To the Point
Newspapers in Big Trouble, Should Americans Care?
The Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times are facing serious financial trouble, and local newspapers are cutting back all over the country. Also, the Fed's new rules to crack down on shady lending practices, and 500 tons of uranium have been shipped from Iraq to Canada.
By Warren Olney • • 1h 0m ListenThe Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times are on facing serious financial trouble, and local newspapers are cutting back all over the country. Will the Internet replace the papers as America's major source of news? Can it perform those functions Thomas Jefferson thought central to the functioning of American democracy? Also, the Federal Reserve plans new rules to crack down on shady lending practices, and the last vestiges of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program are now in Canada.
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
In this episode
3 storiesFed Plans New Rules to Crack Down on Shady Lending Practices
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke plans a clamp down on so-called "exotic mortgages" and high-cost loans to people with weak credit. He also wants to extend the kind of low-cost overnight loans that prevented the Wall Street banker Bear Stearns from collapsing before it was sold in March.
Read the story6 minIs the Newspaper Industry Stumbling? Crumbling?
Newspapers are shedding staff and reducing services, just like other industries, but even if the economy picks up, they may not bounce back. Tumbling ad revenues and stockholders hungry for profit are creating a familiar scenario, but the Internet is what's making things different.
Read the story35 minHow Did Iraq's Uranium End Up in Canada?
He may not have had weapons of mass destruction, but Saddam Hussein did accumulate 550 tons of so-called "yellowcake," uranium that requires enrichment to fuel a nuclear bomb. It wasn't easy, but it's been removed from Iraq to Canada, where it arrived on Saturday.
Read the story7 min
