NPR News 2012-10-24 加文本

NPR News 2012-10-24

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

Investors are lowering their earnings expectations and that's been helping to push stocks sharply lower today. Before the close, Dow was down 243 points at 13,103; NASDAQ was off 27 at 2,990; and S&P 500 down 21 at 1,413; of course Apple cut some of its losses today after the company announced it was launching a smaller, cheaper tablet to rival competitors Google and Amazon.com.

This hour, the Obama campaign is back in Ohio, a state critical to the incumbents' reelection hopes. The day after debating mostly foreign policy, both candidates return to the issue dominating the race, the economy. In Delray Beach, Florida earlier today, the president asked voters to give him four more years.

Now it's up to you to choose the path we take from here. Starting on Saturday Florida, you can choose the top-down policies that got us into this mess, or you can choose the policies we are using to get us out of this mess.

Earlier, the president released a new booklet that outlines his second term policies. Other Republicans have been slamming that outline as unworkable. Senator John McCain who is also in Florida, stumping for GOP nominee Mitt Romney, said during a teleconference, Mr. Obama's booklet doesn't get the job done.

I urge you to go through that very important document and find any path to a balanced budget, any reductions and spending, any path that would lead this country back to some kind of fiscal solvency.

Again, McCain been campaigning for Mitt Romney who is meeting with voters this hour in Henderson, Nevada.

A federal appeals court has ruled that Indiana can not cut off medicate funding to Planned Parenthood clinics in the state. NPR's Julie Rovner tells us the ruling continues to block the first in the nation law that would prevent the women's health organization from receiving funding for any health service not just abortion.

Most abortion funding under medicate has been illegal since 1977 under the Federal Hyde Amendment. But the Indiana law passed in 2011 would have barred any abortion provider from receiving Medicaid Reinbursement for any other health service. Planned Parenthood which provides a broader way of other services including contraception and cancer screening suit, and the law was blocked. The state appealed which led to the current ruling by a three-judge panel of the 7th circuit. The judges agreed with the lower court judge that federal medicaid law requires that patients be given the ability to choose their provider in most cases and Indiana's law violates that. Julie Rovner,  NPR News.

Today, U.S. stocks dropped sharply with the Dow off  243 points before the close 1.8% at 13,103.  This is NPR.

Florida is moving ahead with plans to execute convicted murder John Ferguson within hours, after an appeals court lifted a last-minute stay. NPR's Greg Allen reports Ferguson's attorneys are now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene because they say their client is mentally incompetent.

John Ferguson, now 64, was convicted of eight murders in late 1970s in the Miami area, including six people killed during a home invasion in 1977. Ferguson's lawyers say their client is a paranoid schizophrenic, who suffers from delusions that he is the prince of God. A U.S. district judge granted their request for a stay of execution. Yesterday, a federal appeals court lifted the stay, saying the lower court judge abused his discretion. Ferguson's lawyers note that one of the judges on the appeals panel decentered, saying the question of their clients competency merits full reflective consideration. In their emergency petition with the Supreme Court, Ferguson's lawyers say an inmate must have a rational understanding of the reason for and effect of his pending execution, a standard they say the client does not meet. Ferguson's scheduled to be executed this evening. Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.

The BBC is expending its internal investigation of a sexual abuse scandal since allegations surfaced against the late children's TV host Jimmy Savile. The network says it's now looking into claims made against nine staffers and contributors who are accused of abuses dating back decades. The BBC, one of the world's largest broadcasters, is accused of perpetuating a culture that protected alleged abusers. The scandal is being compared with that Penn state whose former coach Jerry Sandusky, had abused children for years before he was convicted.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News, Washington.