Morning Edition

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

For this new year, Congress gave President Obama the power to impose new sanctions on Iran.

WERTHEIMER: The sanctions would target Iran's central bank. Though the president has some flexibility on the timing, the mere threat escalated tensions. Iranians have spoken of stopping oil tankers passing through the vital straits of Hormuz.

College football bowl games began last month but the big games are being played in the new year. There were six games played Monday including the Rose Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl. Michigan and Virginia Tech meet Tuesday night in the Sugar Bowl.

Investigations are underway in the death of a woman found dead and naked under an overpass in Pasadena, Texas on New Year’s Day. 

The search is under way in Houston for a 26-year-old autistic woman who wandered away from home on New Year’s Day.

A Texas principal is being reassigned for the rest of the semester.

A doctor that attached a heart monitor to President John F. Kennedy in a Dallas hospital’s emergency room and interviewed wounded Texas Governor John Connally for surgery has died.

A court appearance in Midland is set for a U.S. Military member authorities caught with explosives in his luggage on New Year’s Eve.

Ron Paul says he hopes he will have a big turnout today from his more structured organization of Iowa supporters as the state’s leadoff presidential caucuses begin.

Rick Perry is hoping to avoid an embarrassing showing today in Iowa’s caucuses with a last minute push; meeting with volunteers early in the day and then encouraging potential caucus-goers at two town halls.

A confrontation at a central New Jersey hotel that left one Texas man dead and another critically injured appears to be a random attack, according to investigators.