AP - Seeking to give anxious Democrats a boost ahead of the November elections, President Barack Obama is pitching a trio of economic initiatives Wednesday and voicing unwavering opposition to Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthy, an issue on which he's looking to draw a stark contrast with Republicans.

AP - The leader of a small Florida church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy said he was still praying about whether go through with his plan to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, which the White House, religious leaders and others are pressuring him to call off.

AP - The peanut industry executive whose filthy processing plants were blamed in a salmonella outbreak two years ago that killed nine people and sickened hundreds more is back in the business.

AP - Two suspected U.S. missile strikes hit militant targets in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said, bringing to six the number of such attacks in the region in less than a week. At least 10 suspected members of a group attacking NATO forces in Afghanistan were killed.

AP - U.S. special operations forces are expanding their training of the Yemeni military as the Obama administration broadens its program to counter terrorism in countries reluctant to harbor a visible American military presence.

AP - Oil giant BP PLC on Wednesday planned to release the conclusions of its internal investigation into the rig explosion that killed 11 workers and led to the massive Gulf of Mexico spill.

AP - Tens of thousands of people have abandoned their homes across southern Mexico to escape flooding from weeks of torrential rains, and forecasts are predicting even more rainfall.

AP - Suddenly, the race for Chicago mayor is on. Mayor Richard M. Daley has thrown the competition for the city's top job wide open by announcing he won't run for a seventh term, ending 21 years of token opposition and prompting speculation about who's next in line to lead the nation's third largest city.

AP - Trying to smooth over recently rocky relations before a visit to Washington, Chinese President Hu Jintao told American officials on Wednesday that he wants to see healthy and stable ties between the two countries.

AP - Nobody can say Kim Clijsters took an easy path to her U.S. Open title last year. She played both Williams sisters.

Reuters - President Barack Obama will push billions of dollars in new business tax incentives and spending on big construction projects on Wednesday, as he tries to convince a balky Congress to pass measures intended to spur the economy and create jobs.

Reuters - U.S. religious leaders on Tuesday condemned an "anti-Muslim frenzy" in the United States, including plans by a Florida church to burn a Koran on September 11, an act a top general said could endanger American troops abroad.

Reuters - The United States does not plan to contribute to a NATO request for 2,000 troops for the Afghan war, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, even as the head of the alliance held out the possibility of U.S. participation.

Reuters - China and the United States said on Wednesday that their sometimes rocky relationship is sounder after talks in Beijing, with both putting an optimistic face on ties that have been jolted by economic and security tensions.

Reuters - A U.S. government team will travel to Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing next week to discuss North Korea but has no plans to visit the poor, isolated state or meet its officials, the State Department said Tuesday.

AFP - A powerful Muslim clan carefully planned and carried out the killings of 57 people -- including 30 journalists -- in the Philippines' worst massacre, a witness said Wednesday as the landmark trial began.

AFP - An evangelical pastor insisted his plans for a mass torching of the Koran would go ahead after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the "disgraceful" burning ceremony in Florida.

The imam at the center of the controversy over a YMCA-like Islamic center proposed for a site near the World Trade Center says the project will not be stopped.

Protesters on Tuesday night pelted a police station with eggs, rocks and bottles despite Police Chief Charlie Beck's plea for calm earlier in the day and his promise to thoroughly investigate an officer's fatal shooting of a Guatemalan immigrant wielding a knife.

Detroit fire officials said nearly 20 fires broke out in the city late Tuesday afternoon.

Investigators found no explosives aboard a Los Angeles-bound Thai Airways flight in which a bomb threat was found scrawled on a bathroom mirror, the FBI said Wednesday.

A wildfire burning near Boulder, Colo., destroys at least 92 structures and damages another eight. More than 3,000 evacuated.

Elderly heiress Huguette Clark's attorney has responded to an effort by her relatives to oust him by ridiculing them as Johnny-come-latelies. Msnbc.com's Bill Dedman reports.

Venus Williams advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Open, beating No. 6 seed Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (7), 6-4 on Tuesday.

James McDonald pitched seven innings, Ronny Cedeno's triple keyed a five-run seventh and the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates beat the slumping Atlanta Braves for the second straight day, winning 5-0 on Tuesday night.

Syrian drama aired on state TV has sparked intense debate between critics who say it distorts Islam's image and supporters who say it's a realistic portrayal.

Officials hoisted a 70-foot piece of World Trade Center steel at ground zero Tuesday and vowed to open the Sept. 11 memorial by next year, although they acknowledged that the ongoing construction at the site would limit where and how the public could visit.

Analysis: President Barack Obama's new stimulus plan directs government assistance to some of the strongest parts of the economy without solving the biggest problem: jobs.

It's refreshing to read a positive update in the saga of Sydney Dalton, the 15-year-old girl who became the target of serious Hatorade after she and two friends made a video the three tearing up Justin Bieber posters.

The Los Angeles sheriff's deputy who arrested Mel Gibson in 2006 sued his department on Tuesday, claiming he has since been ostracized and passed over for promotions by the agency.

Using computer-generated avatars, psychologists say they have unlocked the dance moves that will capture a woman's heart. Apparently the speed of a man's right knee and the size and variety of movements of the neck and torso are key, they suggest.

A week after conceding the GOP primary, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she's not a quitter and is "still in this game."

The 88-year-old performer will be drawn as a cartoon for "Female Force: Betty White," to be produced by Bluewater Productions.

COPIAPO, Chile | On Tuesday afternoon, a city of Copiapo truck dumped a fresh load of firewood next to a small cluster of tents where several trapped miners' families have spent the last month camping on the rocky ground.

They need the wood. At night the temperature here in the Atacama desert drops to about 40 degrees.

The main entrance to the San Jose gold and copper mine is not a very pleasant place to camp. It's noisy and hot during the day, and also a little chaotic. Heavy trucks deliver supplies and equipment all day long, often kicking up a fresh cloud of dust that drifts over the small tent city. Some of the tents are set up so close to the road that it's a wonder that they don't get run over during the night.

The whole plateau is covered with huge pieces of granite that have been hauled out of the mine as the tunnels and shafts were excavated over the years. In some places the piles are 60 feet high. Hundreds of posters, flags, and signs are attached to the rocks, as well as simple shrines bearing the names and pictures of the 33 trapped miners, offering encouragement and expressions of love.

A small army of journalists patrols the grounds, looking for fresh angles on a story that's likely to last at least two more months. A camera crew setting up for an interview quickly attracts a small crowd of other reporters who wonder if they're missing anything.

A daily 1 p.m. news conference is a major source of information, but Tuesday it offered little more than assurances that all was going well and an update on how deeply one of the rigs drilling an escape shaft has penetrated the mountain. Today, it's about 325 feet down after eight days of drilling, which translates into about 2,000 feet to go.

Another rig is working to enlarge one of the three 4-inch tubes that rescuers on the surface have been using to communicate with the miners. That effort has reached about 30 feet down so far. And a third rig -- a huge oil-drilling platform -- is expected to arrive in pieces aboard some three dozen trucks on Wednesday.

It can drill much faster than the existing machines, but since it's starting later, it's not expected to complete a rescue shaft much before the other machines. The government is cautious about when any shaft might reach the miners. Their most optimistic estimate is mid-November, but other sources say it should be sooner.

The miners were treated on Tuesday to a video feed of a soccer game between the Chilean national soccer team and Ukraine. A small projector and a rolled up screen had been successfully sent down the tube. Several families on the surface shared the experience separately in a tent on the surface.

But despite the entertainment, some of the miners are beginning to rebel against government rules that only allow letters with positive messages to be sent underground.They are also unhappy that no alcohol or tobacco is being supplied. Dr. Jorge Dias Anaiz, who is in charge of the 14 doctors overseeing the miners' health, told the NewsHour that such restrictions are necessary to maintain the miners' mental stability during the long ordeal they face in the coming months.

They will have to assist in their own rescue by moving an estimated 4,000 tons of rock that will spill out of a relief shaft before they can be hauled to the surface. Anaiz says the men are in good physical health now, and will have to stay that way for the labor that lies ahead.

We'll have more from Tom Bearden on the Chilean miners' story on Wednesday's PBS NewsHour.

Two of the most consistent themes at this week's Gov2.0 Summit is that government is bad at making the things it needs and it spends far too much on bad technology.

"Think about on a daily basis whether you're booking a flight, your favorite restaurant or a hotel reservation, it's done online; it happens in a couple of minutes," Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, said in an interview with the NewsHour's Hari Sreenivasan. "Yet when you're dealing with government, you have to stand in line, you've got to turn in a paper form or you've got to essentially hold on the phone."

The solution, according to Gov2.0 advocates, is for the government to simply do less and allow citizens and (especially) software developers to build more.

But getting ad hoc communities to create services that usually come from the government is complicated, and when civic-minded technologists here talk about it, the conversation often strays into social psychology and economics and building better ecosystems.

"Oftentimes, it's about asking what can the government not do that can be done better by these ecosystems," Aneesh Chopra, the federal government's chief technology officer, told the NewsHour. "The government's role is to find data and release it."

To that end, Chopra and Kundra on Tuesday unveiled Challenge.gov, a site built to organize app contests that have been successful in cities such as Washington, D.C., San Francisco and New York. The government's two top technologists also told the NewsHour who is in charge of making the contents of President Obama's BlackBerry public.

Hari Sreenivasan contributed to this report. Follow him on Twitter.

Listen to the Audio

Pastor Terry Jones and his 50-member congregation in Florida plan to burn copies of the Quran to mark the ninth anniversary of 9/11. Gen. David Petraeus warned that could put American military lives in danger and empower extremists. Others said it could strengthen a view in Afghanistan of growing Islamophobia in the West.

GWEN IFILL: Anti-Muslim rhetoric from the pastor of a small Florida church sparks concern around the world.

Cries of "Death to America" and "Long live Islam" rang out in Kabul Monday, as protesters burned the American flag and this man is effigy. The figure represents Terry Jones, the previously obscure pastor of a 50-member Florida church. His anti-Islamic pronouncements have now inflamed passions around the globe.

PASTOR TERRY JONES, Dove World Outreach Center: Islam is of the devil.

GWEN IFILL: This Saturday, he's vowed to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by burning copies of the Islamic holy book, the Koran.

PASTOR TERRY JONES: I think what we are doing through our action, we are revealing that, actually, Islam is much more dangerous, much more violent than -- than people would like to believe.

GWEN IFILL: Jones' provocation, the latest shoe to drop in a continuing debate over religious freedom and tolerance, sparked response from senior U.S. officials. David Petraeus, the top general in Afghanistan, said Jones' plan is dangerous.

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, commander, International Security Assistance Force: It puts our soldiers at jeopardy, very likely. And I think, in fact, the images from such an activity could very well be used by extremists here and around the world.

GWEN IFILL: Asked whether he was endangering Americans, Jones said:

PASTOR TERRY JONES: We -- we are putting our own life at risk. We have received over 100 death threats, some of them being very graphic, some of them stating exactly when they will come, how they will kill us, what they will do. I mean, of course. But, then again, does that not show and reveal the nature of Islam? I think what we are doing is long overdue. We are revealing, again, the violence of Islam that is much, much deeper than we would like to admit.

GWEN IFILL: State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley today called the planned burning un-American and said the potential images could stir old resentments.

P.J. CROWLEY, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs: It can have at least as powerful impact as the tragic events and photos that Abu Ghraib had. But, at the same time, you know, people around the world need to also understand that America is not represented by one pastor or 50 followers. We are a nation of 300 million people. And -- and the vast majority of Americans are standing up this week and saying that, you know, these contemplated actions are inappropriate, they're abhorrent, and they should not happen.

GWEN IFILL: Many Afghans appear to believe Jones' views are widely held in the U.S. We spoke today to Jean MacKenzie of GlobalPost, who was reporting in Kabul.

JEAN MACKENZIE, GlobalPost: This Koran-burning campaign, which has been mounted by the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida, coming on the heels of the Ground Zero mosque debate, is starting to convince Afghans that there is a strong Islamophobic strain in the United States and in the West in general. And trying to convince them that this is a very small group of people and do not represent the United States so far has been an uphill battle.

GWEN IFILL: In Washington, a group of interfaith leaders gathered today to denounce what they see as creeping Islamophobia. The Reverend Richard Cizik is an evangelical Christian.

REV. RICHARD CIZIK, The New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good: Those mainly conservative Christians who are responding to their Muslim brothers and sisters, their fellow Americans, with anti-Muslim bigotry or hatred, they are openly rejecting, you see, the First Amendment principles of religious liberty, which we, as evangelical Christians, benefit daily.

Watch out for so casually trampling on the religious liberty of others. You may be able to do that when you are the majority. But, if you undermine liberty for other people's children today, your own children may one day see their religious liberties deprived from them.

GWEN IFILL: This is not the first time desecration of the Koran has stirred emotion. In 2005, "Newsweek" reported that interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility flushed the Koran down a toilet. The story was later retracted, but 15 people died and scores were wounded in protests. Also that year, a Danish newspaper cartoon depicted the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist, which also led to protests and violence.

For more on all this, we're joined by Marc Lynch, the director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. He also blogs about the Middle East for ForeignPolicy.com. Welcome.

MARC LYNCH, George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs: Thank you, Gwen.

GWEN IFILL: One pastor, 50 members of this small church, and yet we have General David Petraeus, the most powerful general in Afghanistan, weighing in on this, the State Department weighing in on this. Why was this significant, what's going on down there?

MARC LYNCH: I think it is significant, because, you know, people over there do pay attention to what happens inside the United States. And I think this has gotten a lot of attention because people feel that it says something about what America really is. I mean, you know, we have been trying ever since the Bush administration to convince the Muslim world that we're against extremists, and we're -- we're in favor of good relations with the Islamic world and with Muslims.

And then, when they see images like this, and they see especially the signs and the images and something as graphic as burning the Koran, then they say to themselves, well, maybe that's not true. Maybe al-Qaida is right, and it is America against Islam.

GWEN IFILL: And so this then undercuts big speeches that the president gives, for instance, about friendship with the Muslim world?

MARC LYNCH: That's exactly right. And, you know, it's not just President Obama. He's done a phenomenal job, in my opinion, of trying to bridge that gap. But President Bush did the same thing, and really trying to make it clear that we were not at war with Islam, that we respected Islam.

And this has been a bipartisan part of how America has tried to deal with 9/11, with the fallout from 9/11, with the Muslim world as a whole. And then, when you see the kinds of events that we have right now, it really, really hurts what we have been trying to do.

GWEN IFILL: You follow some of the -- some of these jihadist forums online. What is the debate? What are they saying about this?

MARC LYNCH: For the jihadists themselves, they're not particularly surprised, because it fits their world view perfectly. So, they see this more as something to be used. I think the idea that this is going to take extremists and suddenly make them more extreme is wrong. Where it's really playing out is with the mainstream, with Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, you know, the major TV stations, newspapers. Those are the ones who, you know, they weren't really very happy with al-Qaida.

They had been increasingly -- al-Qaida, become increasingly marginal to Muslim public debate. And now the real impact is going to be felt with those moderates, who already feel besieged with what's happened with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the like. Those are the ones who are most likely to be affected by this.

GWEN IFILL: Does General Petraeus, by -- by responding to this, does he elevate that debate? Does he give it more credence?

MARC LYNCH: I think that that's -- that's already gone. It's already happening over there.

It's been -- the -- the burn a Koran day was covered on the major TV stations. The -- the protests about the Ground Zero mosque was covered heavily on Arab TV stations. So, right now, across the Arab media and across the blogs, on the jihadist forums, the newspapers, everywhere, there is a lot of focus on the fact that America right now is in the grip of this -- of this trend towards anti-Islamic rhetoric and -- and actions.

So, there's already a spotlight there. I think General Petraeus was simply stating the reality, undeniable reality, that this is going to make things a lot more difficult for our attempts to win over moderate, mainstream Muslims.

GWEN IFILL: Explain -- explain to me a bit about the power of image in this -- kind of the debate. We talked about Abu Ghraib. We heard P.J. Crowley talk about it. We talked about what happened with the images of Mohammed and the rioting that happened after that cartoon appeared. What is it about these images and these threats which can so quickly -- it's like throwing a match on gasoline.

MARC LYNCH: The images become iconic. And you remember what it felt like immediately after 9/11, when you saw images of angry Arabs or Afghans burning American flags. And those images, they -- they went through our entire national consciousness. And we felt it so deeply.

And it's the same thing over there. Abu Ghraib, the scene -- the iconic image from Abu Ghraib, those things, they -- they get into your mind. And they -- they bring everything together and make it coherent.

And, so, we have these sophisticated arguments and debates about -- about American public diplomacy, about strategy and the like. And, yet, if the first thing that comes to your mind when an American soldier or diplomat comes and knocks on your door is a man in a hood from Abu Ghraib or a Christian pastor, what appears to be an American Christian, burning Korans, if that's the first image in your mind, you're not going to listen to anything else, especially if it confirms what many people have already been saying for years, when it fits that narrative of the U.S. being at war with Islam.

GWEN IFILL: How do you battle that misperception? Not only do we have misperceptions about whether Muslims are willing to renounce violence, but, also, they have misperceptions about who is representative of the American psyche.

MARC LYNCH: You know who you should ask, is Michael Bloomberg. The mayor of New York, with his intervention in the debate about the Ground Zero mosque, that sparked more conversations and more positive discussion about America than almost anything I have seen. There, you saw someone who is not the first person you would expect who would leap into the hearts of the Muslims of the world.

And, yet, when he just put his foot down and said, this is not who America is, this is not what America is about, people listened over there. And that really shows that America is not monolithic. I think that our leaders do have an obligation to step in and make that clear. And I think that the same is true of those who maybe are opportunistically using this for a political end to understand how dangerous it can be out there in the world.

GWEN IFILL: Well, we will see what happens this Saturday in Florida. Thank you very much, Marc Lynch, from George Washington University.

MARC LYNCH: Thanks, Gwen.

Listen to the Audio

In other news Tuesday, a gunman dressed as an Iraqi soldier killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded nine others in the first American military deaths since combat operations ended there last week. In Pakistan, a suicide car bomb killed at least 20 people when it detonated at a police compound.

HARI SREENIVASAN: A gunman dressed in an Iraqi uniform killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded nine others in Iraq today. The Americans were meeting with Iraqi forces at an army compound north of Baghdad when an argument broke out. The gunman was shot and killed. The fatalities mark the first American military deaths since U.S. combat operations ended a week ago.

In Pakistan, a suicide car bomb ripped through a police compound, killing at least 20 people, many of them women and children. It happened in the northwestern city of Kohat. The blast brought down a number of houses and buildings near the police compound. It was the latest in a string of attacks by militants, and came just hours after the Taliban threatened more suicide attacks on government targets.

Demonstrators took to the streets in more than 200 cities across France today to protest a government plan to raise the retirement age. It is one of a series of austerity measures under consideration.

We have a report narrated by Lindsey Hilsum of Independent Television News.

LINDSEY HILSUM: In Marseille, they beat drums and chanted against President Sarkozy's attempt to raise the pension age to 62. In Lyon, they turned out despite the rain.

WOMAN (through translator): I'm 57, so it's three years before I retire. I started work at 16. So, I really do want to retire at 60.

LINDSEY HILSUM: In Poitiers, they protested with vuvuzelas left over from France's ignominious defeat in the World Cup. And in (INAUDIBLE) striking farm workers even got a cow on to the streets.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators brought parts of Paris to a standstill. The government says it has to raise the retirement age to plug a black hole in the state pension pot and because life expectancy has increased. The plan is for full benefits to be delayed from 65 to 67.

President Sarkozy says he remains firm, but might compromise with the unions and keep pensionable age lower for those who start work young or do hard manual labor.

BERNARD THIBAULT, general secretary, CGT Union (through translator): The government won't be able to behave as if nothing happened today. Yes, this is an event with real social impact.

MARTINE AUBRY, Socialist Party leader (through translator): In our country, there are three million people who started work before the age of 19. They're already 42, 43, 44 years old. And when they reach 60, you tell them, wait a couple more years. Where's the justice in that?

LINDSEY HILSUM: More than half of France's trains were at a standstill today. Planes were also grounded, another blow to the economy. Opinion polls show that two-thirds of voters think it's unfair to raise the retirement age,

but they don't believe these strikes will change anything.

HARI SREENIVASAN: A 24-hour labor strike also crippled public transit for millions of commuters in London today. Much of the city's underground rail system was closed as workers protested government plans to cut jobs.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard cobbled together enough lawmakers to form a new government today. Two independent members of parliament agreed to join her Labor Party, resolving more than two weeks of election impasse. At a news conference, Gillard promised a stable and effective government, even with only a one-seat majority.

JULIA GILLARD, Australian prime minister: What the Australian people told us -- and they told us this in no uncertain terms on that day and on the days that have followed -- is this, that we will be held more accountable than ever before and more than any government in modern memory. We will be held to higher standards of transparency and reform.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Gillard will lead Australia's first minority government in more than 65 years. She is also Australia's first female prime minister.

A series of strong aftershocks rocked Christchurch, New Zealand, days after a powerful 7.1-magnitude quake. All told, about 20 aftershocks hit overnight. Scientists predicted they will continue for several weeks, with the worst likely still to come. The city center remained cordoned off by troops today, as crews continued to clean up. No one was killed in the quake, and only two people were seriously injured. In comparison, the January earthquake in Haiti of a similar magnitude killed 230,000 people.

Tropical Storm Hermine lost some of its steam as it moved from the Gulf of Mexico into Texas. But it still dumped heavy rains overnight and knocked out power to 35,000 homes in the Rio Grande Valley. Flash flood warnings and watches were issued for much of Texas and Oklahoma. As it moved north, Hermine was expected to weaken to a tropical depression, but its effects were forecast to continue all the way to Kansas later this week.

In Colorado today, firefighters intensified their fight against a wildfire burning outside Boulder, as 3,000 people were forced to evacuate. The blaze started early Monday in Fourmile Canyon. Since then, heavy smoke has blanketed the area, and flames have scorched nearly six square miles, destroying dozens of homes. The cause of the fire remains unknown, but officials said there's no indication that it was intentionally set.

The number of Americans who smoke held steady in the latest government report. One in five adults, or 46 million Americans, smoke regularly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 2004, the smoking rate has basically been flat. And a separate report found nearly all children who live with a smoker have measurable tobacco toxins in their bodies.

Chicago's longtime mayor, Richard Daley, won't be running for reelection in 2011. The Democrat announced his decision today at city hall, citing personal reasons. He said it felt like the right time to step aside. Daley presided over the nation's third largest city for 21 years, like his father did before him.

On Wall Street today, trading was light, but stocks fell on renewed concerns about European banks. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 107 points to close above 10340. The Nasdaq fell nearly 25 points to close above 2208.

Those are some of the day's major stories -- now back to Jim.

In August, I visited my family in Syria and Jordan, where they have been residing since they fled Iraq in 2007 after a series of threats and losses of loved ones. A few months earlier, I was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and had moved to New York City where I was later granted asylum.

In my last weekend in Syria, a group of young Iraqi men suggested we go to a party at a night club on the outskirts of Damascus. One of my companions said to me: "Here you'll find the most beautiful Iraqi refugee women ... and they are very affordable."

As we walked in, the stage was packed with women wearing heavy make up and revealing clothes. An Iraqi singer was performing live and the surrounding tables were occupied mostly by Arab men from the wealthy Gulf States and surrounding countries. Alcohol was being served and smoking was permitted.

A couple of hours into the night, the singer stepped aside and men from the crowd started joining the women on stage. Two women approached our table, asking if they could join us. From their accents, we knew they were Iraqi. Once they realized we were Iraqi too, they started talking about Iraq, the war, President Bush, Iran, al-Qaida and their lives in Syria.

The two women were cousins: Ananas, a 34-year-old pharmacist, and Dunya, a 28-year-old poetess. Ananas first came to Syria in 2006 after her brother and father were shot dead by a U.S. military convoy while he was driving during curfew hours. "They were all I had. Once they were gone, my uncles were forcing me to marry my cousin. He was 21 years older than me and already married. I escaped two days before the wedding date, got on a bus and came to Syria," she said.

As for Dunya, she got married at the age of 16. "My husband was killed by armed militiamen in our front yard. I saw it ... I was looking from the kitchen window. They stormed into our house after and raped me. I didn't try to resist because I didn't want them to go upstairs and find my daughter and hurt her. She was only 9 at the time." Dunya then fled to Syria with her daughter in 2007 and united with her cousin Ananas, who had already found her way into the sex industry.

When I asked about Dunya's daughter, she said, "Her name is Tamara. She is doing alright now. Oh, she is right there in fact," as she started waving at a young girl, now 11-years-old, with wavy hair and wearing make up.

Tamara was on the stage dancing and was occasionally joined by men to talk or dance with her. When I asked Dunya whether she worried about Tamara losing her innocence, her reply was: "Innocence? That is not something for our children. It may be for the children in America or Europe but not us. Tamara is going to grow up in a society that judges her, restricts her and takes advantage of her. Being innocent is only going to make it worse and turn her life harder."

Dunya said she is willing to marry Tamara to a man who would look after her.Displaced Iraqi women -- once removed from the support system in their homeland -- become easy prey for the sex industry. Home, tribe, community and extended family are what provided that support system, and without it they sometimes turn to prostitution for survival.

A Syrian security official, who asked not to be identified, said thousands of Iraqi women have faced arrest, jail and forced deportation after being charged with prostitution.

A few days after meeting Ananas and Dunya, I drove to Amman, Jordan, the host country of the second largest Iraqi refugee population, after Syria. During my two weeks in Amman, it became clear there was a class division within the Iraqi community.

Jordan, like neighboring Syria, admitted Iraqis as "guests" or "tourists" and did not grant them refugee status, as neither one of these countries ratified the 1951 U.N. convention on refugees. Jordan, however, has set up a system in which Iraqis are granted residency once they deposit $100,000 in special government accounts.

So while Jordan can be a safe haven for investors and businessmen, the high cost of living and lack of access to legal work have imposed serious financial challenges on the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees living there today.

There also appeared to be two groups of Iraqi refugees: those who lost everything and have nothing left to return to in Iraq, and others who fear losing everything if they return. And for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families in Jordan and Syria, the uncertainty over their future is far from over.

Hamza is a freelance writer living in New York City. Under a grant from the Ford Foundation, he accompanied NewsHour special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro during his reporting on the struggles of Iraqi refugees now living in Jordan:

Hari Sreenivasan contributed to this post.

In this week's edition of the Political Checklist, Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill spoke with political editor David Chalian about new polls that bring more bad news for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, as well as President Obama's big economic initiatives rolling out this week and his rare news conference this Friday.

The Rundown is covering this week's Gov2.0 Summit in Washington, D.C., where a mix of technologists, activists and industry professionals have gathered to talk about methods to run governments in more open and useful manners.

Gov2.0 is a catch-all term coined by publisher Tim O'Reilly. It includes everything from government transparency and open data, to procurement reform and new kinds of diplomacy.

At the core is the idea that government should act more like a platform for development, on which citizens can build the services they need, and less like a vending machine of services.

"The idea of being a platform provider is that you do the least possible, not the most possible to enable others to build on what you do," O'Reilly said in a video advocating open data for public transit agencies:

Carl Malamud is one of the forerunners of this movement. In his opening keynote address, he called for three reforms the federal government needs now:

• Finish the open gov revolution. "We need open data standards," Malamud said. This means both releasing government data in regular formats that can be read by machines, and changing public record laws so public information ends up online before someone asks.

• National digitization: "If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can launch the national archive into cyberspace." On top of scanning government-held documents, Malamud called for copyright reform, so taxpayers have access to information they pay for.

• An open systems revolution: "Our federal government spends $89.1 billion a year on information technology. Much of that is wasted effort. We build systems so badly it is crippling the federal government." Malamud called for a computer commission to conduct agency by agency reviews, and to change standard practices from "over reliance on proprietary systems" to one based on open source foundations.

By Peter Balakian

-- from "A-Train/Ziggurat/Elegy"

Who is the other who
floats between what you see

and what is there:
think of the other going silent,

screen fuzz smoke,
hours away on TV.

Came as dumb smoke

into my house.
The jade plant leaves,

tongue of the cat,
pan on the stove,

the cardamom and clove
moved in their currents.

Outside the sky was searing blue
honeysuckle wafting through.

There was nowhere to go.
Sat down. Got up.

Stared at the iBook.
Walked around.

No phone service.
The cell's dead too.

Peter Balakian is the author of many books, including a new volume of poems, "Ziggurat," just published by University of Chicago Press, and "June-tree: New and Selected Poems, 1974-2000." His memoir, "Black Dog of Fate," won the PEN/Martha Albrand Prize for the Art of the Memoir. Balakian's "The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response" won the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize and was a New York Times Notable Book and a New York Times Best Seller. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship and is a professor of the humanities at Colgate.

It took more than two weeks of horse trading to win the votes of independent members of parliament, but Australia now has a government with the narrowest of majorities. And that is an accurate reflection of the election last month that basically produced a tie.

Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard gets to keep her job, even though her party lost its majority in the House of Representatives in the Aug. 21 election. With promises of largesse to rural regions, she managed to woo three independents and a member of the Green Party to give her coalition. It will have 76 seats in the lower House, a one vote edge.

How long her government will remain in office will be the tantalizing question for months to come in Canberra, but the Associated Press quoted Gillard this morning saying:

"Labor is prepared to govern. Labor is prepared to deliver stable, effective and secure government for the next three years."

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, part of Gillard's bargaining included a promise to give a government job to the prime minister she ousted earlier this year, Kevin Rudd. But she did not commit to making the Chinese-speaking Rudd, who is popular in Washington, her foreign minister.

Mark Coreth begins work on his sculpture of a female tiger on the South Bank in London. The skeleton will be transformed into a tigress during a 5-day project to highlight WWF's Year of the Tiger campaign. Photo by Ben Stansall/ AFP/ Getty Images

*

The Kennedy Center announced that this year's honorees will include Oprah Winfrey, musicians Merle Haggard and Paul McCartney, and choreographer Bill T. Jones, via The New York Times Arts Beat.

*

Meanwhile, the White House will honor choreographer Judith Jamison today with a special dance performance, via the Los Angeles Times.

We'll have more on that performance -- plus an encore of our recent profile of Jamison -- tonight on the NewsHour.

*

Eleven Egyptian culture officials will face trial over security failures surrounding the theft of a Van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum, via the Associated Press.

*

The Vatican's museum director says some of their greatest art treasures are showing signs of deterioration due to the physical toll wreaked by their millions of tourist visitors each year, via AFP.

*

Speaking of art treasures, how do we define or assign the term "masterpiece" these days? The Los Angeles Times considers how the meaning of the word has changed.

*

Actress America Ferrera will be the next host of PBS's Independent Lens for the new season starting October 19.

Indonesian demonstrators rally outside the U.S. embassy in Jakarta to protest a Florida church's plans to burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of 9/11. Photo by Aldo Utama/AFP/Getty Images.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said Tuesday that an American church's threat to burn copies of the Quran could endanger U.S. troops in the country and Americans worldwide.

"Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan -- and around the world -- to inflame public opinion and incite violence," Petraeus said in an e-mail to the Associated Press.

Petraeus' comments followed a protest Monday by hundreds of Afghans over the plans by Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to mark the anniversary of 9/11.

The pastor of the church, Terry Jones, told CNN on Tuesday that while the congregation plans to go through with its plans, the church is "weighing" its intentions.

The Washington Post also reports Tuesday on how American Muslims are planning to tone down their Eid celebrations marking the end of the Ramadan month of fasting as the holiday falls this year around the 9/11 anniversary.

Obama to Call for New Tax Breaks

President Obama will call on Congress to pass new tax breaks allowing U.S. businesses to write off 100 percent of their new capital investments through 2011. An administration official said the tax breaks would save businesses $200 billion over two years, allowing companies to have more cash on hand.

The president will outline the proposal Wednesday during a speech on the economy in Cleveland.

Marketplace reporter Scott Tong explains the plan:

"[I]f you're for it, you argue that this creates jobs and contracts for the people who make stuff, like bulldozers and computers. If you're against it, you argue this may not change much."

Jefferson Thomas, One of 'Little Rock Nine,' Dies

Jefferson Thomas, one of the "Little Rock Nine" who provoked a major civil rights battle when they integrated Arkansas' largest public high school in 1957, died Sept. 5 at a care facility in Columbus, Ohio.

President Obama walks to the Oval Office on Monday after returning from a trip to Milwaukee. Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images.

The new Washington Post/ABC News and Wall Street Journal/NBC News polls released Tuesday provide a double whammy of bad news for Democrats and the Obama White House eight weeks before the votes are counted and control of Congress is determined.

If you're looking for a silver lining for the Democrats in these numbers, it simply isn't there. The one thing Democrats will, no doubt, try to highlight is that there's no great love affair with Republicans among the voters. The part Democrats are likely to leave out is that it appears not to matter.

Some highlights from the Washington Post/ABC News poll:

• Among likely voters, 53 percent say they would vote for a generic Republican candidate for Congress this year vs. 40 percent who say they would vote for the generic Democrat on a ballot. That 13-point GOP advantage is the largest in the poll's history dating back to 1981.

• President Obama scores his lowest approval rating to date: 46 percent approve of the president's job performance, while a slim majority, 52 percent, disapprove.

• The poll shows a six-point increase since July, from 32 percent to 38 percent, in voters who say the economy is getting worse.

The Washington Post's Dan Balz and Jon Cohen take a look at those critical independent voters:

"The poll findings highlight one of the most significant problems for Obama and Democrats heading into fall: a steep erosion in support among independent voters. In 2008, Obama won independents by eight percentage points. In 2006, independents broke for Democratic House candidates by an unprecedented 18-point margin."

"Independents' disapproval of the president has reached an all-time high, with 57 percent giving him negative marks. About 61 percent of independents say Obama has not brought change to Washington. Nearly half now consider him "too liberal" ideologically."

"Overall, by a 13-point margin, independent voters say they would support Republican over Democratic candidates in their House districts. A majority of independents - 59 percent - say they would prefer to have Republicans in charge of Congress to serve as a check on the president's agenda."

The Wall Street Journal's Gerry Seib writes up the significant voter enthusiasm gap apparent in the NBC/WSJ poll:

"In the survey, those who expressed the very highest levels of interest in this year's election preferred a Republican Congress by a margin of 53% to 35%. Among all other, less interested voters, Democrats are preferred by a 20-point margin."

"So Democrats' most urgent challenge in the next eight weeks is to turn these uninterested voters into interested voters--a difficult task, but one party leaders insist they are tackling."

Stu Rothenberg, one of the most-watched congressional handicappers in Washington, updates his House overview: "Likely Republican gain of 37-42 seats, with the caveat that substantially larger GOP gains in the 45-55 seat range are quite possible."

ON THE AIR

Helping to kick off the post-Labor Day political frenzy, two of Florida's three Senate candidates will be out with their first television ads of the general election on Tuesday.

Democratic Congressman Kendrick Meek released his new spot in an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

The ad, called "Only One," puts Meek in humorous settings, like riding aboard an airboat, with the candidate saying, "I'm the only one who has fought against developers draining the Everglades."

There's no mention of Meek's two opponents -- Independent Gov. Charlie Crist and Republican Marco Rubio -- but the spot does look to highlight Meek's positions on issues important to the Democratic base, such as the environment, Social Security and abortion rights.

Crist is also ready to unveil his first ad of the general election, called "Best of Both." In it, Crist appears on screen with the word "Democrats" appearing in blue letters on one side of him and "Republicans" in red on the other side, with Crist saying: "How do we get results for Florida? By putting aside our differences and putting people ahead of politics."

Crist then begins to rearrange the letters, continuing his narration: "As an independent, I will take the best ideas of Democrats and Republicans to get things done. Because at the end of the day, there's only one party I work for." At this point, it's revealed that Crist has spelled "Americans."

The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a statement in response to Crist's spot:

"If Floridians have learned anything from Charlie Crist's politically opportunistic policy shifts and empty rhetoric, it's that he's willing to say or do anything in an attempt to get elected. Charlie Crist only cares about his own interests, and his misleading claim to 'put people ahead of politics' simply does not match reality," NRSC Press Secretary Amber Marchand said in a statement titled: "Crist New TV Ad Spells 'Opportunist.'"

Listen to the Audio

Pakistan is struggling to assess the aftermath of its recent flood crisis, and may need more international aid. Jeffery Brown talks to philanthropy and humanitarian experts about whether the aid delivered so far has been enough.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now to a closer look at efforts to help Pakistan's flood victims. Roughly a billion dollars in private and government donations have been pledged so far. But with the need so great, the United Nations is reportedly preparing to ask its members to double the amount they're giving.

For their part, individual Americans have opened their wallets in this crisis, but to a lesser degree than in previous disasters, such as the Haiti earthquake. We discuss all this now with, Patrick Rooney, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, and Steve Hollingworth, chief operating officer and executive vice president of global operations for the humanitarian organization CARE.

Steve Hollingworth, I will start with you. Give us up an update. Where are the greatest needs that you see, and what aid is getting through now?

STEVE HOLLINGWORTH, executive vice president of Global Operations, CARE: Well, as you know, the -- the emergencies really unfolded from some of the most remote Himalayan valleys right down into the fertile Indus River plain. And the needs are right all along that floodplain area. And the situation is changing, I think, quite rapidly, improving in the Swat Valley, improving near the Himalayas, and access is improving, in collaboration with a lot of international actors.

You know, the big concern now, I think, is more in the Punjab area and in the Sindh area, largely because of the dense populations that you have there. The populations would have been living in flood-prone areas vulnerable to the river flooding for some time. And, frankly, they're -- they're being displaced now in huge numbers, millions of people having to find their ways to makeshift refugee camps.

And, of course, you know, communicable diseases, waterborne diseases are the main concern at the moment. That's been our focus.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right. Let me -- OK. Excuse me. Let me bring in Patrick Rooney, because you have been tracking the amounts of giving. Give us some -- some context here in compare -- comparing it to other disasters. What do you see?

PATRICK ROONEY, executive director, Indiana University Center on Philanthropy: Jeff, if you look at this five weeks out, what we have seen so far is about $25 million donated to the Pakistani flood relief victims this year. And if you compare that to Haiti, almost a billion dollars five weeks out, the tsunami, almost a billion dollars five weeks out, 9/11, $1.1 billion, and Katrina almost $2 dollars after five weeks. And so you can see that the order of magnitude is about 40 times different for most of the disasters and almost 80 times different for Katrina.

So, it's a vastly different scope and scale of support.

JEFFREY BROWN: And why? What do you think is going on? What are the factors?

PATRICK ROONEY: I think there's a couple. Yes, I think there's a couple of factors. I think, first, it's a hard-to-reach area. And, so, there has not been as much media coverage.

And one of the things we have seen in other disasters is, the greater the media coverage, the greater the disaster relief giving. And, so, I think those two things go hand in hand. I think, also, the number of casualties. It was reported that about 2,000 people have died from these floods. And if you compare that to 200,000 who died shortly after the earthquake in Haiti, and you had several thousand who died in 9/11 and so on, I think, when you look at the scope and magnitude of the deaths and of the square footage or square miles affected, I think those are the types of things that affect that.

But I think the root-cause difference is probably the fact that there's concerns about terrorism and there's concerns about corruption in the military and corruption in the government, and concerns, therefore, that gifts may not get to those who need them the most.

And I think that's probably the biggest obstacle for people who are considering making a gift at this time.

JEFFREY BROWN: And just to be clear, those numbers you were giving us, that -- those were numbers for Americans giving?

PATRICK ROONEY: Right. That's -- that's only private from American organizations, from American individuals, foundations, and corporations to nonprofits doing international relief work in each of those disasters.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right, so, Steve Hollingworth, pick up on that. What factors do you see at play? How much of it is particular to Pakistan and concerns that we just heard?

STEVE HOLLINGWORTH: Well, we have seen a -- CARE has seen a strong donation flow coming from Europe, for example. And I believe the kith and kin issue is very strong between Pakistan and Europe. And that's been helpful there. It's less strong in the U.S.

And I think the other thing is, with a slow-onset emergency, such as a flood, of this nature, it may be harder for people to empathize. It raises a lot of very complicated issues, like the deterioration of floodplains, of -- of watershed areas and the influence that that has on the flow of water.

It -- it's -- the story also is about people, very poor people living in vulnerable situations, and their chronic poverty being complicated by so much water, so much dirty water around them. So, I think it's less of an emotional attachment maybe that it strikes with people. And it raises a lot of issues about very complex themes that we see in the developing world all the time...

JEFFREY BROWN: And, staying with you, does that include the association with terrorism, the worries about corruption or an inefficient government, in other words, where the money that people give would be going to, how it would be used?

STEVE HOLLINGWORTH: Well, one of the things that I can assure is that, from CARE's point of view, we work with nine national partners in Pakistan. And we vet them very closely, work with them very closely, and are able to make sure that our aid goes from people to people.

You know, in every -- in many developing countries in the world, security, poor governance become -- become issues that affect the -- the effectiveness of an aid effort. But -- you know, I think it's critical that people see that these are real human beings. These are mothers and children and fathers and sons that are being affected by this, not just abstract things, like corrupt governments.

JEFFREY BROWN: And, Patrick Rooney, again, as you study these things over time, what about sheer donor fatigue, particularly in a bad economy? What does history tell us?

PATRICK ROONEY: Yes, I think there is some concern about donor fatigue, and for a couple of reasons, one, because the economy is, you know, weaker than it has been at other times.

On the other hand, we saw disaster relief giving for Haiti turn out to be quite strong and -- and quite sustained for -- for many months. And, so, that doesn't tell the whole story. I mean, I think that's part of it. And, in fact, perhaps some of the Haiti relief giving is part of the donor fatigue.

On the other hand, I think that generally, when Americans give, the average gift has ranged between $125 and $135 per household for different disasters. And, so, the gifts tend to be relatively small, a lot of people giving relatively small amounts.

In fact, the median gift for all of the disasters that we have tracked has been $50. And so you know that most people can spend $50 a lot of different ways. So it's not as if people are refinancing their house in order to give these disaster relief gifts. And that's not to disparage those gifts. It's just to say that they're relatively small amounts and fairly widespread support. And I think what we have seen in Pakistan is that it has not generated this widespread support for -- for donors.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right, we will watch it continue to unfold. And thank you very much for joining us on this Labor Day, Steve Hollingworth and Patrick Rooney. Thanks a lot.

Listen to the Audio

Judy Woodruff speaks with local public broadcast correspondents from California, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania about voter mood and the midterm elections.

JEFFREY BROWN: And now to another Labor Day staple: politics. On Friday, Judy Woodruff ran that topic past four reporters who are part of our NewsHour Connect partnership with public broadcasters around the country.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Each election year, Labor Day marks the unofficial kickoff to the frenzied final weeks of the campaign season. The battle for control of both the United States House and the Senate will play out coast to coast over the course of the next eight weeks. And, tonight, we bring together our public media partners from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, and California to get a lay of the land. They are covering some of the most high-profile races of the year.

Joining us are Scott Shafer from KQED Public Radio in San Francisco, Ian Mylchreest from KNPR in Las Vegas, Karen Kasler of Ohio Public Radio in Columbus, and Michael Bartley from WQED in Pittsburgh.

Now, all of you, thank you for talking with us. And I want to just start with the conventional wisdom here in Washington. And that is that the economy is the number-one issue in all of these races. But I want to do a reality check and ask if that's the case where you are in your state.

And let's start in the east with Michael Bartley.

Is it the big issue? And give us a quick picture of the economy in your state.

MICHAEL BARTLEY, managing editor, WQED Multimedia; Well, Judy, great to be with you again. And there's no question, on this Labor Day, the principal preoccupation is the economy. Look, you know, in midterm elections coming up, well, social issues, you don't hear about them.

Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is a tad lower than the national rate, but it doesn't matter. And, look, I think Pennsylvanians are realistic about this as well. You know, the economy doesn't stop, these issues don't stop at the Pennsylvania border, and start up again in Ohio. There's no border here.

So, this, you know, national misery, whatever you want to call it, people are looking for answers. And, you know, people, you know, I don't think they're concentrating just yet on midterm elections. The principal deal here is the economy.

And I think, you know, there's this general general feeling that the government, you know, in Washington, the federal government just doesn't have the answers, but, yes, absolutely, no question, here in Pennsylvania, from Pittsburgh out east to Philadelphia, number-one issue.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Karen Kasler, whether there's a border or not, what does it look like there in Ohio?

KAREN KASLER, bureau chief, Ohio Public Radio: Absolutely. Here in Ohio, we hear an awful lot about this state being the first in the recession and the last out of it, whenever it might happen. We have got three major things that are a problem here in Ohio when you start looking at the economy.

The unemployment rate is at 10.3 percent. It's dropped every month since March. But it's still at sustained levels that we haven't seen in two decades. We also have foreclosures. The Mortgage Brokers Association ranks Ohio sixth in the nation in foreclosures. One in 10 Ohioans are at risk of losing their homes, according to data released in June.

And then you also have an upcoming budget deficit for next year which is estimated to go as high as $8 billion. So, absolutely, the economy is a critical issue here.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, in Nevada, Ian Mylchreest, what does it look like there?

IAN MYLCHREEST, senior producer, KNPR: It's absolutely the only issue here. I mean, we have the highest unemployment rate, nearly 15 percent. We have had nearly three years of the highest foreclosure rate. And, across the state, homes are down 40, 50 percent in value. Tourist industry has kind of fallen off a cliff. And construction, which was the second biggest industry, is absolutely dead.

So, it's the first half-dozen issues here on anybody's agenda.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Scott Shafer, California, is it as grim as it is everywhere else?

SCOTT SHAFER, host & reporter, KQED Public Radio: It is very grim here, Judy. Unlike Ohio, typically, California in the past has been the last to feel an economic dip and the first to come out of it. That is not the case this time around. Unemployment here is above 12 percent. It's been stuck there for some time. California is disproportionately dependent on income tax.

And, so, with revenues down, it's trickled down. It's affecting, obviously, the state government and local governments. There have been a lot of layoffs, police, fire, teachers and so on. So, the pain is very deep. And it's lasted a long time. And there's really little sign of coming out of it anytime soon.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All right, I want to ask each one of you about these important races going on in your in your state, and starting back on the East Coast in Pennsylvania with Michael Bartley.

You already had big news when your incumbent senator, Democratic Senator Arlen Specter, was defeated in the primary, Joe Sestak, the congressman, but now Sestak facing real serious competition from the Republican, Pat Toomey.

MICHAEL BARTLEY: Republican Pat Toomey, Judy, has never been behind in the polls. New polls out last week, last Wednesday and so forth, had him about seven percentage points up.

He's been up anywhere between four points, up 11 points. And it's really interesting because Sestak, who ran a showcase campaign against Arlen Specter, the big deal there will be to get turnout out in Philadelphia.

You know, Pennsylvania is a very interesting state. We have 1.3 million more Democrats registered than Republicans. But it doesn't seem to be a factor right now, unless Philadelphia turns out. In the last statewide general election, Philadelphia only had about 10 percent turnout.

If you don't get above 25 percent in Philadelphia, Joe Sestak is in trouble. That's the conventional thinking. But, Pat Toomey, you know, it's interesting. It's finally getting, you know, hot on television ads, Joe Sestak painting Pat Toomey as a Wall Street insider, Pat Toomey painting Joe Sestak as, you know, this big taxer, big spender type thing.

It's going to be really interesting. It's Labor Day. We have two months. But, right now, it seems like the Republicans do indeed have the upper hand. But there's time will tell.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Let's move to Ohio to Karen Kasler, and first to your Senate race. You have got George Voinovich, Republican senator. He's retiring. Republican Congressman and former Budget Director under President Bush Rob Portman is running against Democrat Lee Fisher. Give us a thumbnail of that race.

KAREN KASLER: Well, this is the first time in 12 years that a seat had opened up in the U.S. Senate. And Democrats were really hoping to take that back. They didn't count on a primary back in the spring. And that primary sucked almost all the money out of the eventual nominee, Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher.

And, so, now he is at a serious fund-raising disadvantage against Rob Portman. The last reporting period had him at a 9-1 fund-raising disadvantage. Fisher says he's now gained that back. But what I don't think we're seeing here in Ohio is the national money coming in to this race.

It seems that the national party is focusing on other races, both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, because Rob Portman is on the air with his ads, with his money, where you don't see the Democratic Senate Campaign coming in and boosting Fisher's campaign.

What you do see is the Republican Governors Association coming in and spending an awful lot of money. They have said that they will spend $3 million for each race that they target. And they are pouring money into the governor's race, which puts Congressman John Kasich, former Congressman John Kasich, against the Democratic incumbent governor, Ted Strickland.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And one and, quickly, in that governor's race, again, where the incumbent, the Democrat, getting a run for his money from from Kasich, Kasich worked for Lehman Brothers, big Wall Street firm, of course, that went under.

Is that a factor in this campaign?

KAREN KASLER: Absolutely. And what Mike said in Pennsylvania is absolutely true here as well. We're seeing a lot of the Republican candidates painted as Wall Street cronies.

You're seeing the Democrats being painted in a different way. And those themes are coming into play. But the polls are showing that maybe they're not resonating as much as they should. At least if you're a Democratic strategist, you would like to see them resonate.

And the other thing is, in Ohio, early voting starts on September 28. So, this idea of a Labor Day kickoff, we have been campaigning in Ohio for a while because the early voting does start a lot earlier. We're not just going to polls in November. We're going in September.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We're seeing that in several states.

All right, we want to move to Nevada now. Ian Mylchreest, this is a race that is getting attention, has been getting enormous attention for months now. You have got the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, running against a challenger, Tea Party member Sharron Angle. What's the state of that one?

IAN MYLCHREEST: Well, in the spring, it looked like Senator Harry Reid was a dead man walking. But, as soon as Sharron Angle won the primary, she was out of money. And he spent two months painting her as probably the most extreme candidate that could have won.

And it seems to have succeeded. He's wrestled it back to a statistical dead heat in the last couple of months. And it looks as if her negatives are almost as high as his. And, in fact, in a recent poll, some 66 percent of would-be Republican voters said they would rather have some other Republican candidate.

So, she's in real trouble and has basically brought forward her media strategy. We're getting inundated with anti-Harry Reid ads: Harry Reid has wrecked the economy. It's all his fault. It's time to change.

And she's really trying to stop the bleeding here from the Republicans and independents. At the moment, we're looking at a statistical dead heat.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And people looking at that as a test of Tea Party strength.

All right, to California now. Scott Shafer, this is a state, two competitive races. Your Senate race, you have Barbara Boxer, the Democrat, who really has not had serious opposition, as she has now from Carly Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett-Packard. They had a debate this week. You were the moderator. So, since the debate, how does it look?

SCOTT SHAFER: Well, it was a very feisty debate. And you saw Barbara Boxer coming out swinging, as they both did really, trying to portray Carly Fiorina as a corporate insider.

When she was CEO of Hewlett-Packard, she laid off tens of thousands of workers, shipped a number of jobs overseas to places like China and India. Boxer, that was really where she went on the offensive.

Carly Fiorina, on the other hand, very articulate, smart, has a good grasp of the economy and economic issues, and tried to portray Barbara Boxer as someone who has been there too long and done too little, someone who is all talk and no action, somebody who is divisive and too partisan.

And so those are the portraits of these two candidates that are being portrayed by the candidates. There are other issues, though, in California. The economy, of course, is dominant, but there are other issues, like the environment, very important, choice, abortion, also an important issue.

And Carly Fiorina and Barbara Boxer don't agree on any of those issues or guns or immigration. There's a whole host of issues they disagree on. And so it's going to be very interesting to see how voters evaluate those two candidates.

In the governor's race, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger is termed out, can't run again, Jerry Brown attempting to make a comeback as governor. He served last in the early '80s. He's running against Meg Whitman from eBay.

So, again, you have got a Republican woman who has a corporate background, running as an outsider, someone who is going to shake things up. Jerry Brown, kind of the wily old veteran, has been playing kind of possum, hasn't really spent any money. He's spent less than a million dollars. Meg Whitman has spent more than $100 million in this campaign. So, Labor Day is here. Jerry Brown now is going to start spending some of that money that he's piled up over the past several months.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And right at this point, Scott Shafer, where does that race stand in the polls?

SCOTT SHAFER: It's very close. I would say it's about even. Some polls show her up by a few. Some polls show Jerry Brown up by a few. The thing Jerry Brown is known nationally, in some ways, but people under the age of 40 in California don't really know him. And, so, his job in part is going to be to reintroduce himself or introduce himself to younger voters and to explain why a 72-year-old politician is relevant to the future, why he should be given another chance to be governor.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally, one thing I have to ask all of you, and that is the man who is not on the ballot in any of these states this year, President Obama, and, yet, many would argue that he's very much a factor. Let's do a wrap-around and ask each one of you this question, starting with Scott Shafer out in California.

SCOTT SHAFER: Well, Obama is still relatively popular in California. He's been campaigning and helping Barbara Boxer raise money. And although his numbers have come down since the election, when asked whether they want to elect a senator who will work with Barack Obama to help him implement his his plan vs. someone who is going to fight him at every turn, voters say they want somebody in the Senate who is going to help him enact his agenda. So, that could accrue to Barbara Boxer's advantage.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Ian Mylchreest, what about in Nevada? Is the president a help or a hindrance, or neither?

IAN MYLCHREEST: Probably a hindrance. I mean, a recent poll had less than one in three people saying that the administration's policies have helped the economy. And since the economy is the only issue, it's not much of a help.

But it's being totally carpet-bombed out of existence by both campaigns, which are already blanketing airwaves, the Internet, everything, with advertisements about the bad state of the economy and blaming each other for it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what about in Ohio, Karen Kasler? Is are people talking about the president? Is he a factor?

KAREN KASLER: Well, two recent polls that are out this week, one that leans Republican, one that leans Democrat, both show that Obama's approval ratings are fairly low in Ohio. And yet he's coming back to Ohio. He will be in the Democratic stronghold of northeast Ohio, in Cleveland, this week.

Vice President Joe Biden on his second trip to Ohio in three weeks, he's in Toledo for Labor Day festivities, the second Monday in three weeks he's been here. And both Democrats and Republicans are saying he helps their base. Democrats, he brings out fund-raising. Republicans, he brings out those people who are angry with him.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Michael Bartley, the president, we just learned, is also heading to Pennsylvania in the next few weeks to help raise money for Joe Sestak. How much of a factor is the president?

MICHAEL BARTLEY: Well, I think, just like in Ohio, he has got to rally the base in Pittsburgh and in Philadelphia. Remember, Pennsylvania, it is pretty interesting, Pittsburgh, two big cities, and there's a T. that goes north and then to the west and the east. In the T., nothing. Obama will not be a factor there. But if he gets to Philadelphia, gets to Allegheny County here in Pittsburgh, and gets voter turnout, it could be interesting, but not in the middle of the state. We will see what happens.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, these are some of the most interesting campaigns any of us can remember in a long time. And we thank all of you for talking with us about what's going on. And we will check in with you as as we get closer to Election Day.

Michael Bartley in Pittsburgh, Karen Kasler in Columbus, Ohio, Ian Mylchreest in Las Vegas, and Scott Shafer in San Francisco, thank you all.

Listen to the Audio

In other news Monday, the U.N. nuclear agency voiced new concern at Iran's continued defiance over its nuclear program.

HARI SREENIVASAN: The U.N. nuclear agency expressed alarm at Iran's continued defiance over its nuclear program. In a new report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has banned two of its most experienced inspectors and still refuses to answer questions about its nuclear intentions.

The Iranian government called the report unbalanced and said its nuclear operations are under complete supervision by the IAEA. This comes just three months after the U.N. Security Council enacted its harshest sanctions yet against Iran.

Hundreds of Afghans rallied today to protest an American church's plan to burn the Koran. The protesters gathered in Kabul and burned American flags and cardboard effigies of the pastor of the Florida church. He and his congregation plan to burn the Islamic holy book to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul has condemned the church's plan.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, NATO announced a U.S. soldier was killed in fighting in the east on Sunday. It was the fifth American death in Afghanistan in September. Also today, it was widely reported the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan has asked for 2,000 additional troops. General David Petraeus wants them to join the 140,000-strong international force to help train Afghan security forces.

In Pakistan today, at least 19 people died and 40 more were wounded in a suicide bombing near a police station. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the car bomb in the northwestern town of Lakki Marwat. A spokesman said the bombing targeted police because they encourage residents to set up militias and fight the Taliban.

At least 44 people have died in landslides in Guatemala, and dozens more are missing. Heavy rains unleashed multiple landslides this weekend, including on one of the country's main highways. Rescue workers struggled today to try and free more than 30 people buried in the wreckage. More rain was forecast for the rest of the week.

Tropical Storm Hermine headed for the Texas-Mexico border region today. The National Weather Service put the Gulf Coast area under a hurricane watch, predicting the storm could reach hurricane strength before it hits land early Tuesday.

Separately, heavy rain from a tropical depression has caused flooding in southern Mexico, forcing thousands to move to shelters. Forecasters are predicting up to a foot of rain in some areas.

Those are some of the day's major stories -- now back to Jeff.

House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio blasted the plan in a statement, saying "we don't need more government 'stimulus' spending":

"If we've learned anything from the past 18 months, it's that we can't spend our way to prosperity. We don't need more government 'stimulus' spending - we need to end Washington Democrats' out-of-control spending spree, stop their tax hikes, and create jobs by eliminating the job-killing uncertainty that is hampering our small businesses."

President Obama hit back during his Monday remarks, chastising the GOP as the "party of no."

But the GOP may look to turn the "party of no" into a campaign cry. For evidence, watch this appearance by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on CNN's "State of the Union" in July (pertinent portion starts at the 1:08 mark):

Video editing by Mike Fritz.

OBAMA'S $50 BILLION PLAN | The president rallied with workers in Wisconsin Monday and unveiled his new $50 billion infrastructure plan. Jeffrey Brown will have more on the president's latest plan to boost the economy.

WORKING CLASS DEAL WITH LESS WAGES | Paul Solman examines the eroding clout of organized labor in these economic hard times. It's all part of his ongoing reporting on Making Sense of financial news.

MIDTERM ELECTION PREVIEW | With an eight-week countdown, midterm election season is ramping up. Judy Woodruff previews the election season with local public broadcast correspondents from California, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

THE YOUNGEST PAKISTANI FLOOD VICTIMS | Nearly 8 million children are facing health problems in Pakistan in the aftermath of its flood disaster. Special correspondent Saima Mohsin reports in Pakistan on the potential health concerns for the children of Pakistan.

GIVING TO PAKISTAN| The United Nations is calling for more international aid for Pakistan flood victims. Jeffrey Brown takes a closer look at relief efforts and levels of giving with the executive director of the Center on Philanthropy, Patrick Rooney, and Steve Hollingworth, the chief operating officer for CARE.

CHALLENGES FACING IRAQI REFUGES | Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Jordan on the day-to-day difficulties of Iraqi refuges who fled the conflict in their home country.

Monday's anchor is Jeffrey Brown. Hari Sreenivasan has the day's other top news stories and look at the Web features. Here on the Rundown,, the politics team talked to AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka about how the labor group is gearing up for the fall political season. Plus on Art Beat, a profile of musician Andrew Bird who recently created a novel concert experience called "Sonic Arboretrum."

We hope you'll join us.

American individuals and corporations have given generously to the people of Pakistan suffering from the worst flooding catastrophe in the nation's history. But that generosity still falls short of the sums Americans have donated to aid victims of other major crises.

According to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, in the first five weeks of the flood crisis, individual and corporate giving to relief organizations helping in Pakistan was estimated at just over $25 million. In the first five weeks after the earthquake in Haiti, Americans put $900 million into relief funds. Donations to victims of Hurricane Katrina at week five approached $2 billion.

We'll have Patrick Rooney, the head of Indiana's Center on Philanthropy, on Monday's NewsHour to explain why he thinks Americans are not opening their wallets as wide for this cause.

"Haiti stood out for its proximity to us," Rooney told us. "It's close, it was easy for journalists and others to get there and cover it, bring our attention to the calamity. ... You could see the death and destruction immediately in Haiti -- that affects how people donate."

CARE, a worldwide humanitarian organization, is hoping that Americans will boost their giving. Through partner groups in the region, CARE provides clean drinking water, shelter and specialized medical care. CARE estimates there are 150,000 expectant mothers with no access to a hospital.

"There is widely held perception that the money will go to armed terror groups and that no donation is secure," said CARE spokesman Brian Feagans. "We are quick to point out that if you donate to CARE your donation is independent of government as we are. We are a nonpartisan organization; our allegiance is to the disaster victims."

Joining Rooney on Monday's program will be Steve Hollingworth, the chief operating officer of CARE's international work.

More information on the U.S. State Department's Pakistan Relief Fund can be found here.