NPR 2010-09-29

From NPR News in Washington, I’m Pam Coulter.

President Obama is on his first extended campaign trip of the season. NPR’s Scott Horsley says Mr. Obama was in New Mexico for a backyard conversation with middle-class voters.

President Obama visited the home of a longtime New Mexico educator, Etta Cavalier and her husband Andy. He talked about the steps his administration has taken to improve schooling 1 and make college education more affordable 2. The president warns if Republicans had threatened to cut spending in those areas, should they win control of Congress in November? He says the US needs stronger schooling to compete with countries like China and South Korea.

“They’re not cutting back on education right when we know that that’s going to be the most important thing in determining our success over the long term. And we can’t either. And so I just want everybody to think about those kinds of issues as you go into the polling place in November.”

Mr. Obama will hold similar backyard events later this week in Iowa and Virginia. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Albuquerque.

A bill that would impose new taxes on companies that ship jobs overseas and give tax breaks to businesses that create new jobs in this country is not moving forward in the Senate. Democrats 3 failed to get the 60 votes needed for approval today. They held the vote anyway to show their commitment to economic recovery weeks before the election.

Former President Jimmy Carter is getting checked out in a Cleveland hospital instead of signing books on his book tour. He suffered an upset stomach on a flight to Cleveland. His grandson says his 85-year-old grandfather's doing fine.

The all-clear is up at the University of Texas, Austin, which had been on lockdown over a shooting. A masked gunman opened fire on campus then killed himself in a library. No one else was injured.

A new study shows bans on texting while driving have not reduced crash rates and in fact may cause them to rise. NPR’s Brian Naylor says the Transportation Department calls the study “misleading”.

In 30 states, it’s against the law to text and drive. You might think that would lead to a reduction in crashes. But according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, an insurance industry group, four states that have the bans, California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Washington, have found no reduction in crashes. In fact just the opposite, crashes in three of those states have gone up slightly. The president of the HLDI says the numbers show texting bans are ineffective. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood takes issue with the report and says studies have shown in cities that have strictly 4 enforced texting and cell phone bans, distracted driving has been sharply curtailed 5. Brian Naylor, NPR News, Washington.

The NTSB says the tractor-trailer driver who slammed into a line of cars on an Oklahoma highway last year, killing 6 ten people, had been suffering from acute fatigue 7.

Near the close on Wall Street, the Dow up 62, NASDAQ ahead 11.

This is NPR.

Home prices are up for the fourth month in a row, according to Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index. A 20-city survey found prices rose 0.6 percent from June to July and about three percent from a year ago. Twelve cities showed price increases. Cleveland’s prices were flat and seven other cities showed monthly declines, suggesting the boost from government tax credits for homebuyers is waning 8.

Police in Utah are investigating a family of polygamists who were featured in a TV reality show. NPR’s Howard Berkes reports news of the show prompted the investigation 9.

Lehi, Utah police say publicity 10 about the cable television show Sister Wives indicates Kody Brown and his four wives are possibly violating the state’s bigamy law. The Browns openly acknowledged the practice of polygamy in the reality TV show which began Sunday. A police statement says evidence gathered in the investigation will be turned over to the county attorney for possible prosecution 11. Persistent 12 television appearances by another polygamist triggered a similar prosecution ten years ago. Then, Tom Green was convicted a bigamy and rape 13 of a child, a charge based on his so-called spiritual marriage to one of his wives when she was just 13. Green served six years in prison. Police say Kody Brown is only under investigation for bigamy, a third-degree felony. Howard Berkes, NPR News, Salt Lake City.

A Wisconsin Natural Resources official said he’s cautiously optimistic that a sand levee will hold and keep a rural neighborhood in Caledonia from being completely flooded. The levee was partially 14 breached 15 yesterday and turned Blackhawk Park into a virtual island.

I’m Pam Coulter, NPR News in Washington.