NPR News 2012-11-03 加文本

NPR News 2012-11-03

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

The nation's coming of a better than expected month for hiring. The Labor Department says the economy added 171,000 jobs in October, but the unemployment rate edged up to 7.9%. As more people resumed their jobs search and were therefore included in the jobs tally.

Labor Secretary Linda Solis says the overall jobs gain is better than some people might think.

The job report for this month is again one picture what is happening, but when you look over the course of the last, almost three years, now that the president, 3.5 years of president has been in office. We've actually made up for those job losses and actually added 1.2 million jobs on top of that. Secretary Solis on cnn as President Obama defends his jobs building record with just days to go in the campaign for reelection today. He was back in Ohio which has become one of the central battlegrounds of dueling political ads in the fight for the White House.

Today, Mitt Romney was in Wisconsin, the home state of his running mate Paul Ryan, NPR's Ari Schapiro reports the former governor delivered what his campaign describes as the closing argument to voters.

This was not a typical stump speech. Mitt Romney took a step back from the daily back-and-forth to portray the decision facing voters. He described some of the promises President Obama has failed to keep in the last four years.

And how is it that he has fallen so short of what he promised? In part it is because he has never led before, he never worked across the aisle before, he never truly understood how jobs were created in the economy. And of course today, he is now making new promises. Promises he will be unable to keep.

He delivered the speech in Wisconsin. The state hints to be blue. But Republicans have been fighting for since congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin joined the ticket. Romney said next to marrying Ann Romney, "Paul Ryan is the best choice I've ever made". Ari Schapiro, NPR News, traveling with the Romney campaign.

Now onto hurricane recovery on the east coast, people in New Jersey and New York are scrambling to get gasoline at some stations while electricity is limited and supplies are running low. People have been waiting for several hours for tankers to bring new shipments. Here is more from NPR News' Joel Rose in New York.

The congestion in downtown Brooklyn seem to ease a bit today after two days of nightmare gridlock. It could be that many would-be commuters gave up and decided to stay at home. It's also possible that some have simply run out of gas. Many gas stations across the region remain closed, those that do have gas also have long lines. That can stretch for blocks. Subway service from Brooklyn to Manhattan is still shut down. For a second day in a row, thousands of people in Brooklyn waited in line to squeeze onto shuttle buses that would carry them into Manhattan. Meanwhile, hundreds of cyclists rode their bikes over the east river bridges into Lower Manhattan, which is still largely without power. Joel Rose, NPR News, New York.

At last check on Wall Street, Dow was down more than 100 points.

This is NPR.

The Pentagon is refuting GOP claims that the military did not move quickly enough after the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya was struck in September. Spokesman George Little says troops were ready within a few hours and that the defense secretary had ordered several units to respond from bases in the U.S. and Europe. Little says the Pentagon will soon release a timeline of the military's actions on September 11th of this year.

A lot of attention has been paid to the presidential campaign in these final days of the race. But what of the congressional contest will aline of the tightest senate races. Two thirds of the Republicans are being outspent on television by unaffiliated Republican groups. Among Democrats, a political ad spending balance is tilted very differently. NPR's S.V Date breaks it down.

In Indiana, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, Republican candidates are spending less than the outside groups supporting  them. In Ohio and Virginia, it's a fraction of what the groups are spending. The television advertising data come from Kantar media for NPR and the PBS News hour. In Ohio, Senate Candidate Josh Mandel has spent $ 6.5 million on ads, while groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have spent over $18 million to help him. Like on this ad attacking the incumbent Democrat.

Ohio can't afford six more years of senator Brown. The U.S. chamber's responsible for the contact.

Only in Indiana and North Dekota have the Democrats spent less than the outside groups' supporting. S.V. Date, NPR News.

The owners of Hyundai and Kia vehicles sold in the last three years may get reimbursements. That's because the company is currently inflated the vehicles' gas mileage.

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