September 4, 2015

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Business September 4, 2015

Mixed Jobs Report Adds Uncertainty To Fed Interest Rate Debate

2:38

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The August jobs report boosted uncertainty about the Federal Reserve plan to raise interest rates. Employers added 173,000 jobs — fewer than expected — but the unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

There is a certain level of anticipation each month before the Labor Department issues the U.S. jobs report. Today, the world was definitely watching. Maybe it could help answer a big question – is the Federal Reserve about to raise interest rates? The U.S. gained 173,000 jobs in August – fewer than expected. But the unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent – a mixed report. So, as NPR’s Chris Arnold explains, that big question – it’s still looming out there.

CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE: The U.S. economy is at a historic crossroads. Never before has the Federal Reserve set interest rates this low and certainly not for this long. It did that to boost the badly damaged economy. And, now we’ve seen the longest stretch of job growth ever – 13 million jobs over 66 straight months. So that sounds great, but wages are still stagnant and several million people of working age still don’t have jobs. So the question now is, is the economy strong enough to walk on its own two feet?

LISA LYNCH: The Federal Reserve would like to get to a place where it feels more normal. To have rates this low for so long doesn’t feel normal.

ARNOLD: That’s Lisa Lynch, interim president of Brandeis University and a former Labor Department economist. She knows that keeping rates too low for too long can cause problems – bubbles in the housing market or the stock market. Still, for her part, Lynch thinks that the Fed should wait a little longer before scaling back the life support. So she says when the Fed meets later in September…

LYNCH: If I was sitting in that room, it would be a tough call, but I would err on the side of delaying until later in the year to ensure that there’s nothing that the Federal Reserve does that scuppers the current recovery.

ARNOLD: There are some economic storm clouds, too. Worry about a slowdown in China has been sending stocks sharply lower around the world. The Dow is down about 12 percent from its peak. Randall Kroszner is a former governor of the Federal Reserve Board. We reached him today in the lobby of the Central Bank of Ireland.

RANDALL KROSZNER: One of the key debates at the Fed meeting coming up is going to be the impact of China. Is this something that is really just within China and will not have dramatic spillover effects or is this something that’s going to set and train much bigger issues where they’re going to have to make a decision and unlimited data in less than a couple of weeks.

ARNOLD: For his part, Kroszner thinks the U.S. economy is looking strong enough and unemployment low enough that the Fed will start to remove the life support and raise interest rates at its next meeting. Chris Arnold, NPR News.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

Health September 4, 2015

Experimental Drug Provides New Approach To Fighting Alzheimer's

2:07

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A new experimental drug is designed to slow down Alzheimer’s by protecting brain cells from toxins associated with the disease. That’s a different approach from other Alzheimer’s drugs, which have tried to eliminate those toxins.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Efforts to treat Alzheimer’s disease have so far been disappointing. Researchers are now trying a different approach. They’re using an experimental drug designed to protect the brain from the damage caused by Alzheimer’s. NPR’s Jon Hamilton explains.

JON HAMILTON, BYLINE: The hallmarks of Alzheimer’s are plaques and tangles in the brain made up of toxic proteins. And so far, most efforts to treat the disease have focused on eliminating these proteins. But Lon Schneider at the University of Southern California says that approach may be too narrow.

LON SCHNEIDER: Alzheimer’s being a complex disease in which multiple processes are involved suggests that there need to be multiple interventions.

HAMILTON: Schneider sees potential in an experimental drug. It works not by eliminating toxic proteins, but by helping neurons survive despite exposure to these proteins.

SCHNEIDER: This drug serves as a neuroprotectant and prevents further neuronal loss.

HAMILTON: The drug, owned by Toyama Chemical Company in Japan is called T-817MA, and Schneider, who has consulted for Toyama, says it worked well in rodents with a form of Alzheimer’s.

SCHNEIDER: Compared to the animals that did not receive medication, there was far less loss of neurons.

HAMILTON: Now, researchers are preparing to study the drug in 450 people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Finding that many participants is a challenge, so researchers are using a video to help get the word out. It lets people know whether they might qualify to participate in the study, which is called NOBLE.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: The NOBLE study will evaluate an investigational drug specifically for people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s designed to protect the brain against neuron loss in order to suppress the progression of disease.

HAMILTON: Schneider says the NOBLE study is likely to finish enrolling patients in the next few weeks and will take about a year to complete.

SCHNEIDER: Were looking at a year timeline outcome, rather than six months or 18 months because we feel that we can detect a meaningful change within that period of time.

HAMILTON: Researchers are hoping that Alzheimer’s patients who get the drug will show less mental decline than those who receive a placebo. Jon Hamilton, NPR News.

Sports September 4, 2015

Drone Crash At U.S. Open; New York City Teacher Arrested

Police officers stand beside the remains of a drone that crashed into an empty section of seats at the U.S. Open on Thursday. Kathy Willens/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Kathy Willens/AP

A New York City teacher was arrested today after allegedly crashing a drone into the stands during the U.S. Open tennis tournament Thursday night.

Citing police, The Associated Press reports that 26-year-old Daniel Verley has been charged with “reckless endangerment and operating a drone in a New York City public park outside of prescribed area.”

During a second-round match between Italy’s Flavia Pennetta and Monica Niculescu of Romania, the black, shoebox-sized drone flew over the court at Louis Armstrong Stadium and then crashed into empty seats and broke apart. The match was stopped briefly while police officers examined the drone.

The No. 26-seeded Pennetta called the incident “a little bit scary,” saying she initially thought it might have been a bomb, according to the AP.

“With everything going on in the world … I thought, ‘OK, it’s over.’ That’s how things happen,” she said.

A New York City Department of Education spokesman told NPR that Verley has been a science teacher at the Academy of Innovative Technology in Brooklyn since 2013. The department will monitor the criminal case closely and take any disciplinary action based on the information from the case.

Aviation attorney Guy Haggard of the Florida law firm GrayRobinson said the drone crash could have been caused by a loss of control or a system failure.

“Anything mechanical can break,” he told NPR.

As drone use for commercial and recreational purposes becomes more prevalent, there have been calls for more stringent regulations to be put in place. Haggard, however, says the laws already on the books are sufficient.

“I think they are very reasonable right now. Stay away from airports, stay over property that you have permission to fly over,” he said. “The FAA already has a regulation that you cant fly an aircraft recklessly to endanger other people.”

The Federal Aviation Administration says drones meet the legal definition for aircraft. In 2011, it fined a man $10,000 for using a small drone to film a commercial at the University of Virginia.

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September 4, 2015

Best of the Week: New 'Star Wars' Toys, Our Summer Movie Recap and More

Mixed Jobs Report Adds Uncertainty To Fed Interest Rate Debate

Transcript

Experimental Drug Provides New Approach To Fighting Alzheimer's

Transcript

Drone Crash At U.S. Open; New York City Teacher Arrested