Search results for

NPR's David Welna reports on President Bush's newly revealed Social Security Commission. The panel is supposed to develop a Social Security reform plan by next fall. Democrats on Capitol Hill were unenthusiastic about the announcement, claiming Bush stacked the deck against them by loading the commission with members who all favor personal retirement accounts.

President Bush's privatization plan for Social Security carries potential benefits and pitfalls for Wall Street. Private accounts could mean a windfall for investment firms and fund managers, but the financial industry remains largely silent on the issue. Mike Pesca reports.

President Bush has proposed a plan for Social Security that allows individuals to place certain payroll taxes in private investment accounts. Senior News Analyst NPR's Daniel Schorr explains that the idea is somewhat controversial, even within the ranks of the president's own party.

Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews Alex Gibney's award-winning documentary, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Gibney adapted a book that chronicles the fantastic rise and demise of the company that was engulfed in scandal when its outrageous accounting practices were exposed.

NPR's Laura Sydell reports that the war in Iraq has generated increased interest in blogs, short for web logs. Blogging is the web-based practice of keeping an ever-updated personal account of some subject. Bloggers have become archivists, culling information they feel is not being presented in mainstream media and providing links to foreign news sources.

Baseball season has begun, but commentator Kevin Murphy isn't one to sit under a hot days sun in a stadium watching baseball. He'd rather be at home watching a movie about baseball. He recommends two in particular: the documentary The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg and 61*, the fictionalized account of the record-breaking home run season of slugger Roger Maris.

NPR's Margo Adler reports that Swiss banking authorities and officials from several Jewish organizations signed an agreement last week that may provide a full accounting of funds deposited in Swiss banks by European Jews in the years before the Holocaust. Holocaust survivors and families of holocaust victims have not been able to trace the funds until now due to the secrecy laws governing Swiss banks.

The U.N. expects Saturday delivery of an Iraqi accounting of chemical, biological and nuclear programs. Iraqi officials say the report will be exhaustive, but will produce no previously undisclosed information. Hear NPR's Michele Kelemen and Christopher Joyce.

Weapons inspectors will brief the U.N. Security Council on their assessment of Iraq's weapons declaration. United States and British officials have said the documents represent less than a full and accurate accounting of Iraq's weapons program. NPR's Vicky O'Hara reports.

Sad accounts of babies being dumped to die prompted many areas of the country to designate places where parents could safely abandon their newborns and escape prosecution. However, hardly any infants have been turned in this way. NPR's Jerome Vaughn reports from Detroit that supporters of the idea say they just need to back their good intentions with publicity.

Doctors and abortion clinics are receiving their first shipments of the abortion pill that was authorized for use in the U.S. in September. In France, where RU486 was invented, it was put on the market -- with difficulty -- in 1988. Now, it accounts for one-third of all abortions there. NPR's Sarah Chayes reports from Paris that French abortions are actually decreasing; still, pharmaceutical companies want little to do with the pill.

According to a Government Accountability Office report, hundreds of injured Army reservists and National Guard members -- including many wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan -- have lost medical care and pay because they were dropped from active duty status.