CNN 2008-09-23

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Hello, everyone! I'm Catherine Callaway at the CNN Center in Atlanta, with a look at what's happening NOW IN THE NEWS.

It is just six weeks and a day until the Presidential Election. But Kentucky, Virginia and Georgia are heard not waiting. Those states are allowing some early voting. In Georgia, early voting is expected to shatter records. Like many states, Georgia has seen a surge in voter registration¹. Several states have expanded early voting provisions and others have relaxed their absentee voting rules. 

The end of an era on Wall Street. As the last two major investment banks have officially shifted into commercial services. Last night, the Feds approved the request of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to change their status to bank holding companies. And that opens the banks up to a bigger presence in the retail² banking³.

Meanwhile investors⁴ are trying to gage⁵ what the Bush administration's proposed bank rescue could mean for the global economy. Markets across Asia closed higher today. European markets are mostly holding steady.

The number of children sickened in China's tainted⁶ milk scandal has now grown tenfold; officials now are reporting that 53,000 infants and toddlers have become sick. Some 13,000 of them remain hospitalized and four have died, all were poisoned by the chemical melamine. That’s the same thing that sickened or killed thousands of cats and dogs in the US last year. China’s premier⁷ is promising⁸ some stricter laws to protect the public. The head of the country’s quality control organization resigned today amid the crisis. 

This morning North Korea asked United Nations inspectors⁹ to remove surveillance equipment and seals from its main nuclear plant. North Korea told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it wants to perform non-nuclear testing at the reprocessing site. The request comes a week after North Korea threatened to restart its nuclear program over stalled negotiations¹⁰.

AAA is saying that the national average price for a regular unleaded gasoline is down to $3.74 a gallon. But drivers in Atlanta and other cities in the South are dealing¹¹ with a different type of problem right now at the gas pump. They are empty! A gas industry official says the shortages are because a major pipeline¹² from Texas has been running low since Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. 

And those are the headlines for you this hour. Stay with CNN for more on these stories and other news of the day.