National News from NPR

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is going to drop out of the Republican race for the White House, sources are telling The New York Times and CNN.

NPR has not independently confirmed the news.

We'll pass along more as the story develops. Perry is expected to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. ET.

(This post was retopped with the latest news at 11:04 a.m.)

With the South Carolina primary just two days away, Mitt Romney woke up to some troubling news on Thursday: The Iowa Republican Party revisited his Jan. 3 victory in the caucuses.

Party officials announced that a final certification of the votes actually put Rick Santorum ahead by 34 votes. Because some of the results from eight precincts are missing, the Iowa GOP declared the outcome a split decision.

A trio of economic indicators were just released:

-- First-time claims for jobless benefits plunged by 50,000 last week from the week before, to 352,000, the Employment and Training Administration says. You have to go back to Spring 2008 to find a lower number. Reuters says the news signals "continued improvement in the labor market."

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Report: Iowa Recount Puts Santorum Ahead By 34 Votes, Result 'Unresolved'.

-- Kodak Calls Bankruptcy Filing 'Necessary Step'.

"Rescue efforts have resumed aboard the wrecked Italian cruise ship, Costa Concordia, off the coast of Tuscany," the BBC reports. "Operations were suspended on Wednesday as the vessel shifted its position. More than 20 people are still missing."

The ship, with about 4,200 passengers and crew aboard, ran into rocks on Friday and listed over to its starboard side. Eleven people are confirmed dead.

In the run-up to Saturday's GOP presidential primary in South Carolina, candidates have clashed over the role of Bain Capital — a firm that either creates or kills jobs, depending upon whom you believe.

Front-runner Mitt Romney sees the bright side. Before entering politics in the 1990s, he co-founded Boston-based Bain Capital, one of the nation's largest and most profitable private equity funds. He has said he created 100,000 jobs while at Bain.

"Running short of cash and unable to sell 1,100 digital imaging patents that could have rescued it," as Rochester's Democrat and Chronicle writes, Eastman Kodak Co. today took the long-expected but still painful step of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne, hoping you made it through a day without Wikipedia. The site was shut down yesterday to protest anti-piracy bills in Congress. Good thing Twitter was there to fill the encyclopedic void. Facts without Wikipedia became a trending topic, informing readers that "Star Wars" was based on the work of Shakespeare, Sweden changed the colors of its flag to yellow and blue after the success of IKEA, and bacon is good for you. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Katie Thacker of Tacoma, Washington, was in labor when she stepped into an elevator at St. Joseph Medical Center. On the way to the maternity ward, the elevator got stuck. She left the elevator with a baby named Blake.

Rick Santorum has ended up 34 votes ahead of Mitt Romney after a recount of the results from the Jan. 3 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, The Des Moines Register is reporting.