The Morning Report -- Friday January 18, 2013

Energy Secretary Chu Leaving? -- Winfrey Gets Answers -- GOP Looking at Election -- Hagel Tests Senate -- Aurora, CO Theatre Reopens -- Slowing Chinese Economy -- U.N. - Iran Nuclear Talks  -- Netanyahu Set To Win

STEVEN CHU LEAVING......WAIT NO HE'S NOT

Bloomberg News previously reported this morning that Energy Secretary Seteven Chu was planning leaving his cabinet post. Chu was criticized for defending a $500 million federal loan to Solyndra Inc.  -- a solar panel manufacturer that went bankrupt in 2011. Shortly after Bloomberg made the announcement the Energy Department spokesman Bill Gibbons stated that Secretary Chu had no plans to leave his cabinet post. “Dr. Chu is focused on his job as Secretary each day and hasn't made any announcements about his future plans," Gibbons said.

OPRAH WINFREY GETS ANSWERS FROM LANCE AMRSTRONG

NEW YORK (AP) - The most effective part of Oprah Winfrey's interview with Lance Armstrong came right at the beginning: Five questions, five one-word answers - each of them the same. "Yes or no," Winfrey said. "Did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance? http://apne.ws/ScAPsd

GOP EYEING NEW ELECTION LAWS

BOSTON (AP) - After back-to-back presidential losses, Republicans in key states want to change the rules to make it easier for them to win. From Wisconsin to Pennsylvania, GOP officials who control legislatures in states that supported President Barack Obama are considering changing state laws that give the winner of a state's popular vote all of its Electoral College votes, too. Instead, these officials want Electoral College votes to be divided proportionally, a move that could transform the way the country elects its president. http://apne.ws/UUFIDn

HAGEL PICK TESTS SENATE ON PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENTS

WASHINGTON (AP) - In the middle of a bitter fight over a Republican president's nominee for defense secretary, a former White House occupant pleaded with senators to give the president his choice for the Pentagon job. "Unless there is conclusive evidence against the nominee, the Senate should respect the right of a new president to choose the men and women he believes are best qualified to serve in his Cabinet," former President Richard Nixon said in March 1989. http://apne.ws/10ku9w7 

MONTHS AFTER SHOOTING, COLORADO THEATER REOPENS

AURORA, Colo. (AP) - One survivor had to pause on his way into the theater and pray. Another braced for flashbacks as he entered the auditorium where 12 people died and dozens were injured during a massacre six months earlier. Others refused to come, viewing the reopening of the multiplex as insensitive. The former Century 16, now renovated and renamed the Century Aurora, opened its doors to victims of the July 20 attack on Thursday night with a somber remembrance ceremony and a special showing of "The Hobbit." http://apne.ws/UUFY5a 

CHINA RECORDS SLOWEST GROWTH SINCE 1999

BEIJING - China's economy grew at its slowest pace in 13 years in 2012, though a year-end spurt supported by infrastructure spending and a jump in trade signaled the foundation for the stable growth path Beijing says is vital for economic reform may be in sight. http://reut.rs/WcSu17

NO DEAL IN U.N. - IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS

(Reuters) - U.N. nuclear inspectors returned from Iran on Friday without securing an agreement to investigate suspected atom bomb research, they said after two days of talks in Tehran. http://reut.rs/XICtRG

NETANYAHU SET TO WIN BUT WITH DWINDLING SUPPORT

(Reuters) - Four days before Israel's parliamentary election, opinion polls published on Friday showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still set to win, although his support had slipped to its lowest point in the campaign so far. http://reut.rs/WlQLXi