World News Today: September 2011

Friday, September 23, 2011

Asia Stocks Sharply Lower As Recession Fears Flare

Associated Press

Display boards at the Australian Stock Exchange flash news of a falling market in Sydney, Friday, Sept. 23, 2011. Pacific stock markets are down sharply in early trading following big losses on Wall Street amid growing fears of another global recession. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

BANGKOK (AP) ? Investors across the globe continued to dump stocks Friday as weak economic indicators from major nations including China intensified fears of a new recession

In Asia, losses were broad-based but less severe than in the U.S. and Europe. Oil prices stabilized near $81 a barrel after diving to a near seven-week low on Thursday. The dollar was down against the yen and the euro.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.7 percent to 17,610.65 after losing nearly 5 percent the day before.

South Korean shares took a large hit, with the Kospi tumbling 4.2 percent to 1,724.92 amid worries over signs of weakness in China, Seoul's biggest trading partner. Japan's market was closed for a holiday.

Economic news was bad around the world. A closely watched survey in Europe indicated a recession could be on the way there, and a manufacturing survey suggested a slowdown in China, which has been one of the hottest economies. Employment figures in the U.S. remained weak.

"I think the most important thing is Europe and America are both entering into recession at the same time, and the governments failed to take decisive action to stop the decline," said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings Ltd. in Hong Kong. "Investors are disappointed and fear a global recession. So that's why investors are getting out of shares."

Lun also blamed "political squabbling" in the U.S. that is preventing President Barack Obama from spending the money needed to create a jobs program with real impact.

Meanwhile, Canada's finance minister had harsh words for Europe. On Thursday, he warned of a second financial meltdown on the scale of 2008 if Europe doesn't take decisive action to recapitalize its banks and deal with the Greek debt crisis.

"There's some justified frustration with respect to the lack of political decisiveness in Europe," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said. "The markets are reacting."

Flaherty said Greece and other severely indebted nations must be made to follow through with austerity programs to bring down spending, and Europe must put up the billions of dollars that will be needed to ensure banks don't fail.

Elsewhere in Asia, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.6 percent to 3,940.30 and China's Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1 percent to 2,418.59. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and New Zealand were also lower.

In Hong Kong trade, Zijin Mining Group Co., China's biggest gold miner, fell 8.9 percent amid a price drop in the precious metal as investors sold gold to raise cash.

Stocks in Seoul slumped amid signs of weakness in China. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's biggest shipbuilder, slumped 6.6 percent. Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, fell 3.3 percent. Steel giant POSCO fell 6 percent.

A slowdown in China could also blunt demand for imported raw materials like iron ore. Australia's Fortescue Metals Group, a leading exporter of iron ore, plummeted 8.1 percent.

Energy shares were whipped by the tumble in oil prices. Australian oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum Ltd. sank 2.3 percent. China National Offshore Oil Corp., known as CNOOC, fell 2.3 percent.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.5 percent to close at 10,733.83. It was the second consecutive rout in the stock market since Wednesday afternoon, when the Federal Reserve announced a change in strategy for fighting the economic slowdown.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index, a broader measure of the stock market, and the Nasdaq composite, which is more heavily weighted with technology stocks, both fell more than 3 percent for the day.

The Fed announced Wednesday that it would shuffle $400 billion of its own bond holdings in hopes of reducing interest rates on long-term loans, a plan known as Operation Twist. The central bank hopes that if people and businesses are able to borrow money more cheaply, they will spend throughout the economy and give it a lift.

Still, the Fed announcement troubled investors because it came with a bleak assessment of the future. The Fed said it sees "significant downside risks to the economic outlook," including volatility in overseas markets.

Benchmark oil for November delivery was up 40 cents at $80.92 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude plunged $5.41, or 6.3 percent, to settle at $80.51 on Thursday. That was its lowest point since Aug. 9.

In London, Brent crude for November delivery was up 58 cents at $106.07 on the ICE Futures exchange.

In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.3512 from $1.3469 late Thursday in New York. Earlier on Thursday, the euro fell to $1.3384 ? its lowest point since Jan. 18. The dollar slipped to 76.33 yen from 76.40 yen.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=140725223&ft=1&f=

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Soul Singer Helps Shoeshiner 'Get On The Good Foot'

Enlarge StoryCorps

Earl B. Reynolds spoke with his daughter, Ashley Reynolds, in Roanoke, Va., about how a chance encounter with singer James Brown helped prod him into a new plan for his life.

StoryCorps

Earl B. Reynolds spoke with his daughter, Ashley Reynolds, in Roanoke, Va., about how a chance encounter with singer James Brown helped prod him into a new plan for his life.

Earl B. Reynolds Jr., 60, grew up in Roanoke, Va., where his father cut hair in his own store, the Virginia Sanitary Barber Shop. And as a little boy, Earl often shined customers' shoes in the shop.

As Reynolds tells his daughter, Ashley Reynolds, a visit from the Godfather of Soul set him on a path in life that eventually put Earl at odds with his father.

Working in the store one day, Earl watched a tour bus pull up to a theater near the shop. The doors opened ? and out stepped James Brown.

"He immediately walked over to my dad's barbershop, and he just started shaking hands and talking to people," Earl says. "And he looked down at me, and he said, 'You must be the bootblack.' In barbershop vernacular, that is, 'You shine shoes.' "

Brown wanted a shoeshine from the young man.

"Of course, his shoes were already shined; he was immaculate, from head to toe," Earl says.

"So I went through the process of re-shining his shoes, and he got off the shoeshine stand, and he handed me a $5 bill," he says. "And he told me that back in his hometown, he started out shining shoes."

Earl remembers Brown telling him, "It's an honorable profession, it's good work. You just need to think about, now, what else you want to do with your life?"

"That was my first step along to my education," Earl says.

Enlarge AP

Soul singer James Brown (center) is seen in California in this 1969 file photo. A few years earlier, Brown paid a visit to Virginia, where he gave some advice to Earl Reynolds Jr.

Before the soul singer's visit, Earl's father had been planning to pass the family business down to his son.

"I know that your granddaddy was counting on me to take over the barbershop," Earl tells Ashley. "I'm his son ? his only son ? and he was grooming me for that."

Earl had other plans for his future ? he just had to get up the nerve to tell his father about them.

"One day I had this big announcement to make to your granddaddy," he tells his daughter, "that I wanted to go to college, and not take over the barbershop.

"And for months, your granddaddy did not speak to me. That's how big his disappointment was."

But Earl stuck to his plan.

"I applied to colleges and universities on my own; I had to learn how to fill out forms on my own," he says. "And I got a letter from Fayetteville State Teachers College ... saying that 'We'd like for you to come.' "

The school, in Fayetteville, N.C., was about 200 miles from Earl's home in Roanoke.

"I remember piling into your Uncle James' station wagon," he tells Ashley, "and they took me down there and dropped me off. And I watched them drive away. And I said, 'OK, now what are you gonna do?' "

As it turns out, Earl graduated at the top of his class.

"And granddaddy came to graduation," Earl tells his daughter. "Well, as you know, one of his famous sayings was, 'Life is a process of adjustment.' So when your late grandma told me he was coming, I knew that we had reconciled. We had finally bridged that gap."

Earl Reynolds Jr. went on to become the director of community development in Danville, Va.

Audio produced for Morning Edition by Nadia Reiman. Recorded in partnership with WVTF.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/22/140705810/soul-singer-helps-shoeshiner-get-on-the-good-foot?ft=1&f=

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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Global Leaders Struggle To Calm Recession Fears

Enlarge Associated Press

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde participates in the BBC's world debate on global economy, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2011, during the IMF/ World Bank annual meetings in Washington. (AP Photo Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Associated Press

From left; Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao, and India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, attend the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) finance ministers, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011, during the IMF/ World Bank annual meetings in Washington. (AP Photo Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The world's major economies are pledging to take strong actions to restore financial stability and calm financial markets that plunged on Thursday over renewed fears that the global economy was headed toward a new recession.

Finance officials of the Group of 20 major economies issued a statement late Thursday saying they were committed to a strong and coordinated response to renewed challenges coming from the European debt crisis and weak economic growth in the United States and other countries.

The finance officials of traditional economic powers such as the United States, Japan and Germany and major emerging nations such as China want to demonstrate strong resolve in the hope that it will calm jitters that had sent financial markets down sharply.

"We are taking strong actions to maintain financial stability, restore confidence and support growth," the G-20 joint statement said. "We commit to take all actions to preserve the stability of banking systems and financial markets as required."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke represented the United States at the meeting.

The G-20 group, which includes officials from countries that represent 85 percent of the global economy, had not been originally scheduled to issue a statement after Thursday's meeting. But officials said the decision was made to put out a joint statement as a way to show resolve in the face of Thursday's market turbulence.

French Finance Minister Francoise Baroin told reporters at a late night briefing that the statement represented a "strong global" response to what he called a "very serious situation."

He said the G-20 group believed "there is a way out of this crisis."

A senior U.S. Treasury official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door discussions said that all the countries felt there was a sense of urgency to take strong actions to deal with the financial market turmoil.

Investors are worried that Europe's debt crisis could destabilize the global economy. The United States is limping along with slow growth, 14 million unemployed and millions stuck with homes worth less than what is owed on the mortgage.

The Dow Jones industrial average sank 391 points for the day. The second-straight day of massive losses on Wall Street coincided with the start of the annual meeting for the 187-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending institution, the World Bank.

"The current economic situation is entering a dangerous phase," said Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF.

"I still think a double-dip recession for the world's major economies is unlikely, but my confidence in that belief is being eroded daily," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said.

On Wednesday, stocks had tumbled after the Federal Reserve expressed new concerns about the U.S. economy and the growing risks in Europe. The Fed also announced a plan to try to lower long-term interest rates further by shuffling the makeup of its portfolio.

The gathering of world finance leaders comes at a perilous time in Europe.

Greece could default on its debt next month unless it receives a $10.9 billion installment from a bailout fund managed by the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the IMF.

A default could destabilize other financially troubled European countries, such as Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy. It would also deal a blow to many European banks, which are large holders of Greek government bonds.

"What is needed and what certainly we hope to generate ... is the political leadership, and the degree of synchronization that needs to happen for that path to recovery to be made possible," Lagarde had told reporters earlier Thursday.

Brazil, India and China and other emerging economies favor efforts by President Barack Obama to tackle the U.S. budget deficit. And they want the 17 countries that use the euro currency to address the debt crisis in their region.

Major emerging economies including Brazil, India, China, Russia and South Africa said in a statement that they would "consider, if necessary, providing support through the IMF or other international financial institutions" to address the European debt crisis.

Finance officials from the group played down reports that they might purchase government debt of troubled European countries. At a news conference, they said it would be politically difficult to sell such a move to voters in their home countries, many whom have far lower standards of living than European countries.

Still, Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said the emerging nations understand the crisis must be contained.

"We are living through a worsening of the crisis in recent months and we have to prevent the crisis from making a qualitative jump, reaching a more serious level," Mantega said.

Geithner said the United States has a huge stake in seeing Europe succeed. He said European governments would "act with more force" to resolve its debt crisis in the coming weeks.

Olli Rehn, the European Union's top economic official, said the 16 other euro zone countries won't abandon Greece and allow it to default on its massive debts.

"An uncontrolled default or exit of Greece from the euro zone would cause enormous economic and social damage, not only to Greece but to the European Union" and the rest of the world, Rehn said.

The U.S. economy appears to be slightly more stable than Europe. Still, more than two years after the recession officially ended, it is barely growing. Consumer and business confidence is low. In August, employers added no net jobs, and consumers didn't increase their spending on retail goods.

On Wednesday, the Fed said it will try to push long-term interest rates lower and make consumer and business loans cheaper by shifting $400 billion out of short-term Treasury securities and into longer-term bonds. Economists, however, doubt the plan will do much.

Obama has proposed a $447 billion jobs-creation package. But the president's plan lacks support in Congress. Republicans strongly oppose his proposal to pay for it with higher taxes on wealthier households, hedge fund managers and oil companies.

Associated Press writers Gabriele Steinhauser, Luis Alonso Lugo and Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=140706233&ft=1&f=

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Calif. Agents Track Pot Parcel To Bengal's Home

Associated Press

FILE - This Aug. 10, 2011 file photo shows Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson during NFL training camp in Georgetown, Ky. California authorities say they tracked a package containing 2.5 pounds of marijuana to the home of a Cincinnati Bengals player in suburban northern Kentucky. Spokeswoman Michelle Gregory with the California Department of Justice says Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson and teammate Anthony Collins were at the house on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011, when a woman there accepted the package. (AP Photo/Al Behrmank, File)

Associated Press

FILE - This Sept. 18, 2011 file photo shows Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson (89) being tackled by Denver Broncos cornerback Chris Harris (25) during an NFL football game, in Denver. California authorities say they tracked a package containing 2.5 pounds of marijuana to the home of a Bengals player in suburban northern Kentucky. Spokeswoman Michelle Gregory with the California Department of Justice says Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson and teammate Anthony Collins were at the house on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011, when a woman there accepted the package. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney, File)

CINCINNATI (AP) ? For authorities tracking a marijuana shipment from California, the trail ended unexpectedly at the home of a Cincinnati Bengals player in suburban northern Kentucky where police say they found more drugs.

No arrests have been made. Police were still investigating the case Thursday that has entangled Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson, a North Carolina native in his fourth NFL season. A package containing 2� pounds of marijuana was tracked to Simpson's home.

The case is being investigated by police at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, along with local authorities.

A Bengals spokesman said the club was aware of the reports but had no comment. Calls to Simpson's agent went unreturned. Simpson was excused from practice on Thursday to deal with the matter. It was unclear whether he would be available for a game Sunday against San Francisco at Paul Brown Stadium.

Simpson was at his home along with girlfriend and teammate Anthony Collins on Tuesday when the woman accepted the package, said Michelle Gregory, a spokeswoman with the California Department of Justice.

Collins' agent didn't return a call seeking comment. Collins practiced on Thursday but didn't make himself available to reporters for comment. Coach Marvin Lewis said Collins wasn't a focus of the investigation, though he declined further comment.

The package originated in Eureka, Calif., part of the so-called Emerald Triangle, the state's vaunted pot-growing region, and was discovered by a drug-sniffing dog in Sacramento, Gregory said. The address label bore the name of Jason Snider, but Gregory said it's not unusual for people to use false names when sending illegal drugs through the mail.

A search of Simpson's home also turned up 6 more pounds of marijuana, smoking pipes and scales, authorities said.

"We don't believe it (the package) was for personal use," Gregory said. "We believe there's some sort of distribution or sales out of his home."

The Bengals had 10 players arrested during a 10-month span from April 2006 to June 2007. Receiver Chris Henry was the biggest repeat offender, one of the factors in NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell cracking down on player misconduct.

The Bengals created a stir when they decided to bring Henry back after his fifth arrest. He later died in a fall from his fiancee's truck.

Two players got arrested last summer, putting the Bengals back in the spotlight.

Last July, cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones was arrested in downtown Cincinnati and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in November. Jones is currently on an injury list as he recovers from offseason neck surgery.

Running back Cedric Benson spent five days in a Texas jail before the start of the season, completing his sentence for two misdemeanor assault cases.

Law enforcement agents are trying to determine who sent the package to Simpson's home. There was no return label.

Gregory said if Kentucky authorities do not charge Simpson or others, California may consider that possibility.

___

Risling reported from Los Angeles.

___

Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=140718689&ft=1&f=

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GOP Rep. Ryan On Obama's Plan: 'Why Would We Want To Do This Again?'

Enlarge Erin Schwartz/NPR

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) at NPR headquarters in May.

Erin Schwartz/NPR

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) at NPR headquarters in May.

Earlier this month on Morning Edition, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made the case for President Obama's latest jobs plan, saying it "would have a substantial, powerful effect on strengthening the economy." Click here to read and hear his conversation with host Steve Inskeep.

Today, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) told All Things Considered host Michele Norris why he and other Republicans in Congress oppose the president's initiative.

Not only are Republicans against any tax increases, such as those the president would like to see on the wealthiest Americans, they also are against temporary tax credits and other short-term measures, Ryan said. What business executives tell him they want is certainty, the congressman said.

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And though the administration has said the president's plan would be paid for thanks to some spending cuts, the closing of some tax loopholes and some tax increases, Ryan made the case that there would still be too much "borrowing and spending" in the package.

"If borrowing and spending in Washington was the secret to economic growth, we would have had it by now because we've done more of it than we have in the modern history of our country," he told Michele. "If this has proven not to work already ... why would we want to go do this again?"

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Rep. Paul Ryan: Borrowing and spending are not the secret

In Ryan's view, Keynesian economics has been discredited and "for every dollar the government borrows and spends it does not necessarily translate into more than a dollar's worth of economic activity" because that also means a dollar has been "taken out of the private economy in the first place."

What's more, he argued, "all this extra government borrowing and spending ... is doing damage because it is adding more uncertainty" about the future of the nation's economy.

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Rep. Paul Ryan: Borrowing creates more uncertainty

There are, though, things the president and Republicans do agree about, Ryan said, including the need to pass stalled trade agreements, reform the tax system and reduce government regulation.

Much more of Michele's conversation with the congressman is due on today's All Things Considered. Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams the show. Later, we'll add the as-broadcast version of the interview to the top of this post.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/09/22/140702490/gop-rep-ryan-on-obamas-plan-why-would-we-want-to-do-this-again?ft=1&f=

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Man's Call To America: Turn Off That Air Conditioner

Enlarge Bryan Thompson/Kansas Public Radio

Stan Cox has air conditioning in his Kansas house ? but he only runs the unit about once a year, he says.

Bryan Thompson/Kansas Public Radio

Stan Cox has air conditioning in his Kansas house ? but he only runs the unit about once a year, he says.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this summer has been the second-hottest ever recorded in the United States, helping to push power demand in homes to record levels. As some worry that the growing use of fossil fuels to produce electricity for cooling is unsustainable, one man is urging Americans to live without air conditioning.

With wire-rimmed glasses and a neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper beard, Stan Cox doesn't stand out in a crowd. But with his book arguing that our climate-controlled lifestyle in modern America is unsustainable, Cox has drawn quite a bit of attention. He lives in a modest two-story house in an older neighborhood in Salina, Kan. Built in the 1930s, the house has a screened-in porch ? and, on a recent visit, lots of open windows.

"It does have central air," Cox says. "And we run it one day each summer, to make sure it's still working okay. And so far, for 10 years now, it works fine on that day."

Cox says the lack of air conditioning hasn't kept friends away, but it does prompt some good-natured ribbing.

"When it gets really hot, they kind of wink and say, 'How are you holding up?' Or people will try to catch you: 'You've turned it on now, haven't you?' ? Not so far," he says.

Cox met his wife, Pritti, while working in India several years ago. She says even now, few homes in India have air conditioning, and almost none have central air.

"For instance, my sister's family in Mumbai, they have one unit in the bedroom and one unit in the kitchen, dining, and living room area," she says. "But it's never the case that they would close the windows and leave it on all day. No."

Living in hot-and-humid India led Cox to question whether Americans really need to keep their indoor environment at a constant temperature year-round.

Enlarge Mary Altaffer/AP

With this summer's temperatures regularly topping 100 degrees, stores did a brisk business selling air conditioners. But they shouldn't be used often, Stan Cox says.

Mary Altaffer/AP

With this summer's temperatures regularly topping 100 degrees, stores did a brisk business selling air conditioners. But they shouldn't be used often, Stan Cox says.

"The hotter the summers get, the more we run air conditioning. The more we do that, the greater the load of emissions added to all the other emissions we're putting in the atmosphere," he says, "and the higher the chance that we'll have even hotter summers in the future. That's what's being predicted."

In his book, Losing Our Cool, Stan Cox argues that Americans rely too much on air conditioning. He's not against having air conditioning available during heat emergencies. But Cox says comfort research proves that most people can acclimate to warmer temperatures.

"Office workers who have an air-conditioned workplace will have a temperature range they're comfortable in, that may reach up to 78," he says. "Whereas those who work in a non-airconditioned workplace, they were happy up to 89 degrees."

That's if they had plenty of air movement. Cox says fans are a must, and shade makes a big difference. David Orr, who teaches environmental studies at Oberlin College, agrees that cutting back on air conditioning isn't all that hard to do.

"I don't think anyone would ask at this point to go cold turkey on air conditioning," Orr says. "But what is reasonable is to use it only sparingly, or as necessary. When you use it, buy the most efficient equipment you can possibly buy."

Both Orr and Cox say buildings should be designed for passive cooling, so that air conditioning isn't a must. That's the way people in many parts of the world have been coping with heat for thousands of years.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/15/140498654/mans-call-to-america-turn-off-that-air-conditioner?ft=1&f=

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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Europeans Urge US To Halt Davis Execution

Enlarge Associated Press

FILE - This Aug. 22, 1991 file photo shows Troy Anthony Davis entering Chatham County Superior Court in Savannah, Ga., during his trail in the shooting death of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail. Georgia's pardons board on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011, rejected clemency for Davis despite high-profile support for his claim that he was wrongly convicted of killing MacPhail in 1989. Davis is set to die on Wednesday, Sept. 21. It is the fourth time in four years his execution has been scheduled by Georgia officials. (AP Photo/The Savannah Morning News, File)

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=140649840&ft=1&f=

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Company Hires Adults With Autism To Test Software

Associated Press

In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011, Aspiritech co-founder Moshe Weitzberg works with employees at the nonprofit enterprise that specializes in finding software bugs, as they test a new program in Highland Park, Ill. Aspiritech hires only people with autism disorders. Traits that make great software testers _intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail _ also happen to be characteristics of autism. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Associated Press

In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011, Aspiritech co-founder Moshe Weitzberg, standing left, works with employees, from left, Katie Levin, Rick Alexander and Jamie Specht, at the nonprofit enterprise that specializes in finding software bugs as they test a new program in Highland Park, Ill. Aspiritech hires only people with autism disorders. Traits that make great software testers _intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail _ also happen to be characteristics of autism. Marc Lazar, Aspertech's autism specialist works in the background. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Associated Press

In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011, Aspiritech co-founder Moshe Weitzberg works with employee Katie Levin, reflected in a computer screen, at the nonprofit enterprise that specializes in finding software bugs, as they test a new program in Highland Park, Ill. Aspiritech hires only people with autism disorders. Traits that make great software testers _intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail _ also happen to be characteristics of autism. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Enlarge Associated Press

In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011, Marc Lazar, autism specialist for Aspiritech, a nonprofit enterprise that specializes in finding software bugs, works with employee Alan Sun, as they test a new program in Highland Park, Ill. Aspiritech hires only people with autism disorders. Traits that make great software testers _intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail _ also happen to be characteristics of autism. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)to be characteristics of autism. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Associated Press

In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011, employees Oran Weitzberg, left, and Rick Alexander, celebrate a breakthrough, at Aspiritech, a nonprofit enterprise that specializes in finding software bugs, as they test a new program in Highland Park, Ill. Aspiritech hires only people with autism disorders. Traits that make great software testers _intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail _ also happen to be characteristics of autism. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Associated Press

In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011, Aspiritech employees, from left, Rick Alexander, Katie Levin, and Jamie Specht work together at the nonprofit enterprise that specializes in finding software bugs as they test a new program in Highland Park, Ill. Aspiritech hires only people with autism disorders. Traits that make great software testers _intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail _ also happen to be characteristics of autism. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Associated Press

In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011, Aspiritech co-founder Moshe Weitzberg works with his son, Oran, an employee at the nonprofit enterprise that specializes in finding software bugs, as they test a new program in Highland Park, Ill. Aspiritech hires only people with autism disorders. Traits that make great software testers _intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail _ also happen to be characteristics of autism. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (AP) ? The software testers at Aspiritech are a collection of characters. Katie Levin talks nonstop. Brian Tozzo hates driving. Jamie Specht is bothered by bright lights, vacuum cleaners and the feel of carpeting against her skin. Rider Hallenstein draws cartoons of himself as a DeLorean sports car. Rick Alexander finds it unnerving to sit near other people.

This is the unusual workforce of a U.S. startup that specializes in finding software bugs by harnessing the talents of young adults with autism.

Traits that make great software testers ? intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail ? also happen to be characteristics of autism. People with Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism, have normal to high intelligence and often are highly skilled with computers.

Aspiritech, a nonprofit in Highland Park, Ill., nurtures these skills while forgiving the quirks that can make adults with autism unemployable: social awkwardness, poor eye contact, being easily overwhelmed. The company's name plays on the words "Asperger's," "spirit" and "technology."

Clients, nine companies in Aspiritech's first two years, have been pleased.

"They exceeded my expectations," said Dan Tedesco of Shelton, Conn.-based HandHold Adaptive, which took a chance on Aspiritech to test an iPhone application. "There is a pride in their product you don't usually see in this type of work."

Aspiritech was founded by Moshe and Brenda Weitzberg after their son, Oran, now 32, was fired from a job bagging groceries. Oran was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome when he was 14. He now works at Aspiritech.

"He went from failing at bagging groceries to being one of the best software testers on our team," said Brenda Weitzberg.

The Weitzbergs modeled Aspiritech on a successful Danish company called Specialisterne, or "the Specialists." Specialisterne also employs software testers with autism. Its satisfied clients include Oracle and Microsoft.

Other companies in Belgium, Japan and Israel are either hiring or training adults with autism as software testers.

This year, Aspiritech projects $120,000 in revenue, with 60 percent coming from donations and 40 percent from clients. The Weitzbergs hope to raise the client revenue to 50 percent next year.

"There have been a couple of attempts in the U.S. and Aspiritech is the one that's making it," said Scott Standifer of the University of Missouri's Disability Policy and Studies office and the organizer of a national conference on adults with autism and employment.

The exact unemployment rate for adults with autism is unknown, but it's thought to be high, Standifer said.

"We don't know how many adults have autism and, because of that, we don't know their rate of unemployment," he said. "We do know from tracking adults just emerging from high school that they are having great difficulty finding jobs."

A 2009 U.S. Department of Education survey found the employment rate for young adults with autism was on par with that for deaf-and-blind young adults, and well below the rate of those with blindness alone or learning disabilities or traumatic brain injuries, Standifer said.

Since Asperger's syndrome didn't become a standard diagnosis until the early 1990s, many of Aspiritech's software testers were adults when they first learned they were on the autism spectrum. They are pioneers, the first generation of adults with Asperger's.

Katie Levin, 35, was diagnosed in her late 20s with Asperger's. As a child, she'd been labeled as mentally ill.

"Asperger's is not a mental illness," she said. "I definitely feel like I identify with the Asperger's community more than I did with the mental illness community." She tests software and runs Aspiritech's Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Rick Alexander, 24, another tester, has a degree in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology and completed an internship developing software for the city of Chicago.

"I have a lot of social anxiety. I don't like meeting new people," said Alexander, who was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome as a teenager. Like many of the other testers, he lives with his parents.

He'd rather be a software developer than a tester, he said. But selling himself in a job interview is "very difficult for me."

"When you're a child, the school is very concerned with you, the state is very concerned with you," Alexander said. Organizations help adults with autism, he said, but "you need to approach them and for somebody with Asperger's syndrome, it's very difficult to do the approaching."

Most research dollars have gone toward studying children with autism while adults have been neglected, said Molly Losh, an autism researcher at Northwestern University.

"Our vocational structure really isn't suited to funnel people with autism into the workforce," Losh said. Aspiritech "is a magnificent and innovative venture," she said.

Many businesses hire offshore companies to test software. Mike Mestemaker, director of engineering for Schaumburg, Ill.-based ISI Telemanagement Solutions, chose Aspiritech because it offered competitive rates but was based in the United States.

"They dove right in and worked very quickly," Mestemaker said. "They were very detail-oriented people. They really got the job done."

ISI was happy with the work and has hired Aspiritech for a second project, he said.

Aspiritech provides meaningful work (pay is $12 to $15 an hour) in a relaxed environment where bosses never yell if you're late and nobody minds if you need to be alone for a while. What's more, the company is building social skills. The software testers, who are in their 20s and 30s, are trained to work together and they take part in organized outings: miniature golf, bowling, eating at a restaurant.

"We want to improve social skills among people who tend to be socially isolated," said Marc Lazar, Aspiritech's autism specialist. For many of them, software testing is not going to be their lifelong career, Lazar said, "but while they're here they're going to improve their job skills and they're going to learn what kind of behavior is expected on the job and they're going to have more to put on their resumes."

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AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/CarlaKJohnson

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=140657687&ft=1&f=

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