"I am suspending my campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich for President of the United States."

 

NPR's senior Washington editor Ron Elving says the fact that Perry is dropping out only two days before the South Carolina primary is puzzling.

 

Rick Perry's announcement today is difficult to understand in terms of timing, except that it appears he did not want to participate in the final debate tonight, and it appears that he did not want to take the licking that he was going to take on Saturday. He is running at about 4% in the polls in South Carolina. That is a far cry from where he began on August 13th when he began his candidacy by announcing in South Carolina, and he did not want to have that final judgment rendered against his campaign by the voters of South Carolina on Saturday.

 

NPR's Ron Elving.

 

Newt Gingrich meanwhile is gaining momentum in South Carolina and continues hurling attacks at GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney. But today, he also poked a little fun at President Obama who's on a tourism boosting trip this hour to Florida's Disney World.

 

"I want you to think about the president standing with Mickey Mouse on one side and Goofy on the other. And I'll let you decide which Cabinet office he'll likely offer to the two of them while he's there." 

 

Well, Gingrich struck a more serious tone earlier though in reacting to reports that his ex-wife says Gingrich asked her to allow him to have both a wife and a mistress. Marianne Gingrich, the former House Speaker's second wife, says in an interview to air-run ABC News' Nightline tonight that she refused to go along with that idea.

 

Roadways in western Washington state are treacherous and flights canceled for a second day as an ice storm dumps on top of yesterday's blanket of snow. The National Weather Service used the emergency alert system to break into Thursday morning broadcast with an ice storm warning. From member station KUOW in Seattle, Patricia Murphy has the latest.

 

At least 90,000 homes are without power. There are spun-out cars in ditches on the side of the road. Highways are closed because of fallen trees. The Washington State Patrol's Julie Startup says even emergency workers are running into trouble.

 

"We have some troopers that, I say, we are out there trying to deal with threesome trees and got stuck between the trees, so, they've determined that that roadway's just too treacherous for any commuters right now."

 

A Washington transportation department worker was injured after a multi-car collision. The slow-motion storm is expected to leave almost a half-inch of ice before temperatures rise later today. It's the first ice storm to hit the Seattle area in almost two decades. For NPR News, I'm Patricia Murphy in Seattle.

 

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow was up 32 points at 12,611 in trading of more than two billion shares.

 

This is NPR News.

 

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Martin Dempsey, arrives in Israel today for his first meeting with Israeli officials since taking office. As Linda Gradstein tells us, there he's expected to address differences over how to stop Iran's nuclear program.

 

General Dempsey's visit comes amid growing nervousness in Israel. The former chief of military intelligence, Major-Genral Amos Yadlin, today told an Israeli newspaper that Iran has all of the components needed to make a nuclear bomb, and that a military option should be considered. The US opposes such action, concerned that an Israeli military strike could spark a regional conflict in the Middle East. US officials say they believe the current round of stepped up sanctions will succeed. Iran has said its program is for energy, not weapons. For NPR News, I'm Linda Gradstein in Jerusalem.

 

In the US, builders are coming off a three-year losing streak in the housing sector at least. Today the Commerce Department found that construction began on more than 600,000 homes. In a healthy market, economists say, that number is more than a million. Last year was also the worst on records dating back a half-century for single-family home construction. Government also reporting today that new claims for unemployment dropped last week drastically, and that's boosting investor confidence about the state of the job market.

 

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow was up 33 points at 12,612, NASDAQ up more than 20 at 2,791, S&P 500 up 5.5% at 1,315.

 

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.