Search results for

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan said today that surging oil prices bear close attention because they have the potential to disrupt the nation's longest ever economic expansion. As NPR's John Ydstie reports, Greenspan said higher oil prices have not sparked a new round of inflation, but that possibility still exists, especially given low inventories and tensions in the Middle East. He noted that federal budget surpluses have aided the expansion, but added that government's propensity to spend may mean smaller surpluses in years to come.

NPR's Mike Shuster in Jerusalem reports the outburst of violence in the West Bank and Gaza over the past few weeks has shocked many people. It came just two months after the Camp David summit talks where Israel and the Palestinians seemed closer than ever before to a final peace settlement. At Camp David, the fate of Jerusalem's holy places was on the table for the first time in the negotiations. The issue proved traumatic, and a catalyst for violence.

NPR's Barbara Bradley reports on attempts to rework the juvenile justice system. After juvenile crime dropped steadily last decade, many people are taking a look at the system and wondering if it's too heavy-handed. Nearly every state has made it easier to charge children as adults. Opponents to this policy say once a youth gets in the adult system, he's more likely to continue committing crimes. Several states are now considering a change in the way they try and sentence juveniles.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that Wall Street gave AT&T a thumbs down on its plan to split into four separate companies. Shares of the long distance and cable TV giant fell as much as 13 percent. The restructuring of AT&T will create separate shares for AT&T's wireless, cable TV, consumer and business operations. The company has been under intense pressure from shareholders to do something about it's sagging stock value.

A Democratic candidate for Congress in Maryland, Terry Lierman, has invoked the "equal time" provision of the Federal Communications Act to get NPR member station WAMU to run his political ads. His opponent, incumbent Republican Connie Morella, will not counter with her own ads on WAMU. Instead she says she'll try to work in Congress to correct what she calls a "loophole." NPR's Shirley Jahad reports.

NPR's David Welna reports that numerous questions remain about the Senate race in Missouri. Missouri's Governor Mel Carnahan, died two weeks ago in a plane crash. Carnahan was the democratic opponent of Senator John Ashcroft. Carnahan's death, however, did not remove is name from the ballot, and now he's actually leading in the polls. Many are wondering what will happen if the state elects the deceased governor to the U.S. Senate.

Both Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush say they support a patients' bill of rights, and both make the issue part of the daily stump speeches. But while Gore has been very specific about his support for a bill that is stalled in Congress, Bush has kept avoided talk of too many details. As NPR's Julie Rovner reports, Bush's generalities about the issues sometimes conflict with one another, but not so much as to roil voters.

Wade Goodwyn reports that in Arkansas' Fourth Congressional District -- Bill Clinton territory -- incumbent Republican Jay Dickey is fighting for his political life by attending almost every town or county festival, and even large family reunions. He's touting the millions he has brought to the district from his perch on the House Appropriations Committee. Challenger Mike Ross is running to the right of Gore and meeting bleary-eyed potential constituents at 7 a.m. in coffee shops across the district.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports from Mitrovica that nearly a year and a half after NATO forces entered Kosovo, this city remains a hotbed of ethnic tensions. Albanians and Serbs are locked in a stand-off over apartments, and jobs in the region's rusting heavy industry. But the United Nations administrator of the city, Bill Nash, is beginning to get the two sides to cooperate. Nash says the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade should make it easier for moderate Serbs to deal with the ethnic Albanian community.

NPR's Madeleine Brand reports on re-interpreting Christmas music. New York artist Christian Marclay has collected thousands of holiday albums from thrift shops and used record stores, and he and a group of dj's mix and scratch their selections for crowds at the New Museum. Marclay says it's a way to make art out of throw-away recordings that only have nostalgic value. Listeners say the resulting sound is both annoying and interesting.