NPR 2008-09-03

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An all too familiar sound to anyone who's been through a hurricane. Those are workers in New Orleans cleaning up storm debris¹, downed tree limbs and the like. The streets of the city meanwhile remain largely empty at this hour with only rescue and utility crews and those who like to stay behind there at the moment. O'neal Payne is a lifelong New Orleans resident who decided² not to evacuate³. "Well, there were much low windblown, but I was sitting, looking out of the window ahead, as you know, looked at that tree blown and drank my coffee and stuff, and just stay and pray. " Hundreds of thousands of people who did leave New Orleans have been told to sit tight a bit longer while cleanup continues. Half the city lacks power and there was damage to city sewers⁴. Even though Hurricane Gustav did not cause the level of damage that had been feared, Mayor Ray Nagin has defended his order to evacuate New Orleans.

 As the State of Louisiana cleans up from Hurricane Gustav, Floridians are being advised to keep their eyes on three tropical storms out in the Atlantic. Florida Public Radio's Trimmel Gomes reports.

 Tropical Storm Josephine developed earlier in the day while Tropical Storm Ike grows in strength east of the Leeward⁵ Islands. Governor Charlie Crist is urging Floridians to stay on alert as Tropical Storm Hanna approaches. "This morning I have issued an executive order, declaring a state of emergency due to the threat of Hanna to the State of Florida. " Hanna is the third storm to threaten Florida in three weeks with two other storms brewing⁶ in the Atlantic. "At this time, we also await Hanna and maybe Ike and maybe Josephine. " Forecasters expect Hanna to strengthen and reach Georgia or the Carolinas before making landfall on Friday, placing the eastern Florida coastline in a three-day cone⁷ of uncertainty⁸. For NPR News, I'm Trimmel Gomes in Tallahassee.

 After a storm-shortened start, the Republican National Convention is getting into full swing in St. Paul. President Bush is slated⁹ to address delegates at the convention by satellite tonight. Also scheduled to speak are former Democratic vice¹⁰ presidential nominee¹¹ Joe Lieberman and former Senator Fred Thompson. However there is another distraction¹² for Republicans. Failed presidential candidate Ron Paul is holding an alternative gathering¹³ for his supporters. Robert Smith has that story.

 While the mainstream¹⁴ Republicans meet in a hockey arena¹⁵ in St. Paul, the libertarian-wing of the party is across the river at the basketball stadium in Minneapolis. It's called "the Rally for the Republic" and the highlight is a speech tonight by Texas Congressman¹⁶ Ron Paul. The former Libertarian-turned-Republican didn't win any primaries during the spring, but he was a sensation on the internet, oftentimes raising more money than his mainstream rivals. Paul had requested a speaking spot at the Republican convention, but he says there were too many restrictions¹⁷ placed on him. So he put together his own gathering. Organizers say they sold 10, 000 tickets to the event. Ron Paul supporters traveled from around the country to come to Minneapolis in caravans¹⁸ of cars known as Ron Voice. Robert Smith, NPR News, St. Paul.

 On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 26 points today.

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 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Libya this week, the first by a US secretary of state in half a century, has been touted¹⁹ as a bold signal of better ties with the country. Relations between the US and Libya have improved after the country announced in 2003 it would give up its weapons of mass destruction. However a series of terrorism incidents and suspicions have delayed a major turnaround. The visit by Rice is the first by a secretary of state since John Foster Dulles in 1953. Rice will also make stops in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco before returning to Washington on Sunday.

 Google is launching its own web browser²⁰ in over 100 countries within the hour. This is the first time Google has stepped into the browser market which is currently dominated by Microsoft's Explorer. NPR's Laura Sydell got an early peek²¹ at the new product.

 It's called Chrome and Google developers say it's faster, easier to use and more secure than any existing browser. At the Google offices in Mountain View, California, Sundar Pichai showed off how quickly it launches. Tabs allow users to keep several websites open at once. That's not new. What is new, says Pichai, is that if the window with YouTube crashes, it doesn't freeze up the other windows. "So that when something happens to one of them, the rest of the browser works fine. " Google's entry into the web browser market isn't surprising. The company wants to keep people online using its search engine and recently-created office web applications. However, no matter how good the browser, analysts²² say it will be hard to win users off of Microsoft's Explorer which owns 70% of the market. Laura Sydell, NPR News, San Francisco.

Crude oil futures²³ fell $5. 75 a barrel today, settling at $109. 71 a barrel in New York.