NPR News 2013-09-04 加文本

NPR News 2013-09-04

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Speer.

Two key Republican lawmakers who’ve been pushing for a military strike against Syria met today with President Obama at the White House, senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham emerging from the meeting to say they want Syria's government to be punished for its apparent use of chemical weapons. However, McCain says a public worry of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wants no involvement of US troops.

“Americans are skeptical. We've gone for two and a half years without helping these people. Obviously people are weary after Iraq and Afghanistan. Americans have to be assured that no plan will entail American boots on the ground, and we totally are in agreement with that.”

Twelve members of the president's foreign policy team were set to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the White House continues to try to build support for action against Syria.

The French government, meanwhile, says it has overwhelming evidence the regime of Bashar al-Assad gassed its own people. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports France says the massive chemical attack near Damascus last month could not have been ordered and carried out by anyone but the Syrian government.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault made public the French Secret Services’ nine-page report into the incident drawn up by military and foreign intelligence services. It says Syria's arsenal of chemical weapons is massive and diverse, comprising several hundred tons of the nerve agent sarin and dozens of tons of the most toxic nerve agent VX. The report also says the Syrian regime has carried out three chemical attacks since April. That's why the international community must respond, said Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. “We must punish this,” said Ayrault, “We cannot let Assad get away with using chemical weapons, or he will do it again.” Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.

Silicon Valley companies are attacking a decision by the US Patent Office to suspend plans to open a satellite office in the high-tech region. NPR's Ina Jaffe reports the decision was a result of the sequester.

Silicon Valley companies seek more patents than any other region in the world. The nation's only Patent and Trademark Office used to be located in Arlington, Virginia. Companies would have to send top scientists there for a few days, costing time and money. In 2011 a new law raised patent fees with promises that the money would go to open more offices, but budget cuts sent some of those funds straight to the Treasury. Last year another patent office was opened in Detroit. Permanent quarters have been found for offices in Dallas and Denver, but federal officials still have no timetable for an office in Silicon Valley. The US Patent Office currently has a backlog of nearly 600,000 patent applications, and patent applicants can wait more than two years for a review. Ina Jaffe, NPR News.

US telecommunications company Verizon is agreeing to pay 130 billion dollars to buy the part of its business it does not already own from British company Vodafone. The deal ends a 14-year marriage between the two companies.

US financial markets are closed for the Labor Day holiday. You’re listening to NPR.

While a number of schools have been opening earlier -- they did prior to Labor Day, many have already run to a problem -- high heat across much of the nation. As temperatures rose into the 90s last week in the Midwest, a number of schools had to either find creative ways for kids to cool off or simply canceled classes. In a number of school systems they were under pressure to start early, but they do not have air conditioning in much of the building. Schools have moved towards the early start days because they need more time for teacher training and testing.

Hispanics in the US continue to disperse throughout the nation. Members of the country's largest minority group are gradually moving into new states and cities. NPR's Ted Robbins has more.

According to the Pew center’s Hispanic Trends Project, Latinos have been moving away from traditionally Latino counties. Seventy-one percent of Latinos live in those counties compared with 78% two decades ago. Still even 71% is a large number in concentrated areas. Census data shows that half of all Latinos in the US still live in California, Texas and Florida. People of Mexican descent tend to live in the West and Southwest. Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are centered in the New York, New Jersey region, and Cuban Americans are concentrated in the Miami area. The largest growth area for Hispanics over the last decade has been in the nation's Southeast. Ted Robbins, NPR News.

Quite an up-and-down summer movie season. Hollywood is winding up the final weekend of the summer with the record 4.7 billion dollar[s] in box office revenues. The boy band concert will be One Direction: This is us, raking in an estimated 18 million dollars for Sony Pictures. But that was not enough to unseat the No.1 box office draw over the weekend. Lee Daniel's The Butler would ... an estimated 20 million dollars. Both attendance and revenues were up from last year.

I'm Jack Speer, NPR News in Washington.