In Midwest and beyond, elections focus on jobs

RICE LAKE, Wis. — For Dave Schultz, a postal worker who chose his career for the job security and pension, it wasn’t his own concerns that brought him to the Barron County Fairgrounds on a recent weekend. It was his son, who graduated from college earlier this year and can’t find work. It was the friends whom Schultz sees “just scraping by.” So, when the local Republican Party decided to throw its first rally here in six years, Schultz reported for duty at the Barron County Fairgrounds as a volunteer. “This is the first election I’ve been active,” he says. His chief motivation? “The economy is, …

Obama proposes $50B for roads, rails, runways

President Obama proposed a $50 billion plan Monday to fix roads, rail lines and airport runways, part of an effort to deal with high unemployment less than two months before pivotal congressional elections. “This will not only create jobs immediately, it’s also going to make our economy hum over the long haul,” Obama said in outlining the plan to union members at a Labor Day rally in Milwaukee. The announcement came less than a week after the …

Economy’s looking up for now as double-dip fears ease

Never has mediocre looked so good. A steady flow of not-entirely-terrible economic news has eased worries of renewed recession and shifted the political spotlight from the Federal Reserve to the White House. “The August data we’ve been getting has been encouraging. … It’s very likely that the economy continues to move forward in the coming months,” said economist Bruce Kasman of J.P. Morgan. The economic news increasingly has a bipolar cast to it. One day, a downward revision to the second-quarter growth rate makes a double-dip recession look like a real threat. The next, a drop in first-time jobless claims suggests that the wounded U.S. economy may muddle…

Assault on Iraqi military HQ kills 12; U.S. helps out

BAGHDAD (AP) — Suicide bombers struck a Baghdad military headquarters on Sunday and killed 12 people, two weeks after an attack on the same site pointed to the failure of Iraqi forces to plug even the most obvious holes in their security. U.S. troops at the military compound to train Iraqi forces helped repel the attack, marking the first time American forces have been involved in an exchange of gunfire in Baghdad since the U.S. officially ended combat operations in Iraq less than a week ago. In the brazen midday assault, suicide bombers set off a car bomb and managed to …

Marijuana may relieve nerve pain when other drugs don’t

Smoking cannabis, also known as marijuana, reduced pain in patients with nerve pain stemming from injuries or surgical complications, new research shows. Twenty-one adults with chronic nerve pain were taught to take a single inhalation of 25 milligrams of cannabis through a pipe, three times a day, for five days. The cannabis contained one of three levels of potency of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, as well as a placebo dosage containing no THC. TOO POOR FOR POT? Not in D.C. (if it’s medical, that is) All of the patients …

Loss of gov’t jobs hits payrolls, but companies add 67,000 jobs

Employers shed 54,000 jobs in August, fewer than expected, as moderate private sector job gains partially offset the loss of 114,000 temporary U.S. Census workers, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate ticked up to 9.6% from 9.5% as 550,000 people, including discouraged workers who had been on the sidelines, entered the labor pool. Private employers added 67,000 jobs, more than the 40,000 expected by economists, with gains in construction, health care and professional and business services. The loss of 54,000 jobs overall was more modest than the 105,000 economists anticipated. Equally heartening: Job losses for June and July were revised downward by 123,000 and …

East Coast casts watchful eye as Hurricane Earl nears

POPLAR BRANCH, N.C. — Labor Day weekend plans are iffy for parts of the East Coast as Hurricane Earl roars north, its powerful 140-mph winds and 50-foot waves already driving tourists from North Carolina beaches. The National Weather Service on Wednesday issued storm warnings up the Eastern Seaboard to Massachusetts. The Category 4 hurricane is expected to approach the North Carolina coast by late Thursday. The National Hurricane Center warned that it could strike Long Island, N.Y., and deliver heavy storms to New England by Friday. “You need to build some flexibility in your plan,” said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “You may have …

Obama warns of challenges at start of Mideast peace talks

WASHINGTON — The decades-old quest for lasting peace in the Middle East begins anew today with a stern warning from President Obama that “this moment of opportunity may not soon come again.” Following Tuesday’s killings of four Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Wednesday’s separate meetings between Obama and leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the two adversaries will begin negotiations this morning under the watchful eye of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Their goals were on full display Wednesday night in the East Room of the White House, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against more “Iranian-sponsored” violence and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called …

U.S. changes military commanders in Iraq

RAMADI, Iraq (AP) — The United States changed commanders in Iraq Wednesday, beginning the final phase of American military involvement in the country despite political uncertainty and persistent violence. The transfer of authority came a day after President Obama announced the shift from combat operations to preparing Iraqi forces to assume responsibility for their own security. Obama made clear in Tuesday’s speech that this was no victory celebration. A six-month stalemate over forming a new Iraqi government has raised concerns about the country’s stability and questions over whether the leadership can cope with a diminished but still dangerous insurgency. Newly promoted Army Gen. Lloyd Austin also maintained a somber tone as he took the reins of the some 50,000 American troops who remain in…

Analysis: Obama makes clear Iraq’s future is its own

WASHINGTON — The venue was the same: the Oval Office. The president’s tone was different. President George W. Bush announced the beginning of combat operations in Iraq in an unyielding four-minute speech to the nation in March 2003, declaring, “We will accept no outcome but victory,” and promising that the U.S.-led invasion would “bring freedom to others.” Seven years later, sitting behind the same historic desk, President Obama announced the end of combat operations by U.S. forces with …

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