Obama Says He's 'Frustrated' About Health Care Site Issues

At the White House on Monday, President Obama acknowledged widespread problems with his health care law's website while still defending the Affordable Care Act. NPR White House Correspondent Scott Horsley talks with Steve Inskeep about the president's remarks.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with an acknowledgement of trouble by President Obama.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

INSKEEP: OK, the president is speaking right now to reporters and others in the White House Rose Garden. Our White House correspondent Scott Horsley has been listening in. He's in our studios. Hi, Scott.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Steve.

INSKEEP: OK, the president's talking about Obamacare. What's he saying?

HORSLEY: Well, this is really the first big acknowledgement by the president that the problems with the website, healthcare.gov, that people are using to access the new insurance marketplaces are more than the glitches. He'd said all along there would be glitches. It's now become clear that the problems are more deep-seeded than that.

The president said there's no sugar coating that, and that he's as frustrated as anybody else. He also said the government is working to fix those problems. They're bringing in some top IT talent from the private sector to help out. He also says some of those private sector folks anticipated this kind of problem with a big undertaking like this.

INSKEEP: They might have anticipated it but they weren't ready for it...

(LAUGHTER)

INSKEEP: ..but it's going to be a problem here, isn't it, to get it fixed on the fly?

HORSLEY: Absolutely. You're trying to fix the airplane while flying the airplane, as the saying goes. But the president also stressed that what he calls the underlying product, the insurance that's available through these marketplaces is still good, even if it's tough to get access to it. And he stressed that the Affordable Care Act is more than just this website and that there are ways for people to access that insurance offline, either by the telephone or in person.

INSKEEP: OK, Scott, thanks very much.

HORSLEY: My pleasure.

INSKEEP: We'll be hearing more about this. NPR's Scott Horsley.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=239145590&ft=1&f=3
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Lasers, Drones, and Future Tech on the Front Lines of Archaeology

James Newhard is Director of Archaeology at the College of Charleston, where he works to bring 3D imaging, mobile technology and geographic information systems to a field more popularly associated with shovels and dusty brushes. Gizmodo got in touch with Dr. Newhard to learn how he uses emerging tech to dig deep into ancient societies.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/3Wp1BV8BqfY/lasers-drones-and-future-tech-on-the-front-lines-of-a-1447601864
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Fugitive Arrest: Former Banking Executive Caught In Italy

Former UBS banking executive Raoul Weil was indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in 2008, on charges that he helped wealthy clients avoid billions in taxes.

Antonio Calanni/AP

Former UBS banking executive Raoul Weil was indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in 2008, on charges that he helped wealthy clients avoid billions in taxes.

Antonio Calanni/AP

A former UBS bank executive who has been a fugitive since being indicted on federal charges in 2008 has been arrested in Italy. Swiss citizen Raoul Weil, the former head of UBS Global Wealth Management International, is accused of defrauding the U.S. government by helping clients evade taxes.

From Rome, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"A police spokeswoman in Bologna said Raoul Weil was arrested Saturday when he checked into a Bologna hotel. That set off an alert system thanks to an international arrest warrant for Weill issued by the United States.

"The U.S. declared him a fugitive in early 2009, after he failed to surrender on charges he conspired to help 17,000 Americans hide assets worth $20 billion in Swiss bank accounts.

"That same year, UBS was fined $780 million and agreed to hand over the names of some 4,500 U.S. clients with secret Swiss bank accounts to avoid facing criminal charges. That deal marked a historic break in Switzerland's long tradition of bank secrecy."

Before he became a fugitive, Weil, 53, faced "up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines," the industry website WealthManagement.com reported at the time of his indictment. Weil has said he is innocent of the charges against him.

In announcing the 2008 indictment against Weil, the Justice Department said, "In 2004 alone, Swiss bankers, who ultimately reported to Weil, traveled to the United States approximately 3,800 times to discuss their clients' Swiss bank accounts."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/21/239239444/fugitive-arrest-former-banking-executive-caught-in-italy?ft=1&f=
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Headlines From Around The World

A woman walks past a newsstand in Beijing.

Alexander F. Yuan/AP

A woman walks past a newsstand in Beijing.

Alexander F. Yuan/AP

We begin with more revelations about the National Security Agency's spying program – this time from France.

Le Monde reported that the NSA monitored 70.3 million French phone records during a 30-day period. The article was co-authored by Glenn Greenwald. He's the American journalist who's broken many of the stories on the agency's spying programs around the world – stories made possible by the leak of documents by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The French Foreign Ministry has summoned the U.S. ambassador to protest the reported spying.

It's the latest revelations about the NSA's spying program that has strained relations with allies such as Brazil. But Monday's story comes at a particularly embarrassing time for the U.S. as it coincides with Secretary of State John Kerry's arrival in Paris.

Meanwhile in Egypt, political and religious figures are condemning the attack outside a Coptic Christian church that killed four people, including two girls, ages 8 and 12.

Al-Ahram reports that a man randomly fired 15 rounds at a wedding ceremony outside the church in Cairo's Warraq neighborhood on Sunday.

Interim Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi called the attack a "cowardly criminal act." The attack was also condemned by the grand imam of the influential Al-Azhar mosque and the Salafist Nour Party.

But Al-Ahram reported that a Christian rights group blamed the government for the attack, saying it hadn't done enough to protect the community, which makes up about 10 percent of Egypt's population. Attacks against Christians have risen following the July coup that ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Now to Zimbabwe, where the government-owned Herald reports that Western sanctions, which it calls illegal, are hurting the country's industry.

The Industrial Development Corp. has had more than $20 million frozen in the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the newspaper reported. Here's more:

"The Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company, one of the IDC subsidiaries, still has US$5 million frozen to date as the US applies its Zimbabwe Transition to Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, its sanctions law.

"The Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe also lost over US$30 million in revenue to OFAC."

The newspaper estimated that Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk by some 40 percent over the past 13 years, and blamed "the West's illegal sanctions regime."

U.S. imposed sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's government in 2003 following his crackdown on opposition groups in the country.

And, finally, to Mexico, where 7 out of 10 people say the national soccer team doesn't deserve to play in next year's World Cup in Brazil, according to a poll by El Universal newspaper.

The national team has suffered embarrassing losses and failed to qualify directly for Brazil. The team takes on New Zealand in a playoff next month.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/10/21/238977122/headlines-from-around-the-world?ft=1&f=1009
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Study: 15 percent of US youth out of school, work

WASHINGTON (AP) — Almost 6 million young people are neither in school nor working, according to a study released Monday.

That's almost 15 percent of those aged 16 to 24 who have neither desk nor job, according to The Opportunity Nation coalition, which wrote the report.

Other studies have shown that idle young adults are missing out on a window to build skills they will need later in life or use the knowledge they acquired in college. Without those experiences, they are less likely to command higher salaries and more likely to be an economic drain on their communities.

"This is not a group that we can write off. They just need a chance," said Mark Edwards, executive director of the coalition of businesses, advocacy groups, policy experts and nonprofit organizations dedicated to increasing economic mobility. "The tendency is to see them as lost souls and see them as unsavable. They are not."

But changing the dynamic is not going to be easy.

The coalition also finds that 49 states have seen an increase in the number of families living in poverty and 45 states have seen household median incomes fall in the last year. The dour report underscores the challenges young adults face now and foretell challenges they are likely to face as they get older.

A young person's community is often closely tied to his or her success. The Opportunity Nation report tracked 16 factors — Internet access, college graduation rates, income inequality and public safety among them — and identified states that were doing well for its young people.

Topping the list of supportive states are Vermont, Minnesota and North Dakota. At the bottom? Nevada, Mississippi and New Mexico.

"Their destiny is too often determined by their ZIP code," said Charlie Mangiardi, who works with Year Up, a nonprofit that trains young adults for careers and helps them find jobs.

"We have the supply. We don't have a lack of young people who need this opportunity," Mangiardi added.

Just look at some of the nation's largest cities. Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Riverside, Calif., all have more than 100,000 idle youth, the Opportunity Nation report found.

"Often times they lack the social capital in life," Mangiardi said. "There's a whole pool of talent that is motivated, loyal and hardworking." They just can't get through an employer's door, he added.

That's why Year Up spends a year working with high school graduates to teach them career skills such as computer programming or equipment repair they can use when the program ends. It also includes life coaching so they can learn skills such as time management. More than 4,500 young adults from urban areas have completed the program and 84 percent of them have found work.

But it's a far tougher time for other young people.

In Mississippi and West Virginia, 1 in 5 young people are idle — higher than their older neighbors. Mississippi has an overall unemployment rate of 8 percent, while West Virginia posts about 7 percent. Like most states, they saw their unemployment rate fall since 2011, but researchers caution that shift could come from fewer residents looking for work and from more who had simply given up their search for jobs.

And it's not as though the challenges emerge from nowhere. Quality early childhood programs help students from poor families overcome societal hurdles, and on-time high school graduation rates often follow quality schools — other factors Opportunity Nation examined in its report.

"A lot of times we don't want to look at data because we don't want to be depressed," said Rob Denson, president of Des Moines Area Community College in Iowa.

But it's an uncomfortable reality that needs to be addressed, he said.

Using previous years' reports from Opportunity Nation, Denson helped rally community organizations in his city to develop a pilot program to help students as young as 14 find summer work.

"When we got the index, it really allowed us to use it as a rallying point for all of the community-based organizations we work with to say, 'Look, this is what the world sees when they look at Iowa,'" he said.

Starting next summer, Des Moines students will be placed in paying jobs, part of a citywide collaboration to help its urban communities. It will help older adults, as well, because crime rates are expected to fall, he said.

"If they're not in school or at work," Denson said, "they're not usually doing something positive."

___

Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/philip_elliott

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/study-15-percent-us-youth-school-040246252.html
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Anna Kendrick Brings "Drinking Buddies" to London

Taking her comedy flick overseas, Anna Kendrick showed up at the BFI London Film Festival in England on Friday (October 18).

The "Pitch Perfect" beauty looked absolutely stunning in a two piece black and floral ensemble featuring her toned tummy as she headed down the red carpet.

Per the synopsis, "Drinking Buddies" is about "Luke and Kate are co-workers at a Chicago brewery, where they spend their days drinking and flirting. They're perfect for each other, except that they're both in relationships. Luke is in the midst of marriage talks with his girlfriend of six years, Kate is playing it cool with her music producer boyfriend Chris. But you know what makes the line between 'friends' and 'more than friends' really blurry? Beer."

Starring alongside Anna are Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson and Ron Livingston.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/drinking-buddies/anna-kendrick-brings-drinking-buddies-london-945597
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Tropical Storm Priscilla's short life

Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Rob Gutro
robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Tropical Storm Priscilla lived just 3 days in the eastern Pacific Ocean making for one of the shortest-lived tropical storms of the season.

Priscilla skipped the depression phase and went from a low pressure area to a full-blown tropical storm at 5 a.m. EDT/0900 UTC on Oct. 14. Priscilla formed near 14.3 north and 115.7 west, about 705 miles/1,135 km southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. Priscilla moved north-northeast and had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph/65 kph at birth.

On Oct. 15 Priscilla had already weakened to a depression because of wind shear and the arrival of more stable air into the environment around the tropical storm.

At 5 p.m. EDT/2100 UTC, Priscilla's maximum sustained winds dropped to 35 mph/55 kph. The center of tropical depression Priscilla was located near latitude 17.7 north and longitude 117.5, about 610 miles/980 km southwest of the southern tip of Baja California

Priscilla was moving toward the west-northwest near 8 mph/13 kph and this general motion is expected to continue through Oct. 16.

A GOES-West satellite visible image on Oct. 15 at 2215 UTC/6:15 p.m. EDT that showed the bulk of precipitation west of the center from wind shear.

By Oct. 17, Priscilla was a post-tropical cyclone. The last bulletin issued by the National Hurricane Center pinpointed the center near 18.7 north and 120.9 west, about 765 miles west-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The post-tropical cyclone was fading fast as sustained winds dropped to 25 knots/28.7 mph/46.3 kph. The National Hurricane Center noted at 0300 UTC on Oct. 17/11 p.m. EDT Oct. 16, that Priscilla ceased to qualify as a tropical cyclone.

###

Text credit: Rob Gutro

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Rob Gutro
robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Tropical Storm Priscilla lived just 3 days in the eastern Pacific Ocean making for one of the shortest-lived tropical storms of the season.

Priscilla skipped the depression phase and went from a low pressure area to a full-blown tropical storm at 5 a.m. EDT/0900 UTC on Oct. 14. Priscilla formed near 14.3 north and 115.7 west, about 705 miles/1,135 km southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. Priscilla moved north-northeast and had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph/65 kph at birth.

On Oct. 15 Priscilla had already weakened to a depression because of wind shear and the arrival of more stable air into the environment around the tropical storm.

At 5 p.m. EDT/2100 UTC, Priscilla's maximum sustained winds dropped to 35 mph/55 kph. The center of tropical depression Priscilla was located near latitude 17.7 north and longitude 117.5, about 610 miles/980 km southwest of the southern tip of Baja California

Priscilla was moving toward the west-northwest near 8 mph/13 kph and this general motion is expected to continue through Oct. 16.

A GOES-West satellite visible image on Oct. 15 at 2215 UTC/6:15 p.m. EDT that showed the bulk of precipitation west of the center from wind shear.

By Oct. 17, Priscilla was a post-tropical cyclone. The last bulletin issued by the National Hurricane Center pinpointed the center near 18.7 north and 120.9 west, about 765 miles west-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The post-tropical cyclone was fading fast as sustained winds dropped to 25 knots/28.7 mph/46.3 kph. The National Hurricane Center noted at 0300 UTC on Oct. 17/11 p.m. EDT Oct. 16, that Priscilla ceased to qualify as a tropical cyclone.

###

Text credit: Rob Gutro

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/nsfc-tsp101713.php
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