President Obama has kicked off his three-day bus tour of the Midwest with a broadside against not only the Republican Party as a whole but the field of GOP candidates. Mr. Obama to stop in Minnesota and later in the day in Iowa criticized his potential 2012 rivals for their unwillingness to consider any deficit-cutting measures that would include tax hikes.

 

"My hope is that Congress is willing to take up tax reform. So far they've said that they're willing to do it. But so far we haven't seen a lot of energy."

 

Speaking in Decorah Iowa, the president defended his own record, saying he makes no apologies for being reasonable. The president also pledged to present a specific jobs plan to Congress when lawmakers return from their summer recess.

 

The new leader of al-Qaeda is renewing calls for attacks on the US. As NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports, he appears in a new video posted on militant websites.

 

The 12-minute message is the third from Ayman al-Zawahiri since he was named al-Qaeda's leader in June. In the latest dispatch, he said bin Laden's death should not shake the resolve of followers to attack the US. Zawahiri said America was a criminal country that has corrupted the world. US leaders have said in recent weeks that al-Qaeda's core operation is on the ropes. But in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, officials are concerned that lone supporters of al-Qaeda will take the opportunity to launch small-bore attacks. Intelligence gleaned from the compound where bin Laden was killed indicates that al-Qaeda was keen to mark the 10th anniversary with another attack. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News.

 

Google says it is buying suburban Chicago-based Motorola Mobility. Tony Arnold with member station WBEZ reports the price tag more than 12.5 billion dollars.

 

Google is gaining a key maker of Android cell phones in its acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Earlier in this year, Motorola officially split into two companies. Google's acquiring Motorola Mobility, the side that focuses on cell phones. It's Google's biggest acquisition to date. In a statement, Google CEO Larry Page says that together the two companies will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem. Earlier in this year, Motorola Mobility CEO announced the company would be staying put in Illinois, thanks to a 10-year benefit package from the governor. Motorola Mobility has about 3,000 employees. For NPR News, I'm Tony Arnold in Chicago.

 

Strong sales at department stores and at airports have been credited by cosmetics maker Estée Lauder for better-than-expected quarterly earnings numbers. The company's products include Clinique, Bobbi Brown and M.A.C. It’s forecasting tougher times ahead, however. Estée Lauder says in the months ending in July, the company posted net income of 41.1 million dollars with 20 cents a share.

 

After last week's up-and-down roller coaster ride on Wall Street, things are a bit calmer to begin the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 213 points today; NASDAQ was up 47 points.

 

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In the what is now a nine-day strike, Verizon workers wearing red shirts placed a wreath at the suburban New York location where a colleague was fatally injured while on a picket line 22 years ago. Many of the 45,000 striking employees also return to picket lines of their own as they protest plans by the company for contract givebacks, including cuts to employee pensions and health care benefits. A striking employee who was killed on August 15th of 1989 died after jumping on the hood of a replacement worker's car then falling off. Verizon last week was granted an injunction to limit picketing by striking workers in New Jersey.

 

A new study in the journal Pediatrics shed some unexpected light on autism. As NPR's Richard Knox tells us, the report finds the younger siblings of an autistic child have a higher risk of the disorder than experts thought.

 

It's one of the first questions parents with autistic children have: What are the chances of this happening again? Experts thought it was between 3% and 14%. But the new study, the largest of its kind, finds that 19% of younger siblings will have a form of autism. For male siblings, it rises to one in four. And if there're two or more older children with autism, the risk is even higher - 33%. Alicia Halliday of the group Autism Speaks says knowing the true risk may change the thinking of parents and pediatricians.

 

"We hope that parents can now receive an earlier diagnosis and then get the proper treatment for their child."

 

Autism Speaks helped fund the study, along with the National Institutes of Health. Richard Knox, NPR News.

 

Crude oil futures prices closed higher. The price of oil up $2.50 a barrel to end the session at $87.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

 

I'm Jack Speer, NPR News in Washington.