NPR 2011-09-23

 The deep market losses suffered in other global market today are playing out on Wall Street. The massive sell-off spurred by pessimism about the long-term health of the US and European economies. At last check, the Dow was down more than 450 points, more than 4%, at 10,674; NASDAQ was off nearly 4% at 2,439; S&P 500 down nearly 4% as well at 1,121.

 
Many people close to retirement are worried about their savings as the markets gyrate. NPR's Paul Brown reports investment advisers are urging people to make sure they have a plan to weather tough economic times.
 
Talk to numerous investment advisers and you'll get much the same message. Take care of the basics while making your assets grow. Dan Katy is financial planning director at financial services company TIAA-CREF. He recommends investing in annuities that earn interest unaffected by the ups and downs of financial markets.
 
"By doing that, I'm accumulating funds that could produce a steady lifetime income and create, we often call, a guaranteed income floor."
 
But Katy says with planning for that floor in place, part of a retirement investment portfolio should consist of stocks because overtime despite some sharp drops, they've proven to have the most appreciation potential. Paul Brown, NPR News.
 
And faced with the high unemployment rate, President Obama is making his latest public appeal for support of his jobs creation plan in Ohio this hour.
 
President Obama's nominee to lead the Council of Economic Adviser says the government could do more to fight high unemployment. NPR's Scott Horsley reports Alan Krueger, who was quizzed by members of the Senate Banking Committee.
 
Alan Krueger says the ideas in the president's jobs proposal, such as the payroll tax cut for employers, would help put more Americans back to work. Krueger, who's back at Princeton after stand in the Treasury Department, would play a role in shaping those policies if he's confirmed as one of president's top economic advisers.
 
"I don't think the president is satisfied with the pace of the recovery, and the reason why when he asked me to come back, I agreed, is because I think there're more things that we can do to strengthen the economy."
 
The top Republican on the committee voiced skepticism about the president's jobs proposal but said Krueger is likely to be confirmed. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
 
House Speaker John Boehner's trying to reassure concerned voters there is no threat of a government shutdown. He's (was) working to turn the tide of an unexpected outcome yesterday when fiscally conservative Republicans broke ranks with the party leadership and voted against a stopgap spending bill that they said didn't cut spending enough. A majority of Democrats also voted against the legislation.
 
Dow down 476 points.
 
This is NPR News.
 
Former Olympian Carl Lewis's run for state Senate in New Jersey appears to be off again. As NPR's Joel Rose reports, an appeals court in Philadelphia today reversed its own earlier ruling that Lewis can't appear on the ballot. 
 
Carl Lewis won nine Olympic gold medals during his celebrated track and field career. But his political career is stuck on the starting line. Lewis grew up in New Jersey and bought homes there in 2005 and 2007. He's now trying to run for a state Senate seat as a Democrat. But Republicans argue Lewis does not meet the state's four-year residency requirement because he voted in California just two years ago. Earlier this month, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia seemed to side with Lewis. But in an unusual movement, a three-judge panel heard new arguments in the case this week, and then it issued a ruling ordering Lewis off the ballot. Joel Rose, NPR News, Philadelphia.
 
A scathing US assessment on Syria today as the ambassador to Damascus warned the Syrian president is losing support among key constituents. But Robert Ford tells Reuters news service that President Bashar al-Assad's army remains very powerful and cohesive as it continues to crackdown on dissent. 
 
Associated Press reporting that the Libyan former prime minister who served during Mummer Gaddafi's regime has been arrested in southern Tunisia. That announcement today from Tunisia's Interior Ministry. Meanwhile, weeks after Gaddafi was ousted, his whereabouts are still unknown.
 
The latest from Wall Street. Dow down 474 points, more than 4%, at 10,651; NASDAQ down more than 100 points at 2,434.
 
I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.