NPR 2008-09-05

For the past three days, prominent Republicans have taken the stage at their party's convention and talked about John McCain. Tonight the Republican presidential nominee 1 will take the stage to speak for himself. NPR's Ina Jaffe has more.

Workers at the Xcel Center in St. Paul have made changes to the stage for McCain's speech. It will be more of a T-shape, allowing him to be surrounded on three sides by the audience, a bit like the town hall format 2 that he favors. McCain checked out the setup in the company of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham who also speaks tonight and independent Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman who addressed the convention on Tuesday. McCain's wife Cindy will introduce him. He'll then try to build on the enthusiasm created by his running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Her speech Wednesday night has created a lot of buzz for her polished performance and her sarcastic 3 put-downs of Democratic nominee Barack Obama. He has a chance to steal some of McCain's limelight tonight with an appearance on the conservative talk show "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News. Ina Jaffe, NPR News, St. Paul.

It appears television viewers were intensely interested in what Republican vice 4 presidential contender Sarah Palin had to say, almost as interested as they were in hearing from Democratic nominee Barack Obama. Neilson Media Research says based on its figures, an estimated 37 million viewers tuned 5 in last night during the hour that Palin accepted the Republican nomination 6 for vice president. That's just shy of the record 38 million who tuned in last week during Obama's speech.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick made it official this morning, announcing as part of a plea deal agreement, he will resign from office effective within two weeks. Kilpatrick will begin serving a four-month prison sentence at the end of next month. He's also agreed to serve five years probation 7 and pay a 1-million-dollar fine. The mayor and his former top aide are accused of lying under oath about an affair and their roles in the firing of a deputy police chief.

The stock market fell sharply today amid ongoing 8 worries over the economy. All the major stock market indexes tumbled by nearly 3%. NPR's Chris Arnold reports.

It was a bit of a head-scratcher as to just why the stock market plunged 9 lower. There was some weak data on employment and retail 10 sales, but also some seemingly good news about better-than-expected productivity gains and oil prices have been falling lately. "This is a jittery 11 market. It's an uncertain market. " Joel Naroff is chief economist 12 for Commerce Bank. He thinks some investors 13 might be concerned about that productivity report. "The worry about that, of course is, the way you get strong productivity in, you know, in an economy that may not be growing in a lot of different sectors 14 as if you cut workers and you cut their hours. " Higher unemployment would hurt the economy and the stock market. That's why all eyes will be on the monthly jobs report out on Friday which will offer the latest snapshot on employment around the country. Chris Arnold, NPR News.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 344 points, ending the session at 11, 188. The NASDAQ lost 74 points. The S&P fell 38 points today.

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Comcast Cable announced today it will appeal a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission that the company is improperly 15 blocking its customers' web traffic. The FCC in a precedent-setting move last month determined 16 the company is violating a federal policy that guarantees unfettered access to the internet. Comcast has come under fire from the FCC for blocking so-called peer to peer movie sharing applications. The company's also announced plans to cap its customers' internet usage, beginning October to ensure the best service for majority of its subscribers.

 Because of rain and flooding from Tropical Storm Fay, the Army Corps 17 of Engineers has begun releasing water from Lake Okeechobee and as NPR's Greg Allen reports from Miami, that has environmental and business groups worried.

 Tropical Storm Fay had a dramatic impact on Lake Okeechobee, raising it by three and a half feet over about a two-week period. Because of structural 18 problems with the levee that surrounds the lake, the Army Corps of Engineers say another two and a half feet of water could put it in danger of breaching 19. Environmental and business groups worry that the lake water, polluted from agricultural run-off, is going to harm fragile estuaries 20 on both the Atlantic and Gulf 21 Coasts. Mark Perry is Co-chair of the Everglades Coalition 22. "I'm pretty sure we're gonna start to see mortality in the oyster 23 sea grass area. " A similar release of lake water in 2005 created an algae 24 bloom and led to a die-off of marine 25 life. The Army Corps of Engineers is working to minimize the impact by releasing the water in measured pulses, designed as much as possible to mimic 26 the natural flow. Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.

  Crude oil futures 27 ended the session lower. The near month contract for benchmark grade crude fell $1. 46 a barrel today ending the session at $107. 89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.