A series of steps aimed at bolstering U.S. exports has so far brought a 17 percent increase in the first four months of 2010 over the same period last year, President Obama will announce Wednesday.

Obama's National Export Initiative, introduced during his State of the Union address in February, seeks to double exports over the next five years.

A White House statement said Obama, in a statement scheduled for later Wednesday, will show that the program is on schedule so far.

The program has made progress on its five main objectives, Obama will say, including the coordination of trade missions in 24 countries; increased loans to help American exporters; breaking down trade barriers; enforcing trade rules, and promoting international economic cooperation.

For example, the statement said, the United States has reached agreements in recent months to reopen exports of pork to China and poultry to Russia.

"Boosting America's exports strengthens our economic growth and supports millions of good, high-paying American jobs," Obama said in the statement that also named 18 additional members to the President's Export Council announced in March.

The panel is headed by W. James McNerney Jr., chairman, president and CEO of The Boeing Company, and Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation.

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The Northeast faced a fourth day Wednesday of a record-breaking heat wave, after triple-digit temperatures tested power supplies throughout the region and tried the patience and resilience of anyone who dared to venture outside.

While temperatures were expected to moderate some from Tuesday’s peak — which saw a record set at 103 degrees for the day in New York City — utilities warned that the length and intensity of this heat wave was testing the limits of the power grid.

Con Edison said it was working to restore power to about 6,300 customers in New York City on Wednesday; in Washington nearly 2,000 customers were without power, while New Jersey’s Public Service Electric and Gas Company reported about 6,500 customers without electricity.

Transportation officials cut the speed of commuter trains on Tuesday in New York and suburban Washington when the tracks got too hot, and rail riders in New Jersey were advised to expect delays again Wednesday.

The heat broke several records in the Northeast, as Boston, Providence and Philadelphia all saw triple-digit temperatures Tuesday that eclipsed previous highs. In Philadelphia, a 92-year-old woman was found dead in her home on the second floor, where all but one window was shut. The medical examiner ruled that extreme heat was a factor in her death.

Forecasters predicted that Wednesday would offer only limited relief, with temperatures in the mid-90s in New York City. The National Weather Service blamed a high-pressure system along the East Coast that drew hot, humid air from the south and will probably stay put until late this week.

Con Edison officials used automated calls Tuesday night to appeal to customers in New York City to turn off “non-essential” appliances as power consumption reached record levels.

The heat’s effects on the five boroughs were unsparing: Some city pools were filled to capacity within an hour or so of opening, sending seekers of respite to libraries, cooling centers and other public havens from the heat. Hospitals set out jars of ice water as their waiting rooms filled with wheezing elderly patients and exhausted firefighters.

The city’s police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said that the Police Department was mindful that more crime tended to occur in the extreme heat of night, and was also prepared to send extra officers to places that had lost power.

But even as Con Edison officials were optimistic that the city would survive the day without widespread power failures, they acknowledged that the intensity and duration of the heat wave could have a cumulative effect on the cables and transformers. In short, they said, the worst may be yet to come.

“It’s Round 1 in a prizefight,” said John Miksad, Con Edison’s senior vice president of electric operations. “Round 1 looks O.K., but the bell hasn’t rung yet.”

In Washington, commutes were longer after trains were ordered to operate at least 20 miles per hour under maximum speeds because of the heat. In Baltimore, officials planned to distribute bottled water to the homeless over the coming days.

In Rhode Island, some residents could not even savor a cool drink from their faucets. The Department of Public Health urged residents in parts of Narragansett and South Kingstown to boil their water before drinking it as a precaution after water pressure dropped below acceptable limits.

“I just turned on my outdoor shower and there’s no water,” said David Cunningham, 46, of South Kingstown. “It’s a trickle.”

But New York seemed most concerned about the prospect of brownouts or blackouts after having gone through three major blackouts over the last half century.

And it has been four years since the utility’s equipment in Long Island City failed in a cascade of blown feeder lines and left tens of thousands of Queens residents without power for more than a week. The power system’s ability to withstand a sustained surge in demand has not really been tested since that summer.

“We haven’t had a real New York heat wave in a while,” said Mr. Miksad, who admitted to having fretted through a “nervous weekend” knowing what was coming. Con Edison dispatched extra crews to Staten Island where a main feeder cable failed early in the day, and by late afternoon more than 4,000 customers were without power in the Fox Hills neighborhood.

By late Tuesday evening, Con Edison had reduced voltage in neighborhoods throughout Brooklyn and Queens because of problems with electrical cables. Mr. Miksad said that more people might have lost power if not for a set of demand-reduction programs that were used on Tuesday, including voluntary cutbacks by big corporate customers and the utility’s ability to control the thermostats in some residents’ homes. All told, those programs saved as much as 400 megawatts and kept total demand from surpassing the all-time high, he said.

Some office buildings, including Con Edison’s headquarters near Union Square, shut down banks of elevators, lowered the lights and turned up thermostats. Con Edison requested that all of its customers conserve electricity by turning off equipment not being used, keeping air-conditioners at 78 degrees and running washers, dryers and dishwashers late at night.

Robert Madden, 25, a waiter who lives in Astoria, said that his electronic equipment shut down in a specific order.

“First the PlayStation turns off, then the refrigerator, then the computer, the lights, then the pilot lights on the stove, then the fan,” he said.

He added that he had advised his wife, who is both pregnant and a student, to stay at school. “There is air-conditioning there,” he said. “You can’t have a pregnant wife at home baking.”

By late afternoon on Tuesday, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/ Weill-Cornell Medical Center had seen only scattered cases of heat-related illnesses, but doctors there said that the numbers would most likely increase.

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The US Department of Justice filed suit against the state of Arizona in federal court Tuesday, challenging the state's tough new immigration law requiring police to ask for ID from anyone they suspect of being undocumented.

The federal government will argue that federal law trumps the state statute and that enforcing immigration law is a federal responsibility. The Department has requested a preliminary injunction to delay enactment of the law, slated for July 29, arguing that the law's operation will cause "irreparable harm."

The DOJ's lawsuit is based on the preemption doctrine adopted by the Supreme Court under the Constitution's supremacy clause, which states that certain matters are of such federal character, as opposed to local or state, that only the federal government can act on them.

As straightforward as that sounds, legal analysts are split over possible outcomes.

“I agree with the argument that the federal government’s authority under the preemption clause will prevail over the Arizona state law,” says Robert Pugsley, professor of law at Southwestern Law School. “Otherwise we could have 50 states writing immigration laws and it would result in the chaos that the preemption clause was specifically created to prevent.”

Likewise, Kevin Johnson, Dean of the School of Law at University of California, Davis, says, “[we] have a clear situation where the federal government is having its powers intruded upon by the state government.”

But that view does not necessarily mean the suit will succeed. “There is good basis to believe the DOJ lawsuit may fail," says Hector Chichoni, partner at the national law firm Epstein Becker Green. "The Arizona law does not necessarily preempt the Federal government, rather [it] sets the state and local government as enforcers of what is already available, and on certain cases, mandatory under immigration law.”

Certain parts of the case are not black and white, including whether state police have authority to enforce federal immigration law, says Muzzafar Chisti, director of the Migration Policy Institute’s office at New York University School of Law.

A few weeks after its passage, state legislators modified the language dictating when a policeman could ask for papers from a suspected illegal immigrant. They added the stipulation that police could only do so if the person had already been pulled over for another offense, such as speeding. That action may have strengthened Arizona's case, argues Mr. Chisti.

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Another health care fight today, this one over one of President Obama's appointees.

Last night, the White House announced that Obama would make a recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, saying Republicans were unfairly blocking the nominee because of lingering disputes over the health care bill.

"With the agency facing new responsibilities to protect seniors' care under the Affordable Care Act, there's no time to waste with Washington game-playing,"' Obama communications director Dan Pfeiffer wrote in announcing the appointment on the White House blog.

Republicans said they want to question Berwick about his support for the government-run British health care system, and past comments about the prospect of health care rationing.

"Dr. Berwick is a self professed supporter of rationing health care and he won't even have to explain his views to the American people in a Congressional hearing," protested Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming. "Once again, President Obama has made a mockery of his pledge to be accountable and transparent."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said "the mere possibility of allowing the American people the opportunity to hear what he intends to do with their health care is evidently reason enough for this Administration to sneak him through without public scrutiny."

In his post, Pfeiffer cited bipartisan support for Berwick, His endorsements include past Medicare-Medicaid administrators under Republican president George W. Bush. Berwick is a practicing physician, a Harvard professor, and founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Berwick has "dedicated his career to finding ways to make our health care system work better for patients and cost less for taxpayers," Pfeiffer wrote.

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The stepmother of an Oregon boy missing a month may have tried to hire the family landscaper to murder the boy's father several months ago, according to a report in The Oregonian newspaper.

The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office isn't commenting on the report, the paper says.

The Oregonian says the landscaper told investigators Terri Horman, stepmother of missing 7-year-old Kyron Horman, offered him lots of money six or seven months ago to kill Kaine Horman, Kyron's father.

Detectives are said to have shared the story with Kaine, who then moved out with their 19 month old daughter, filed for divorce, and obtained a restraining order.

When questioned about the supposed scheme, Terri reportedly denied it.

If the landscaper's account is true, says CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom, "It tells the police that she may have a propensity for violence, violence against a close family member. So, it's certainly something they're going to follow up on."

"If it is true," criminal profiler Pat Brown told "Early Show" co-anchor Erica Hill Monday, "we're looking at a person who is -- wow, we're talking about a person with a severe personality disorder, psychopathy, someone who is willing to go to all kinds of lengths to get people out of her life, to get money or to get attention. We don't know which ones those are. But certainly, if that's true, they'll look at a person who very possibly could have done something to the stepson, because she already had the personality to do it."

In a briefing with reporters last week, Kyron's mother, Desiree Young, her voice cracking, implied Terri hasn't been helpful in the search for her son, saying, "We implore Terri Horman to fully cooperate with the investigators to bring Kyron home."

Terri is the last person known to have seen the second-grader alive, at his school when he disappeared June 4. Police haven't named her a suspect or person of interest, and insist she's only one of many people still being eyed. She's hired a high-profile Portland attorney.

"Everyone's a person of interest," says Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton. "We have not named any suspects in this case at this point.

"Until Kyron is found," says Bloom, "I would not expect an arrest, unless there's a confession or a discovery of forensic evidence."

Brown observed to Hill that claiming nobody's off the hook in the case isn't unusual. "Police are always going on -- these days, there's always leaning on the side of being very careful about what they say," Brown noted. "I think everybody's afraid of lawsuits so they say everybody is a person of interest. However, they're also saying. 'We're not particularly worried about anybody in the community, there's no danger to anybody out there.' If that's true, then they're only looking at a family member. That's what they always say with they're looking at a situation that doesn't involve a predator.

"So, they're clearly looking at Terri Horman and, in my mind, she probably is the person of interest. But they're keeping options open, which they should, and they're not going to tell everybody exactly what they're thinking at the moment."

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A woman died and 23 people were injured Sunday after runaway horses trampled through the crowd at a Fourth of July parade in the eastern Iowa town of Bellevue.

The wagon driver lost control of the two horses when one horse rubbed the bridle off the other before they started on the parade route, Bellevue Fire Chief Chris Roling said.

The horses and wagon plowed through the spectators on the curb of U.S. Highway 52 for about seven blocks.

Janet Steines, 60, of Springbrook died at University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City, according to a death notice posted on the website of Hachmann Funeral Home in Bellevue.

She was riding in the wagon, which was driven by her husband, Mardell Steines, when the horses bolted, Roling said.

The others who were hurt ranged in age from 2 to 62, firefighters said.

Holly Specht of Peosta was in her hometown for the holiday weekend and was sitting in front of the Subway restaurant when the horses galloped past.

"There were two horses coming at us at full speed, right at the curb," Specht said. "People were grabbing kids. You looked up and it was just like a flash. Everybody was kind of in shock and panic."

She said a little girl windmilled toward her as the horses whipped past. The girl landed next to Specht on the sidewalk. She had some scrapes and her back hurt, but she seemed OK.

Aside from Steines, four people were critically injured. Five people were severely injured and 14 suffered minor injuries, firefighters said. Injuries included broken bones, collapsed lungs, cuts and bruises, firefighters said.

The parade is a decades-long tradition in Bellevue that has often included tractors, bands and horses.

"The mood is shock and disbelief," Bellevue Mayor Virgil Murray said. "We've had this parade forever. We've had horses in the parade forever."

Sandy DeFries, who was standing in her friends' yard along U.S. 52 when the horses went by, said: "It was like slow motion. People were trying to back off, but because the kids were on the curb for the candy, they were some of the victims. It was terrible."

Fifteen ambulances took the victims to hospitals in Dubuque and Maquoketa. Carol Dietzel, the house supervisor at Mercy Medical Center in Dubuque, said of the 10 patients brought there, nine were children. Two children in critical condition were transferred to University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City.

Paramedics treated victims in an art gallery near the parade route, said witness Sandie Crilly, 46, of Willow Springs, Ill. A triage area was set up near the Mississippi River where volunteers held up tarps to shield the paramedics and injured from the heat. Others brought the injured ice and water, she said.

"It was madness," Crilly said. "I mean, we were in a triage. The town really came together. It was a huge community effort."

Mardell and Janet Steines and at least one other person were in the wagon, Roling said. The wagon traveled 1,600 feet before the stampede ended near the corner of U.S. 52 and Iowa Highway 62.

"One of the people ahead of this horse unit heard the people hollering and screaming," Roling said. "He pulled his antique haybine out there to kind of slow them down. They ran into that, then they ran into a street sign and into the side of a van before they got them stopped."

Steven Clemen, who lives along the parade route and watched the horses gallop past, said it all happened so fast, it was difficult to get a good look.

"It was like a split second, and those horses were a half-block down the street," he said. "Very scared horses. Very scared people."

Crilly said she was collecting Tootsie Rolls from the street with her 8-year-old son, 12-year-old niece and 2-year-old granddaughter when the horses ran toward them about halfway through the parade.

Someone yelled to get out of the way, she said.

"I could see it was two horses," Crilly said. "I could see they were running at full speed and they were harnessed together and I knew we were going to most certainly get hit, and as soon as it happened, everybody was crying and screaming."

Crilly, who was visiting her parents in Bellevue, said someone pulled her granddaughter to safety, but her niece suffered a broken wrist and had two front teeth knocked out. Everyone else suffered bumps and bruises, she said.

Bellevue, a town of about 2,300, is on the Mississippi River about 25 miles south of Dubuque.

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Texas — A patient and his wife were among the dead when an air ambulance crashed shortly after takeoff from a West Texas airport, killing all 5 people on board.

The crash happened about 12:15 a.m. Sunday about a mile east of Alpine-Casparis Municipal Airport, around 200 miles southeast of El Paso. The twin-engine Cessna 421 had just taken off for Midland International Airport in Midland when it went down in an open area, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The aircraft was carrying a patient and his wife to Midland, the Texas Department of Public Safety said. It identified the dead as 78-year-old patient Guy Richard Folger of Alpine, his 59-year-old wife, Mary Folger; two flight nurses, 49-year-old Sharon Falkener of Fort Davis, and 42-year-old Tracy Chambers of Alpine; and 59-year-old pilot Ted Caffarel of Beaumont.

Caffarel was apparently trying to make an emergency landing when the plane hit a rut in the muddy field, overturned and burned, the DPS said.

The FAA listed the aircraft as registered to O'Hara Flying Service II LP of Amarillo. Company owner Denny O'Hara declined to comment to The Associated Press.

The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Corey said.

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