NPR 2010-09-07

Fighting words from President Obama in Milwaukee today as Democrats 1 face stiff election-year competition over his handling of the economy. At the Milwaukee Laborfest in Wisconsin today, the president described his critics as “more talk than action”.

"Some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time and they're not always happy with me. They talk about me like a dog. That's not in my prepared remarks. That's just..., but it's true."

Confronted with a high unemployment rate, the president is proposing more infrastructure 3 investments. NPR's Jeff Brady reports that ahead of the announcement, Labor 2 Secretary Hilda Solis heavily promoted the plan on NBC.

The administration wants Congress to approve a huge new transportation plan to stimulate 4 the economy. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis was on The Today Show to talk about the plan.

"It's about $50 billion for highway, high-speed rail, transportation projects that we really need to concentrate on. That will put people back to work immediately."

The plan calls for rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads as well as 150 miles of airport runways and high-speed rail projects. Solis says individual elements already have been shown to have bipartisan support in Congress. Still, Republican leaders are skeptical 5. In this midterm election year, they say more spending is not the solution the country needs to jump-start the sputtering 6 economy. Jeff Brady, NPR News.

Labor protests are under way across France. They're over the government's plans to raise the retirement 7 age. NPR's Philip Reeves in Paris says they're expected to cause widespread disruption.

France's labor unions hope several million people will turn out from streets to oppose the government's plan to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62. Strikes across the country are expected to cause considerable disruption, especially to schools and public transport. The protests will last 24 hours. They began this evening local time, with mass demonstrations 8 planned for tomorrow. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, appears unmoved by all this. He believes raising the retirement age is essential, if France is to plug massive future deficits 9 in its pension system, yet this is a turbulent time for the unpopular Sarkozy. These strikes follow weekend protests across France over the government's repatriation 10 this summer of hundreds of Roma people or Gypsies to Bulgaria and Romania. Philip Reeves, NPR News, Paris.

A hurricane watch is in effect for the coasts of Texas and Mexico in the Gulf 11 because of Tropical Storm Hermine. Forecasters say the storm has top sustained winds of 60 mph and may grow into a hurricane before it makes landfall possibly by tomorrow morning. The watch issued today covers the area from Rio San Fernando, Mexico, northward 12 to Baffin Bay.

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A bulldozer clears out what's left of a police station that was the site of a suicide bombing in northwestern Pakistan today. At least 17 people were killed including school children. The Pakistani Taliban is claiming responsibility for this attack. It was the third in Pakistan in under a week, adding to pressure the country's already feeling from the recent floods. The UN is appealing for hundreds of millions of dollars more in humanitarian 13 aid.

A new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry 14 claims that hallucinogens can be used to reduce anxiety in patients with late-stage cancer. NPR's Alix Spiegel has the story.

For decades, researchers have shied away from doing medical experiments with hallucinogens. The practice got a bad rap in the 70s. But according to the California psychiatrists 15 behind this study, hallucinogens have promise and shouldn't be abandoned. This study, though, is small, very small—only 12 people. Patients with advanced cancer and high anxiety levels ingested either a capsule of psilocybin or a placebo 16 and then were given psychological tests including a test which measured "oceanic boundlessness 17". The patients were tested periodically for the next six months. According to the researchers, six months later, patients who took the real drugs scored lower on anxiety. Again though, the test is very small, so more research would be needed. Alix Spiegel, NPR News, Washington.

US markets are closed for the holiday, but trading overseas yielded some modest gains. Major indexes in Europe had risen a third of a percent today.