In brief: Obama to speak about economy

Osawatomie, Kan. – President Barack Obama plans to head to the Republican stronghold of Kansas this week to deliver an economic speech about how he considers this a “make-or-break moment” for the middle class, the White House announced Saturday.

Obama is scheduled to speak Tuesday at the high school in Osawatomie, the city where a century ago, former President Teddy Roosevelt delivered a speech calling for a “New Nationalism.” Roosevelt’s speech, given after he left the White House, extolled the government’s role in promoting social justice and regulating the economy to help the underprivileged. He criticized some fellow Republicans for refusing to tackle the economic power of the wealthy.

Obama will “lay out the choice we face between a country in which too few do well while too many struggle to get by, and one where we’re all in it together – where everyone engages in fair play, everyone does their fair share, and everyone gets a fair shot,” the White House said.

McGovern ‘alert,’ stable at hospital

Sioux Falls, S.D. – Former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was alert, comfortable and in stable condition at a South Dakota hospital Saturday after hitting his head during a fall, hospital officials said.

The 89-year-old former U.S. senator was taken by helicopter to a Sioux Falls hospital late Friday after falling outside Dakota Wesleyan University’s McGovern Library in Mitchell. A school official said McGovern hit his head on the pavement about two hours before he was scheduled to appear on a live C-SPAN interview at the library.

“Senator McGovern is alert and resting comfortably but, as with any head injury, it is important that we observe the situation closely,” Dr. Michael Elliott, chief medical officer at Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center, said in a written statement Saturday.