NPR 2010-05-08

A day after a hair-raising session on Wall Street, the stock market showed signs of recovery though, it remained volatile 1 and spent most of today in the red. At last check, the Dow was down 141 points at 10,379. NASDAQ was down more than 50 at 2,266.

Yesterday, the Dow tumbled nearly 1,000 points, raising a lot of questions about how that could have happened. One possible factor: the debt crisis in Greece that threatens to spread to other European countries. The Obama administration says it is investigating. But the government's buoyed 2 by the Labor 3 Department's monthly jobs report today. Nearly 300,000 jobs were created last month. NPR's Don Gonyea has the details.

The jobs report was significantly better than analysts 4 had predicted and even though the nation's unemployment rate increased slightly to 9.9%. The president said that is due in part to the long-term unemployed 5 seeing improved prospects 6 and once again seeking work. The president was joined by his entire economic team for a statement outside the White House.

"Over the course of this recession, more than eight million jobs were lost. So there're a lot of people out there who're still experiencing real hardship. And we got to be mindful that today's jobs numbers, while welcome, leave us with a lot of work to do."

Still, the president said the new report is also a sign that businesses are feeling confident enough in the economy to start hiring again. Don Gonyea, NPR News, the White House.

A metal chamber's within 200 feet of a ruptured 7 oil well in the Gulf 8 of Mexico, but BP engineers warn this may not work to contain one of the country's worst-ever oil spills. BP executive Doug Suttles says as long as the weather cooperates, the crew will keep using controlled burns which appear to be the best way to contain the spill.

"We had a controlled burn just today. We estimate that we've burned between seven and nine thousand barrels of oil. This is quite substantial. And I think we've now demonstrated that this is a very powerful technique. And when the weather's good, it will continue, which we expect to go on for the next two days."

In New York, a cooler shut down parts of Times Square today. Police evacuated 9 some areas after reports of a suspicious package which turned out to be nothing. But as NPR's Margot Adler reports, authorities weren't going to take any chances after last weekend's failed bombing in Times Square.

They blocked off this entire region. Three blocks stopped all traffic for about an hour. There were lines of people. There were, you know, probably 12 or 13 camera crews lined up looking down two blocks of a street that was filled with police vehicles. And nothing else and no one really knew exactly what was happening. The police kept on saying it's under investigation 10. There was really no way to get word, but what it turned out to be was just a cooler filled with a water bottle.

NPR's Margot Adler reporting the disruptions lasted at least a couple of hours.

From Washington, this is NPR News.

Health authorities are looking into an E. coli outbreak possibly linked to a certain type of lettuce 11. NPR's Giles Snyder reports that at least 19 people have become sick.

Twelve of those who fell ill were hospitalized, three with reported life-threatening symptoms. Federal health officials say they're looking into ten other possible cases. The outbreak has turned up in three states: Ohio, New York and Michigan and those sickened include students on three college campuses. The outbreak is being linked to a brand of romaine lettuce that's generally sold in bulk. Freshway Foods of Sidney, Ohio says it's recalling the lettuce sold under the Freshway and Imperial Sysco brands in 23 states and the District of Columbia. According to food safety advocates, the Food and Drug Administration is focusing on romaine lettuce grown in Arizona. Giles Snyder, NPR News, Washington.

Damage assessment 12 is still underway in Tennessee from floods last weekend. More than 50 of the state's 95 counties have been declared disaster areas. The storms were a factor in at least 20 deaths, nine of them in Nashville.

AIG is showing signs of improvement. The insurance giant which received $180 billion in taxpayer 13 money during the financial crisis reports today net income of 1.45 billion for the first quarter. The company says streamlining its operations and recovering credit markets helped.

In Thailand, tension is reportedly flaring 14 again in the more than month-long standoff between anti-government protesters and security forces. The Reuters news service reports a gunman opened fire near rival protesters in Bangkok's Silom business district, wounding at least four people.