As the media spotlight on presidential politics turned from Denver to St. Paul, and as a powerful hurricane churned toward a fearful New Orleans, newspapers tucked inside more bad news about the economy. This Labor Day weekend, lower wages and higher prices for essentials like fuel and food are the hard facts facing working families.

Incomes Drop Personal incomes plunged in July while consumer spending slowed significantly as the impact of billions of dollars in government rebate checks began to wane. The Commerce Department reported today that personal incomes fell by 0.7 percent in July, the biggest drop in nearly three years and a far larger decline than the 0.1 percent decrease that analysts had expected, AP reported.

Pakistan's Presidential Favorite Under Guard The favorite to be Pakistan's next president has moved into a guarded government compound over security fears, officials said Friday as a militant campaign against the government led to more violence in the country's volatile northwest, according to The Associated Press.

New Orleans Fears Gustav Fear and foreboding gripped still-mending New Orleans as a potential Category 3 hurricane whirled toward the Gulf Coast on the eve of Hurricane Katrina's three-year anniversary, the LA Times reported. Republican officials are considering delaying the start of the GOP convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul because of the storm, and The Washington Post said the threat is serious enough that White House officials are debating whether President Bush should cancel his scheduled convention appearance on Monday.

Taking on Poverty While new census data on poverty, income and health insurance for 2007 "don't even include the devastation wrought by the housing and credit crisis, and high energy costs, they nevertheless paint a bleak picture with poverty on the rise and working people's pay stagnating despite increased productivity," according to an online column in The Nation. Katrina vanden Heuvel quoted Senator Bernie Sanders saying, "We have the biggest gap between the rich and everybody else since the Great Depression."

Worker Confidence Sinks American workers' confidence in the job market is as low as it was during the 2001 recession, according to a new survey. When asked whether this is a bad time to find a quality job, 65 percent said it was, matching the level of the 2001 recession, according to the survey by Rutgers University released Thursday. With unemployment at 5.7 percent, the highest level since 2004, and with weekly unemployment claims hitting a six-year high earlier this month, workers are worried about everything from their weekly hours to their total pay, The Associated Press reported.

A giant crack that is now 7 miles long and about half a mile wide is spreading in part of a massive glacier in northern Greenland, worrying scientists that a major portion of the largest floating glacier in the Northern Hemisphere could fall apart within a year. The crack is in a huge chunk of ice almost the size of Chittenden County that broke off the Petermann glacier in July. "As we see this phenomenon occurring further and further north -- and Petermann is as far north as you can get -- it certainly adds to the concern," Waleed Abdalati, director of the Center for the Study of Earth from Space at the University of Colorado, told The Associated Press. Scientists are studying whether the glacier fracture is part of normal stress or an effect of global warming. In the south of Greenland, the fastest retreating glacier in the world, set new records for how far it has moved inland, according to satellite images.

Taking on Poverty While new census data on poverty, income and health insurance for 2007 "don't even include the devastation wrought by the housing and credit crisis, and high energy costs, they nevertheless paint a bleak picture with poverty on the rise and working people's pay stagnating despite increased productivity," according to an online column in The Nation. Katrina vanden Heuvel quoted Senator Bernie Sanders saying, "We have the biggest gap between the rich and everybody else since the Great Depression."

Worker Confidence Sinks American workers' confidence in the job market is as low as it was during the 2001 recession, according to a new survey. When asked whether this is a bad time to find a quality job, 65 percent said it was, matching the level of the 2001 recession, according to the survey by Rutgers University released Thursday. With unemployment at 5.7 percent, the highest level since 2004, and with weekly unemployment claims hitting a six-year high earlier this month, workers are worried about everything from their weekly hours to their total pay, The Associated Press reported.

Scientists Report Further Shrinking of Arctic Ice Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the second-lowest level since record-keeping began three decades ago, a group of international researchers determined yesterday, a revelation underscoring how rapidly climate change is transforming ecosystems in northern latitudes. The Washington Post said the extent of Arctic sea ice is now 2 million square miles below the long-term average for Aug. 26, according to the International Arctic Research Center and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, a figure that is within 400,000 square miles of the all-time record low set in September 2007.

Fewer Lack Health Insurance The number of people lacking health insurance dropped by more than 1 million in 2007, the first annual decline since the Bush administration took office, and the overall poverty rate held steady, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The number of Americans without health insurance fell to 45.7 million, down from 47 million in 2006, largely because more people were covered through government programs, The Associated Press reported.

US Census: Vt. Household Income Declines New U.S. Census Bureau figures indicate Vermont's median household income has been dropping through the middle of this decade. Census figures show that median household income in Vermont dropped from $52,902 in 2004-2005 to $50,423 in 2006 and 2007. That 4.7 percent decline was the second-steepest drop in the country, topped only by North Carolina, The Associated Press reported.

New Census Bureau data released this week on poverty, income and health insurance painted a bleak picture of the American economy in 2007, a year before the housing market collapsed and energy prices soared. In Vermont, the median household income dropped to $50,423, a 4.7 percent decline that was the second-steepest in the country, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the rich are getting richer. Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute agreed with Senator Bernie Sanders that the income gap hasn't been so wide since the Great Depression, The Nation reported online on Wednesday. Bernstein said the concentration of wealth in the richest 1 percent of Americans is greater than at any time since 1928, and while the economy expanded in the 2000s, that growth clearly failed to reach most households. "Never before has poverty been higher and median income for working-age households lower at the end of a multi-year economic expansion than at the beginning," added Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

Scientists Report Further Shrinking of Arctic Ice Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the second-lowest level since record-keeping began three decades ago, a group of international researchers determined yesterday, a revelation underscoring how rapidly climate change is transforming ecosystems in northern latitudes. The Washington Post said the extent of Arctic sea ice is now 2 million square miles below the long-term average for Aug. 26, according to the International Arctic Research Center and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, a figure that is within 400,000 square miles of the all-time record low set in September 2007.

Fewer Lack Health Insurance The number of people lacking health insurance dropped by more than 1 million in 2007, the first annual decline since the Bush administration took office, and the overall poverty rate held steady, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The number of Americans without health insurance fell to 45.7 million, down from 47 million in 2006, largely because more people were covered through government programs, The Associated Press reported.

US Census: Vt. Household Income Declines New U.S. Census Bureau figures indicate Vermont's median household income has been dropping through the middle of this decade. Census figures show that median household income in Vermont dropped from $52,902 in 2004-2005 to $50,423 in 2006 and 2007. That 4.7 percent decline was the second-steepest drop in the country, topped only by North Carolina, The Associated Press reported.

Sanders at Democratic Convention Senator Bernie Sanders is using his role as an independent to gather support for Democrat Barack Obama. Vermont Public Radio said Sanders will join "Vermont Edition" host Jane Lindholm from the Democratic convention in Denver to look at the role of independent voters. (Live at noon)

Rural Challenges Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will moderate a forum this afternoon about the challenges facing rural America. Participants will discuss how rural Americans have a difficult time developing their local economies -- since many are still struggling to get internet access, WCAX News reported.

Sanders, Obama, Biden Bill on Global Warming Environmentalists note that Biden's proposals dovetail with those Obama has put forward. Like Obama, Biden has called for capping greenhouse-gas emissions at 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, and he signed on as a cosponsor of the Boxer-Sanders Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, the toughest climate bill in the Senate, Grist reported.