Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/39585
Thursday, August 18, 2011 – Daily News 3B WORLD BRIEFING Obama to lay out plan for jobs, growth WASHINGTON (AP) — Under fire in a nation desperate for jobs, Presi- dent Barack Obama will soon announce a broad package of tax cuts, con- struction work and help for the millions of Ameri- cans who have been unemployed for months, a White House official said Wednesday. Republicans immediately cast doubt about any such plan, set- ting up a fresh economic showdown as the presi- dential campaign intensi- fies. Obama will unveil his economic strategy in a speech right after Labor Day, hoping to frame the autumn jobs debate by pressuring Republicans in Congress to act or face the voters' wrath. The coun- try is in a deep state of disgust about Washington politics, piling urgency on both parties to help the economy quickly — or somehow position the other side to take the blame. To pay for his jobs ideas, Obama will chal- lenge the new ''super committee'' in Congress to go well beyond its goal of finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, with part of the savings used to cover some of his econo- my-jolting help without sinking the nation deeper in debt. But there, too, Obama already faces trouble from Republican members who have ruled out tax hikes. It's all leading to a sharp campaign for public opinion, the outcome shaping the presidential and congressional elec- tions in 2012. Obama, as the most visible target for voter ire, is seeking re-election with unemployment north of 9 percent. No incumbent in recent times has won a second term with the job- less rate anywhere near that high. Perry doesn't believe in manmade global warming BEDFORD, N.H. (AP) — GOP presidential can- didate Rick Perry told New Hampshire voters Wednesday that he does not believe in manmade global warming, calling it a scientific theory that has not been proven. ''I think we're seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists that are coming forward and ques- tioning the original idea that manmade global warming is what is caus- ing the climate to change,'' the Texas gover- nor said on the first stop of a two-day trip to the first-in-the-nation prima- ry state. He said some want bil- lions or trillions of tax- payer dollars spent to address the issue, but he added: ''I don't think from my perspective that I want to be engaged in spending that much money on still a scientific theory that has not been proven and from my per- spective is more and more being put into question.'' His comments came at a packed breakfast meet- ing with local business leaders in a region known for its strong environmen- tal policies. And he made his global warming com- ment in response to a question by an audience member who cited evi- dence from the National Academy of Sciences. But Perry's opinion runs counter to the view held by an overwhelming majority of scientists that pollution released from the burning of fossil fuels front entrance is nearly empty. Classroom walls are largely bare, and unopened boxes of text- books, computer monitors and other equipment remain scattered through- out the building. Signs of unfinished business remain at what is now Joplin High's upper- level campus — a con- verted big-box retail store at the city's mall, well outside the worst-hit areas from a late May tornado that killed 160 people, injured hundreds more and destroyed thousands of buildings, including the city's only public high school. is heating up the planet. Perry's home state of Texas releases more heat- trapping pollution carbon dioxide — the chief greenhouse gas — than any other state in the country, according to gov- ernment data. Investors drive gold to one record after another NEW YORK (AP) — For what is normally a sleepy month, there are so many customers at the Gold Standard, a New York com- pany that buys jewelry, that it feels like Christmas in August. Uncle Ben's Pawn Shop in Cleveland has never seen a rush like this. Welcome to the new American gold rush. The price of gold is on a remark- able run, setting a record seemingly every other day. Stomach-churning volatility in the stock market this month has only made investors covet gold more. Some want it as a safe investment for turbulent times. What worries some investors is that many others are buying simply because the price is rising and they want to make money fast. ''Is gold the next bub- ble?'' asks Bill DiRocco, a golf company manager in Overland Park, Kan., who shifted 10 percent of his portfolio earlier this year into an investment fund that tracks the price of gold. He stopped buying because the price kept rising. In October 2007, it sold for about $740 an ounce. A little over a year later, it rose above $1,000 for the first time. This past March, it began rocketing up. On Wednesday, it traded at $1,795 an ounce, just shy of last week's record of $1,801. Turkey PM compares Syrian leader to Gadhafi BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey's prime minister compared Syria's presi- dent to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi on Wednesday, as Damascus defied interna- tional calls to end the crackdown on a 5-month- old uprising. President Bashar Assad has unleashed tanks, ground troops and snipers in an attempt to retake control in rebel- lious areas. The military assault has escalated dra- matically since the start of the holy month of Ramadan in August, killing hundreds and detaining thousands. ''We made our calls (to Gadhafi) but unfortunate- ly we got no result,'' Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday. ''The same thing is happening with Syria at the moment.'' The conflict in Libya, which began a month before Syria's unrest, has descended into a civil war as Gadhafi defies calls to end the bloodshed. On Wednesday, Erdo- gan said he personally spoke to Assad and sent his foreign minister to Damascus, but ''despite all of this, they are contin- uing to strike civilians.'' Joplin starts new year of classes after tornado JOPLIN, MO. (AP) — The trophy case by the On Wednesday, as Joplin students and teach- ers went back to school less than three months after the country's single deadliest tornado in six decades cut the previous school year short, no one seemed to mind the short- comings. After months of haul- ing debris, attending friends' funerals, watch- ing endless TV images of their destroyed school and trying to put their lives back together, it was finally time to get back to what passes for normal in Joplin. ''You can't pretend like nothing happened,'' said English teacher Brenda White. ''But everything is so new here. Every single thing that is this school is new and dif- ferent. Noah's Ark theme park HEBRON, Ky. (AP) — Tucked away in a nonde- script office park in north- ern Kentucky, Noah's fol- lowers are rebuilding his ark. The biblical wooden ship built to weather a worldwide flood was 500 feet long and about 80 feet high, according to Answers in Genesis, a Christian ministry devot- ed to a literal telling of the Old Testament. This modern ark, to be nestled on a plot of 800 acres of rolling Kentucky farmland, isn't designed to rescue the world's crea- tures from a coming del- uge. It's to tell the world that the Bible's legendary flood story was not a fable, but a part of human history.