NPR 2010-09-17

One in seven Americans lives in poverty. The rate is the highest it's been since 1995. NPR's Tamara Keith brings us the findings of a new Census 1 Bureau report that reveals the recession spared virtually no one.

The reason more Americans are living in poverty is simple: the great recession and the widespread unemployment that brought with it. The report covers 2009, a year that saw the unemployment rate shoot up to ten percent. Heidi Shierholz is an economist 2 at the Economic Policy Institute.

"The bad income and poverty numbers that we're seeing today were actually to be expected, given how bad the economy was in 2009. But it does show that we need to do more."

In total, 43.6 million people were living in poverty in 2009. That's up more than 14 percent from the year before. The number of people without health insurance also rose, largely because when people lost jobs, they also lost their employer-provided insurance. Tamara Keith, NPR News, Washington.

The report on poverty comes at a politically sensitive time for President Obama whose party faces close races this election year. But the president got some encouraging news today, when the Senate passed a measure to free up lending to small businesses that Mr. Obama says will help generate jobs.

"It's going to make a difference in millions of small business owners across the country, who're going to benefit from tax breaks and additional lending, so companies have capital to grow and hire, and this is really welcome news."

In Baltimore, police are still investigating today's standoff at Johns Hopkins Hospital where a gunman injured a doctor before killing 3 his mother then himself. Police Commissioner 4 Fredrick Bealefeld says Warren Davis received bad news about the condition of his mother and became distraught. He then fired a single shot and struck the doctor.

"The doctor collapsed 5 just outside the doorway 6 of the room, and Mr. Davis was last seen running into the room, brandishing 7 the handgun in the direction of his mother who was confined to the bed."

The doctor underwent surgery and is recovering.

Labor 8 Department says a spike 9 in gas price has caused a key inflation parameter 10 to rise last month. More from NPR's Jim Zarroli.

The government said the Producer Price Index, which is a measure of the prices paid at the wholesale 11 level, rose by just a tenth of a percentage point. But when energy and food costs were factored in, the increase was considerably 12 higher. Gasoline prices were up by 7.5 percent, which is the most they've risen since last January. Meanwhile, the number of new unemployment claims fell by 3,000 last week to its lowest level in two months. That was better than financial markets were expecting. Over all, the numbers suggest an economy that's stable, if not improving, with inflation low and the job market incrementally 13 better. Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.

Dow's up 22 at last check. This is NPR.

A Caribbean musician behind one of the catchiest 14 party anthems 15 of the 1980s has died. Alphonsus Cassell was better known by his stage name Arrow. NPR's Neda Ulaby has this appreciation 16.

Arrow came out of the calypso tradition. But he was less interested in the music's political and social roots than the up-tempo, dance-oriented version of it called soca. Arrow's biggest hit from 1983 was inescapable throughout the decade. It was covered by Buster Poindexter and used as the theme song for the World Cup in Mexico in 1986. It was soca on the international charts that helped usher 17 in a new generation of Caribbean-born pop artists into the US market. Arrow died Wednesday at his home on the Island of Montserrat of brain cancer. He was 60 years old. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

Two hurricanes, Igor and Julia, are still churning out in the Atlantic. They pose no immediate 18 threat to the US mainland or oil producing operations. However, forecasters say Igor could generate dangerous rip currents along the eastern seaboard. The Category-4 storm has top winds of 145 mph and it is expected to get close to Bermuda by this weekend. Meanwhile, hurricane alerts are in effect on Mexico's eastern Gulf 19 Coast because of Hurricane Karl. That storm has already dumped torrential rains on the Yucatan Peninsula as it moved toward the Gulf of Mexico, where it is expected to gain strength.

Last check on Wall Street, Dow was up 22 points at 10,595.