVICH (Democrat, Illinois): I don't know much about it. I have a job to do as governor. I have a full-time job, and I don't think its fair for me to comment on a pending court case.
Ms. CANARY: This is a big deal in Illinois where we just send our last governor to jail.
CORLEY: As Cindy Canary notes it was just three months ago that the state's former governor, George Ryan, began serving a six-and-a-half year term for his conviction on corruption charges. Meantime, Obama gave to charity the nearly $150,000 Rezko-linked contributions that he received. Again, Cindy Canary.
Ms. CANARY: I'm not expecting to see anything in the Rezko trial that really is damaging to the senator. his is very much a case about Illinois and about the executive administration and the governor of Illinois.
CORLEY: But, Canary says, in a hot political presidential race, anything can be damaging.
MARTIN: That's NPR's Cheryl Corley reporting.
STEWART: It was a bloody weekend in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The violence started late on Friday when a suicide bomber killed 358 people and wounded 50 at a funeral in northwestern Pakistan's Swat Valley. On Saturday, three people were killed by roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, along Pakistan's border, and yesterday, a suicide bomber blew himself up during a meeting of thousands of tribal members in northwest Pakistan - 40 were killed. The tribal leaders were gathered to discuss resistance to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
MARTIN: All these attacks are being attributed to a resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. They're part of a growing worry in Washington about the future of that country and the NATO led military mission. One recent report said Afghanistan is in danger of becoming a failed state. But even though prospects look bleak, military leaders point to one bright spot. The American lead counterinsurgency effort in the eastern part of the country. Here's NPR's Tom Bowman.
TOM BOWMAN: More than 12,000 American troops are spread over a dozen afghan provinces, hard against the border with Pakistan in what is known as Regional Command East. It's one of the few parts of Afghanistan where things seemed to be improving. That's what defense secretary Robert gates told congress recently.
Secretary ROBERT GATES (United States Secretary of Defense): January was the first month to the eastern region in two years where the level of violence was actually less than it was two years ago. It's our area of responsibility and the counterinsurgency is going very well there.
BOWMAN: Besides a large number of U.S. troops, tens of millions of American dollars are being poured into this region. That's giving the people of eastern Afghanistan more basic services. And at the same time, local councils are slowly taking over more responsibility for governing.
Major General DAVID RODRIGUEZ (U.S. Army): The Afghan citizens are noticing these improvements.
BOWMAN: Major General David Rodriguez is the commander there. He told reporters at the Pentagon that recent survey show a sense among the population that better days are ahead.
Maj. Gen. RODRIGUEZ: And half the population express the satisfaction with ability of medical care, drinking water and education which were all very, very low before.
BOWMAN: That's not to say all is well in eastern Afghanistan. There are kidnappings, nest of Taliban fighters. Many afghan s still fear to even drive through this region to reach the city of Kandahar in the south. But General Dan McNeil, the top commander of the NATO led mission in Afghanistan says this eastern region is further along than the southern part of Afghanistan where Canadian troops are in the lead and attacks were on the rise.
General DAN McNEIL (Commander, NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan): That's not a derisive comment about anybody or anything - certainly not members of the alliance. It's just that clearly the U.S. has put the effort into making this piece of it right and the counter insurgency there - the term used by many NATO allies is we got to be more comprehensive.
BOWMAN: Comprehensive begins with longer tours. Americans serve 15 months on the ground compared to six months for most other NATO troops. That longer time allows the Americans to build closer ties with the locals. American troops also have more training in counterinsurgency, McNeil says. That means not only how to shoot, but how to rebuild, work with local officials and American forces are flushed with money for reconstruction.
MARTIN: That's NPR's Tom Bowman. His entire report is on our Web site.
All this week, NPR is taking a look at the war in Afghanistan. Follow the series and we're to report co-authored by retired Marine General Jim Jones, our prospects for Afghanistan. Head over to our Web site for the link, npr.org/bryantpark.
STEWART: Now, Prince Harry is back in the U.K. after a tour of duty on the frontlines in Afghanistan. It was a well kept secret by the government and some mainstream media outlets. He sat for his first face to face interview at Norton Air Force Base in Oxfordshire on Saturday. The British press flashed his picture across the front pages. Some calling him a hero, a title he decline.
Prince Harry (England): You know, I would say I'm a hero. This guys who, you know, to - any guys who came back on the plane with us who essential come to terms through out the whole way and one who'd lost two limbs, a left arm and a right leg, and another guy who is basically saved by his mate's body being in a way and took a shot one to the neck. But I'm out cold through out the whole (unintelligible). And, you know, those are the heroes.
STEWART: Prince Harry's secret six month deployment was cut short after the Drudge Report publish details about where he was in Afghanistan.
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MARTIN: Bryant Park is always online at npr.org/bryantpark. And if you've been following the blog, you know that Human Iditaroder - did you know that's a word? Jill Homer - she finished the 350-mile race in Alaska on Saturday. Her time was six day, two hours and twenty minutes. Every minute counts in this. We caught up with her in Anchorage for the post-race low down.
Ms. JILL HOMER (Cycling Expert): There's one part of the trail that goes up a waterfall. It's this really slick stretch of ice, five or six degrees. You know a pretty steep pitch to walk up glare ice. The wheels from under my bike that I was pushing along side washed out and the bike pulled me down with it. And as it was doing this, I kind of wrenched my right hip and pulled the muscle in the flexor. And then I fell over and then my bike and I slid down the waterfall like 20 feet. But it wasn't a serious injury, but it was painful.
MARTIN: Yeah, seriously. That's a lot of pain. But she made it and you can hear our interview with Jill on our blog, npr.org/bryantpark, and congratulations Jill. Well deserved.
WOLFF: This is NPR.
STEWART: Here's one of the major headlines we're following today, FBI agents have concluded their search for the deadly poison ricin at the home and storage units near Salt Lake City, Utah, and agency spokesman would not say whether agents found anything relating to the discovery of ricin in a Vegas hotel room last month, but he did say that all of Utah locations they searched are safe.
Mr. JUAN BECERRA (FBI Spokesman): We have not discovered anything at this time that we are willing to talk about and, of course, we still are emphasizing that there is no threat, no public safety hazard.
STEWART: FBI spokesman Juan Becerra courtesy of KUTV. Fifty-seven year old Roger Von Bergendorff lived in the home that was searched until about a year ago.
MARTIN: And Israeli troops pulled out of the Gaza strip today. We'll have more on that story coming up. You are listening to THE BRYANT PARK PROJECT from NPR News.
WOLFF: This is NPR.
STEWART: That's your block of news for this Monday, March 3rd. Stay with us here on at the BPP.
A couple spending a thousand days at sea, we'll talk to one of them shortly. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
