President Obama is asking Congress for a fast-track authority to reorganize government agencies in a way that boosts efficiency and cuts cost. He complains responsibility for trade and commerce is currently spread across six different government agencies.

 

"No business or non-profit leader would allow this kind of duplication or unnecessary complexity in their operations."

 

The White House says combining the agencies would save three billion dollars over ten years or making it easier for businesses to navigate the system. While waiting for Congress to act, Mr. Obama has elevated the Small Business Administrator to a cabinet-level position. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.

 

In news that analysts say it doesn't bode well for job growth, the US trade gap has widened for the first time in five months. Today the Commerce Department said that the deficit hit 47.8 billion dollars in November. Exports dropped and imports were higher, driven by greater demand for oil and foreign-made cars.

 

Three people are dead from a shooting at a North Carolina lumber company this morning. Greg Collard of member station WFAE in Charlotte reports the suspected gunman may have been a disgruntled employee.

 

The shooting occurred early Friday morning in Star, North Carolina. That's about 70 miles east of Charlotte. Montgomery County Sheriff Dempsey Owens says the gunman shot four people, killing three, then went home and shot himself. The shooter left a note but the sheriff would not reveal what it said. He and his injured victim are being treated at a hospital. The Sheriff says witnesses reported that the shooter was a disgruntled employee of McBride Lumber Company. It’s a family-owned business that makes pallets for the furniture industry. For NPR News,I’m Greg Collard in Charlotte.

 

Well, astronomers still talking about finding a real estate boom in the cosmos. One of three studies released this week reveals that in the Milky Way most stars have planets, and with about 100 billion stars in our galaxy, well, that's a lot of planets. NASA researcher John Johnson is at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He says the data from the Kepler mission led to the discovery of three tiny planets orbiting a star beyond our Sun.

 

"I don't believe that these planets can support life. They are, well, they have a solid surface on which a life form could live. The planets are far too close to their central star and therefore they are too hot."

 

The studies were released in the journal Nature and at the American Astronomical Society's conference in Texas this week.

 

US stocks down with the Dow falling more than 100 points since the open at 12,368.

 

You are listening to NPR News.

 

The International Space Station has dodged space junk that, though small, could have damaged the outpost because it was traveling so fast. NASA says the station moved about 1000 feet higher. Had it knocked down so, the debris from an old US private communication satellite would have come within three miles of the orbiting outpost.

 

In South Korea, a photographer has been arrested for re-tweeting content from a North Korean account. NPR's Louisa Lim had profiled the man before his arrest.

 

Twenty-four-year-old Park Jong-kun is now in police custody after South Korean prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest. He's fallen foul of the country's draconian National Security Law, this after re-tweeting content from a North Korean account, sharing North Korean videos on YouTube and possessing a North Korean book. According to Park, his re-tweets were satirical and aimed at lampooning North Korean leaders. He told NPR that he believes South Korea's National Security Law is evil and inimical to free thought. That his case is going ahead shows that Seoul is not backing down despite criticism of its increased use of the six-decade-old law. Louisa Lim, NPR News.

 

A Peruvian court has sentenced Joran van der Sloot to 28 years in prison for the murder of a young woman that he met at a Lima casino. He has been accused of involvement in the disappearance of an American teenager Natalee Holloway. She went missing in 2005. And this week, a judge had declared Holloway had died.