NPR 2009-10-30

President Obama today hailed new economic numbers that show the economy might be finally pulling out of recession. NPR's Mara Liasson reports.

President Obama told a group of small-business owners that the news the economy grew 3.5% in the third quarter of this year is welcome and it's a big change from the first quarter when the economy shrunk by 6.4%. But he said that's not enough.

"While this report today represents real progress, the benchmark I used to measure the strength of our economy is not just whether our GDP is growing, but whether we are creating jobs, whether families are having an easier time paying their bills, whether our businesses are hiring and doing well."

Sometimes it takes a very long time for job growth to catch up with economic growth. And that jobs number is the most important political indicator 1 for the president's party which is facing a tough mid-term election next year. Mara Liasson, NPR News, the White House.

Economists 3 are also weighing in on today's better-than-expected quarterly growth numbers, though their optimism is slightly more tempered. Nigel Gault is chief US economist 2 with IHS Global Insight. He says today's numbers don't mark an official end to the current recession, the worst since the 1930s. And he says until companies begin hiring again, any economic recovery is likely to remain fragile.

"If you look on the employment side, what the business is doing with employment, at the moment, they're still shedding workers. So on the big decisions being taken in the private sector 4 by businesses, capital spending and for employment, unfortunately, those at the moment are still going down."

Economists also pointed 5 to the fact that some of the rise in third quarter GDP, perhaps as much as 2 percentage points worth, was due to the government's various economic stimulus 6 plans.

An early season snowstorm in the Rocky Mountain West is halting traffic and forcing schools and businesses to shut down for a second day. From Denver, NPR's Jeff Brady reports.

Sections of freeway around the region have been closed periodically as crews worked to clear accidents and snow that's accumulating on the road. Travelers at the Denver airport are negotiating delays and cancellations. Although snow has some headed for the backcountry to ski, Ethan Greene with the Colorado Avalanche 7 Information Center has a warning. He says there already was snow in the mountains from storms in recent weeks.

"The new snow resting on that could pose a significant avalanche, problems especially in areas where the wind has formed blizzards 8."

Forecasters say Denver can expect up to 9 more inches of snow today. But that will end this evening and the sun is expected to back out tomorrow. Jeff Brady, NPR News, Denver.

Oil giant Exxon weighed in with better-than-expected quarterly profit numbers today, though the world's largest publicly traded oil company says a worldwide glut 9 of petroleum 10 supplies could push oil prices lower. For the July to September quarter, the company says its profit fell 68% to 4.7 billion dollars.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 199 points. That was a rise of 2%. The NASDAQ was up 38 points today.

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President Barack Obama today called a middle-of-the-night visit to the families of fallen US soldiers a sobering reminder 11 of the sacrifices of war. The President told the reporters today his view of how to go forward in the war in Afghanistan will be affected 12 by the suffering of military personnel and their families. The visit to Dover Air Force Base in the early morning hours today comes as Mr. Obama continues to weigh a request for more troops for the war there from his top military commanders.

US Education Department has confirmed what school reformers have long been complaining about. Many states are lowering, not raising, their academic standards. More from NPR's Claudio Sanchez.

The US Education Department’s 47-state-study looked at students' performance on reading and math tests and found that what most states considered proficient 13 was not proficient at all. In 26 states, the level of rigor 14 was pretty low. Only 12 states have made an effort to make their tests more rigorous. And that's worrisome because one of the goals of the No Child Left Behind Law is that students be proficient by the year 2014. Every state, though, gets to choose what proficient means. The lower the bar, the more children in the state can claim that they are proficient. Education Department officials say that's deceptive 15. In too many states, a child who is proficient in reading is in reality a child that is only basic in reading and could be struggling. The study is important because 48 states recently agreed to adopt common academic standards with which to better gauge 16 children’s progress nationally. Claudio Sanchez, NPR News.

The new movie on Michael Jackson has sent the king of pop back to the No.1 spot in the first day of release. Distributor Sony reports today the opening day of the film on the late entertainer earned 7.4 million dollars in the US and 12.7 million overseas. The film documented Jackson's rehearsals 17 for a planned concert tour.