The 6 Republican votes helped Democrats reach their minimum needed of 30 votes to prevent the unemployment extension from being blocked by a filibuster. Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown hailed the outcome:

“This bipartisan vote will help those people who have lost jobs heat their homes or help them go to a grocery store and buy food, or help them fix their cars with local car mechanic who can so they can drive in look for work.”

Republicans say they want spending cuts elsewhere to pay for the measure. They propose stripping the Affordable Care Act of this ban on denies coverage for preexisting conditions as a way to do that. Democrats say no. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol. 

 

United Nation announced another step to removing Syria chemical weapons stockpiles. The first batch of precursor chemicals was loaded on a Danish cargo ship today and taken out of the country. NPR’s Michele Kelemen explains. 

The diplomat who oversees this work, Sigrid Kaag says in a statement that some chemical precursors were moved from 2 sits in Syria to the port of Latakia, where they will be loaded on a Danish commercial vessel with military escort from Syria, Denmark and Norway. Now in international water, the ship will remain in see, she said, until the rest of the most dangerous chemicals in Syria’s stockpiles can be brought to the port. China and Russia are also providing naval escort for this work. Syria agreed last year to get rid of chemical stockpiles after in August sarin gas attack that US and others blamed down Bashar al-Assad forces. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the State Department. 

 

Embattled Los Angeles county sheriff Lee Baca has announced he is retiring. Baca, whose department has been plagued by allegations of civil rights violations and corruption, now says today he will step down at the end of the month. 

“I will go off on my term. I not gonna seek reelection for fifth term as sheriff, and I will retire at the end of this month.”

Baca’s announce comes months after federal prosecutors accused 18 current and former sheriff deputies of beating or wrongly detaining inmates as well as visitors at 2 downtown Los Angeles lockups. 

 

Nation’s trade gap has differences with foreign firms. Shipped American sures in US company send abroad nailed November. Commerce Department reported the nation’s trade short fell to 34.3 billion dollars, that’s the lowest level since October, 2009. 

 

On Wall Street, stock rebounded after a 3-day-losing straight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average upped 105 points to close at 16,530; the NASDAQ scored 39 points; the S&P 500 gained 11 points. 

 

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Iraq Defense Administration spokesman says a government airstrike at the province west of Baghdad has left at least 25 suspected Al-Qaeda militants died. The strike comes admitting increasingly fears of fighting between Iraqi Special Forces and insurgents who control of cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. According to the spokesman, the Iraqi air force stroke operation centered at terror net working at provincial capital. He gave no additional details. US says it will provide some assistance to Iraq, but no intention of sending US troops.

 

In this latest pronouncement from North Korea, former basketball star Dennis Rodman has apparently defended Pyongyang’s detention of a US citizen. NPR’s Martin Kaste reports. 

It’s Rodman’s fourth trip to North Korea, and he has never been shying about his affection for the country’s dictatorial leader. But in a CNN interview, Rodman went further, implying the regime is justified the holding US citizen named Kenneth Bae, who has been in prison there for more than a year. 

“If you understand what Kenneth Bae did, do you understand what he did?”

“What did he do, you tell me.”

“Would you tell me what he do.”

“No, no, no, no, you tell me.”

Bae is a devour Christian which may be connected to his arrest. District Congressman from Washington State Democrat Rick Larsen, who released a statement calling on Rodman not to “cast aspersions on a fellow American who is being held by a foreign nation.” Martin Kaste, NPR News, Seattle. 

 

With US army corps engineers there are a number of recommendations of how to deal with a potential invasion of the Great Lakes by Asian carp debated about what to do next just as following in Congress. Corps related report this week was a potential approach to the problems including sealing off Lake Michigan from the carp -infested Mississippi river with a series of dams. 

 

I’m Jack Speer, NPR News in Washington.