July 11, 2011
In the News: Obama Moves Forward with Debt Talks; Small Business Hiring Is at a Standstill and More
Obama Presses Ahead with Debt Talks, Warns Against Stopgap Solution
President Obama, facing a bitter partisan stalemate over how to raise the federal borrowing limit, summoned congressional leaders to a new round of White House talks Monday and warned that he would not accept a temporary, stopgap measures.
“That is just not an acceptable approach,†he told a news conference ahead of the scheduled talks. “So we might as well do it now. Pull off the Band-Aid. Eat our peas. Now is the time to do it. If not now, when?â€
Read more at The Washington Post…
Little Hiring Seen by Small Business
The U.S. labor market could stay sluggish for a while, with small-business executives reluctant to hire amid the murky economic outlook.
Almost two-thirds–64%–of small-business executives surveyed said they weren’t expecting to add to their payrolls in the next year and another 12% planned to cut jobs, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report to be released Monday. Just 19% said they would expand their work forces.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal…
Report: Gadgets Tied to 25 Percent of Car Crashes
Driving distractions, primarily by cellphones and other electronic devices, are associated with up to 25 percent of U.S. car crashes, according to a report released on Thursday.
The study by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), a nonprofit group that works to improve traffic safety, assessed research from more than 350 scientific papers published since 2000.