Week In The News: Amtrak Crash, TPP Snags In Senate, Camp David Summit

The deadly train derailment. Democrats tangle over trade. Jeb Bush’s Iraq War fumble. A Gulf State summit. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Train wreck mayhem in Philadelphia this week, and questions. Why was it accelerating into that curve? And are we starving our infrastructure? In Washington, a Pacific trade deal hot potato challenged but rolling forward. At Camp David, Sunni Gulf leaders – but not the Saudi King – gather to ask what’s up with the US and Iran. We’ve got Jeb Bush, squirming all over on what he’d have done with the Iraq War. A different take on Osama bin Laden’s killing. Policemen down in Hattiesburg. And “deflategate” penalties. This hour On Point: our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Susan Davis, chief Congressional correspondent for USA Today. (@DaviSusan)

Michael Crowley, senior foreign affairs correspondent for POLITICO. (@michaelcrowley)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

USA Today: Senators reach deal to begin 'fast track' debate — "An initial vote to begin debate on TPA, also known as 'fast track' trade authority, failed Tuesday after Senate Democrats used a procedural vote to block consideration of the bill. Democrats wanted to package together four separate pieces of legislation into the fast-track measure, a maneuver rejected by Republicans because it includes legislation considered "poison pills" that risked sinking the whole package."

POLITICO: The kings and O — "Many Arab officials argue that they can introduce reforms only incrementally, to avoid angering religious hard-liners and prevent sudden political turmoil. Some note that their regimes are more pro-American than their citizens, and that pure democracy would produce new U.S. enemies in the world’s most oil-rich region."

The Wall Street Journal: Amtrak Crash: Train Hit Curve Going Over 100 MPH — "Of the total 243 people on the train, which included five crew members, more than 200 were injured, city officials said. The locomotive and all seven passenger cars of the train went off the tracks at a tight curve at Frankford Junction, just northeast of Center City, where the Federal Railroad Administration said trains aren’t authorized to exceed 50 mph."