Morning Buzz: Friday, April 10, 2008

President Bush will deliver a speech from the White House today endorsing Gen. David Petraeus's plan to hold off on further troop drawdowns in Iraq after July. Officials say that he will also call for a reduction in the length of deployments, from 15 months to 12 months, for troops going to Iraq after August. "The president will accept General Petraeus's recommendation that we continue to bring troops home as planned, going down from 20 to 15 brigades," White House press secretary Dana Perino said today. "And then there will be a very brief period of assessment and consolidation before more recommendations on drawdowns—based on conditions on the ground—are announced."

For the third straight day, American Airlines announced cancellations of hundreds of flights in order to allow inspectors to check for potential wiring problems in its planes. Today, the company cancelled 900 flights, bringing its three-day total to 2,400 cancellations—roughly one third of its standard load. Earlier this week, the Federal Aviation Administration said 15 out of 19 recently inspected American Airlines planes had not met safety standards.

A Senate housing bill designed to provide relief for victims of the national mortgage crisis is stirring up opposition from President Bush and some members of the House of Representatives. The Senate is expected to vote today on the bill, which, among other measures, would provide credits to buyers of foreclosed properties and grants to communities suffering from high foreclosure rates.