UPI VIDEO NEWS 01.15.08

Bush pushes for more oil production.

President Bush is calling on oil producing countries to put more oil on the world market. Earlier today, the President met with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, whose country holds the world's largest oil supply. He warned that soaring oil prices could cause an economic slowdown in the U.S., and increased production would be helpful to American consumers. OPEC, which is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, will meet next month to consider increasing output.

Meanwhile, a special commission is urging the government to raise federal gasoline taxes by as much as 40 cents per gallon over five years. The commission, which conducted a two-year study, says increasing those taxes would ease traffic congestion and repair the nation's decaying bridges and roads. This comes after the devastating bridge collapse in Minneapolis last August. Under the recommendation, the current tax of 18.4 cents per gallon for unleaded gas would be increased annually, anywhere from 5 to 8 cents each year.

And federal investigators have concluded that steel plates on that interstate bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis last year are to blame for the disaster. The plates were reportedly not sufficient to hold the structure together. The collapse claimed the lives of 13 people. About 100 others were injured. The National Transportation Safety Board is planning to call on states today to do safety checks on gusset plates in bridges any time they add weight to a structure. Thirty years ago, additional pavement was added to the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis that increased its weight.

Michigan voters are heading to the polls today for the state's GOP primary. Polls show former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has a narrow lead over Senator John McCain. Mike Huckabee is currently in third place. All of the Republican presidential frontrunners are pledging to turn around Michigan's struggling economy. The state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country at 7.4 percent. That's compared to 5 percent nationally.

NATIVE AMERICAN LEADERS TO PROTEST AT MINNEAPOLIS RADIO STATION

Furious over recent on-air comments made by CITADEL Classic Rock KQRS/MINNEAPOLIS personality TOM BARNARD and his show's co-hosts, American Indian leaders plan to protest at KQRS at 10a TODAY, reports THE STAR TRIBUNE. Representatives of the American Indian Movement (AIM), the RED LAKE Indian Reservation and urban Indian leaders hope to meet with executives from the station.

AIM co-founder CLYDE BELLECORT said the remarks about the RED LAKE CHIPPEWA and SHAKOPEE MDEWAKANTON SIOUX tribes were "ignorant." He compared them to comments made this spring by DON IMUS.

The uproar stems from a broadcast last month in which BARNARD and co-host TERRI TRAEN talked about the RED LAKE and SHAKOPEE tribes while discussing a report by the state Health Department that BELTRAMI COUNTY has the state's highest rate of suicide among young people.

The jocks then mentioned BEMIDJI and the RED LAKE Indian Reservation, which are both located in BELTRAMI COUNTY.

"Maybe it's genetic; isn't there a lot of incest up there?" TRAEN said about the tribe.

"Not that I know of," BARNARD replied.

"I think there is," TRAEN continued. "Don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure."

"Well, I'm glad you just threw it out there, then," BARNARD said to laughter in the background.

Minority groups have long criticized BARNARD and his crew for their on-air banter.

In the late 1990s, members of the SOMALI community picketed over BARNARD and Co.'s mocking of SOMALI dialects after a SOMALI cabdriver was slain. Before that, the Asian-American community was irate when BARNARD and his co-hosts made fun of a teenage HMONG girl who was charged with killing her newborn son.

They said of her potential $10,000 fine: "That's a lot of eggrolls."

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