NPR News 2013-09-15 加文本

NPR News 2013-09-15

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

Heavy rains that caused severe flooding in parts of Colorado have subsided somewhat, giving officials time to begin to assess the damage and rescue stranded residents. As Nathan Heffel of member station KUNC reports, a new flash flood warning has been issued as more rain is forecast overnight.

Scores of area roadways are impassable or damaged by flooding across the Rocky Mountain foothills of Colorado. Mark Beckner, chief of police for the city of Boulder, says flooding across the city was close to a 25-year event.

“I would call it a 35-year event because in my 35 years we've never had anything this significant. The waters that I've seen coming down the Canyon and the tributaries are, has been just tremendous amount of water. It's been traveling at a very fast, high rate of speed.”

Forecast for returning heavy rain may cause renewed flooding in areas where water had a chance to recede during the day. For NPR News, I'm Nathan Heffel in Denver.

The UN report detailing the August 21st chemical weapons attack in Syria is expected to be delivered to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon this weekend. Teri Schultz reports the investigative team working in The Hague expedited its research at Ban's request, determined as quickly as possible if poison gas was used on civilians outside Damascus.

The expert team led by Swedish professor Ake Sellstrom has finished its assessment of the chemical attack in Syria last month. Sellstrom says he'll deliver it from The Hague to UN headquarters in New York, where Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will receive a full briefing to pass on to UN members possibly as early as Monday. The UN investigators were not tasked with concluding who's responsible for the attack. The US says it's definitely the regime, which deployed sarin gas and killed more than 1,400 people. While Secretary General Ban has not blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad specifically for the chemical attack, he does say Assad has committed many crimes against humanity. For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz.

Retail sales were up in August, the government announcing today Americans bought more cars, furniture and electronics last month. Commerce Department says spending at retail businesses was up 0.2%. Still that was the smallest gain in four months. Economist Huge Johnson says overall it’s a pretty weak number.

“This is a bit disappointing number suggesting that consumer spending remains on the south side, that back to school sales were a little bit lackluster, were not very strong, and overall consumer spending remains very, very subdued.”

Modest gain was less than half of the July increase. Retail sales are closely tracked by economists since spending by consumers drives the bulk of overall US economic activity.

Prices at the wholesale level were up last month. However, the Labor Department reports excluding volatile food and energy costs, wholesale prices were virtually unchanged in August. For the past year, prices at the wholesale level excluding food and energy had risen by just a scant 1.1%.

On Wall Street, stocks ended the week on an up note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 75 points to close at 15,376. This is NPR.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has upheld the conviction of former Giants slugger Barry Bonds on obstruction of justice charges, the Ninth US Circuit Court ruling that Bonds’ response to a question about whether his trainer Greg Anderson had ever given him steroid injections was evasive and misleading. Bonds gave the answer during testimony before a grand jury in 2003. The grand jury was investigating performance-enhancing drug use and sales amongst athletes.

California Governor Jerry Brown says he will sign a bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses. NPR's Ted Robbins says that makes California the tenth state to allow that privilege.

California Governor Jerry Brown reversed himself, first saying he would veto the bill, then saying he’d sign it. Brown says giving undocumented immigrants driver's licenses will allow people to get to work safely and legally. He also said it will send a message to Washington that immigration reform is needed and overdue. Nine other states and the District of Colombia allow undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses. The bill overwhelmingly passed both houses of the California Legislature. Ted Robbins, NPR News.

There’s been a few amount of discussion lately about the nation's aging workforce. However, at least one group of economists is finding aging boomers forced to stay in the workforce longer can make ideal hires. As a result about 200 employers, including Google and AT&T, have now signed an AARP pledge, recognizing the valuable applicants and vowing to consider those 50 years and older for positions at their companies. Experts cite the fact that older employees often outperform the younger ones in many matrix. While unemployment is lower in older workers, long-term joblessness is far higher.

I'm Jack Speer, NPR News in Washington.