Obama to Congress: Pass jobs bill now
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama used his weekly address Saturday to continue to press Congress to pass his American Jobs Act quickly.
As he has done throughout the week, Obama outlined what he said the stimulus legislation would do to help "good, middle-class jobs" and urged people who like his plan to contact their representatives in Congress and tell them so.
"It's a jobs bill that does two simple things: put more people back to work, and more money back in the pockets of people who are working," he said in the radio and Internet speech.
"This jobs bill puts construction workers back to work rebuilding our roads and bridges and modernizing our schools.
"This jobs bill puts teachers back in the classroom, and keeps cops and firefighters on our streets.
"This jobs bill gives tax credits to companies that hire our veterans, because if you sign up to fight for our country, the last thing you should have to do is fight for a job when you come home."
He said it also would provide temporary work for the long-term unemployed and give "hundreds of thousands of young people the hope of a job next summer."
Obama said the act would cut taxes for all small business owners and provide incentives for the ones that hire new workers and give pay raises.
"And it cuts taxes for every working family in America so that you'll have more money in your pockets, and businesses know they'll have customers to buy what they sell," he said.
"And it will not add to the deficit. It will be paid for."
The president said he would outline his proposal for paying for the $400 billion-plus package and pay down the national debt Monday.
GOP: Bureaucracy is choking businesses
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. employers are being choked into unprofitability by ballooning federal regulations, Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., said in the party's weekly address Saturday.
Roskam, who is the House chief deputy whip, said laws endorsed by Democrats are giving unelected bureaucrats the ability to interfere with job creation.
"Washington has become a red tape factory, with more than 4,000 rules in the pipeline -- hundreds of which would cost our economy more than $100 million each annually," he said.
Roskam cited two recent incidents in which he said well-known companies were interfered with by government regulations. The first was aircraft maker Boeing, which opened a $1 billion plant in South Carolina and was sued by the Labor Relations Board, which Roskam said "is charged with looking out for labor unions."
The second incident involved a raid by 26 armed federal agents on a Nashville plant of Gibson Guitars last month. The raid was based on allegations the company was using illegal imported wood varieties, The Hill newspaper said.
"I'd like to know how job creators can be expected to prosper with the threat of a federal raid hanging over them?" Roskam said, calling the regulatory environment "hostile."
The congressman acknowledged President Obama had made some progress, but called for more.
"He (Obama) already canceled some counterproductive rules that hurt our economy, and he can cancel more," he said.
3 dead, dozens hurt at Reno air races
RENO, Nev., Sept. 17 (UPI) -- A World War II-era fighter plane crashed at the national air races in Reno, Nev., Friday, killing at least three people and injuring dozens, authorities said.
Reno's KRXI-TV reported the P-51 Mustang's pilot, Jimmy Leeward, was confirmed among the dead following the crash at the Reno National Championship Air Races at Reno-Stead Airport just after 4 p.m.
Reno TV stations KOLO and KXRI reported the dead included the 74-year-old pilot, another man and a woman. KXRI said more than 50 people were being treated at area hospitals and KOLO said 12 of the injured were in critical condition.
Nev. Gov. Brian Sandoval described the accident scene as "horrific," KOLO said.
Renown Regional Medical Center communications official Kathy Carter said the hospital had been told initially to expect 80-100 injured, Reno's KOLO said.
Michelle Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Reno Fire Department, told the Times the plane went down near the bleachers.
KOLO reported the plane hit box seats directly in front of the master of ceremonies soon after take-off.
Witnesses said Leeward was on the third lap of a race and in second place when he veered skyward and then crashed, sliding into the grandstand and box seats.
Mike Houghton, president and chief executive of the Reno Air Racing Association, told the Los Angeles Times Leeward was a real estate developer from Ocala, Fla., who has been racing in Reno since 1975.
All planes were grounded and spectators were asked to leave, KOLO-TV said.
Pro-Gadhafi forces repel rebels in 2 towns
TRIPOLI, Libya, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Forces loyal to deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi repelled takeover attacks by reformist rebels in two towns and vowed to fight for months.
The National Transitional Council, the interim government, had said plans were to have secured Bani Walid and Sirte by the weekend, but its troops were turned back from the towns by heavy machine gun fire, mortars and missile attacks, the BBC reported Saturday.
A spokesman for Gadhafi told reporters the loyalists would fight for "months and months" if necessary.
The whereabouts of Gadhafi, who led the oil-rich North African country under a dictatorship for 42 years, wasn't known. There is an international arrest warrant out for him on human rights abuse charges.
Meanwhile, The New York Times said there were huge disparities in fatality and missing person numbers since the armed rebellion began in February.
Rebels claim as many as 30,000 people were missing and killed by Gadhafi forces, although the newspaper said there is no reliable way to substantiate the number.
The International Committee of the Red Cross lists about 1,000 people missing, but rebels have said it's too early to tally the real number.
Mohammed al-Ghazwi leads the council's new Committee on the Dead and told the Times it would take time to collate numbers.
"Every day we find another grave, so I can't give you a specific number," Ghazwi said.
The Red Cross has corroborated the discovery of 13 multiple grave sites in Libya, the largest containing 34 bodies, the report said.
3 blasts rip Thai tourist town; 3 dead
NARATHIWAT, Thailand, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Terrorists set off three car and motorcycle bombs in the Thai tourist town of Narathiwat Friday night, killing at least three people, officials said.
The Bangkok Post reported more than 50 other people were wounded in the attacks in Narathiwat's Sungai Kolok district.
A large number of tourists were among the casualties, the newspaper said.
Police said they had detained two suspects for questioning.
The bombings occurred within hours of the shooting deaths of a Muslim police officer and a defense volunteer in a mosque in Yala, and a day after five security officers were killed and a sixth officer was injured in a roadside bomb attack, the Post said.
Another bomb attack at a military base near Narathiwat Thursday night wounded three soldiers.
