NPR 2009-09-09

The Federal Reserve says that consumers sharply cut back on their borrowing in July. That decline suggests the economic rebound 1 will not come as quickly as many economists 3 have predicted.

Food manufacturers now have to tell the Food and Drug Administration about possible food contamination within 24 hours of getting the information themselves. NPR's Joanne Silberner has more.

Two years ago, Congress passed a law requiring food manufacturers to quickly report possible problems of safety. And now the FDA has a way for companies to do it. If an American food manufacturer has been informed of a reasonable possibility that someone has died or gotten sick from consuming one of its products, it must file an electronic report to something called the Reportable Food Registry. It'll have to say where the suspect food was made and what kind of problems it may have caused. The information will not automatically be made public. However, the public can apply to get at least parts of the reports through the Freedom of Information Act. Joanne Silberner, NPR News, Washington.

President Obama spoke 4 to students at a Virginia high school and nationwide by TV link today as many schools began their new year. Students and parents gathered together in a Philadelphia classroom to hear the President's address. From member station WRTI, Jim Huggan has more.

A dozen students and their parents watched the President's speech in a classroom at the Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in north Philadelphia. Sharita Reid-Elam is the mother of a seventh-grader at the school. She says Mr. Obama's words echo the message she regularly gives her son. She believes the President's speech will help young people concentrate on bettering themselves. "In a crisis, like the crisis that we are in, as far as our young people are concerned, anyone who has anything positive to say, let them say it. And if it can be done on a wide scale, let them hear it.” One eighth-grader called the speech motivating, saying he is now focusing on how his career choice can help other people and how he might be able to influence future generations of students. For NPR News, I'm Jim Huggan in Philadelphia.

Some critics from the political right have said Mr. Obama was trying to spread a socialist 5 ideology 6 with his speech. A White House spokesman said they're, they would rather start what he called an Animal House food fight than inspire young people.

The price of gold rose today to its highest level since March of last year, more than 1,000 dollars per ounce. Economist 2 Hugh Johnson of Johnson Illington Adviser 7 says he thinks investors 8 are still worried about the economy, the US dollar and now about pressure on prices. "It means that the plain individual investors as well as institutional investors are starting to become a little bit concerned about the possibility of higher inflation." Investors often buy gold instead of the dollar when they are concerned about the possible drop in the value of the dollar.

Stocks. The Dow Jones Industrials closed up 56 points today at 9,497.

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The renowned 9 photographer Annie Leibovitz may lose the copyright to her photographs if she doesn't repay a loan of 24 million dollars to a New York company. The loan is due today. NPR's Margot Adler reports.

The company that made the loan is the Art Capital Group, which is a kind of bank for the art world. They say in legal papers that if Leibovitz doesn't repay the loan, they have the right to her property, her photographs, even her negatives. Leibovitz could file for bankruptcy 10, she could work at a compromise deal or the loan could be extended. It was last winter that news broke that Leibovitz had huge debts and had borrowed millions from Art Capital with her photographs as collateral 11. Art Capital sued Leibovitz in July. A spokesman for Leibovitz said last week that the photographer was trying to resolve the situation. Montieth Illingworth, a spokesman for Art Capital said they also hoped this could be resolved, but they had clear contractual rights and would protect them. Margot Adler, NPR News, New York.

Pakistani officials say all of the at least eight people killed in a suspected US missile raid in the north Waziristan tribal 12 region today were militants 13 linked to the Pakistani Taliban. It was the second airstrike in as many days. The area is near the Afghan border. Also in northwest Pakistan, gunmen reportedly fired at a group of students on their way to school. Four of the students were killed and others were injured.

Allegations of vote fraud are intensifying 14 in Afghanistan as official figures show incumbent 15 President Hamid Karzai with 54% of the vote from the August 20th election, enough to avoid a runoff. And the US State Department says it could take months to sort out the charges. A State Department spokesman says it is not up to the US to say who might be declared the winner.