Mark Memmott

The Pima County (Arizona) Republican Party's decision to raffle off a Glock 23 .40-caliber handgun has generated some sharp criticism because not only is Pima County part of Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' district, but also because the gun used in January to kill six people and wound 13 others, including Giffords, was a Glock.

There was no net growth in jobs in August and the nation's unemployment rate stayed at 9.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported.

Good morning.

The most anticipated story of the day, which we reported about earlier, is the 8:30 a.m. ET release of the August employment report.

We've also already posted about a strong earthquake that was detected in the last hour off the Aleutian Islands.

This just happened:

A strong earthquake (preliminary magnitude of 7.1 later revised to 6.8) has been detected in a remote area of the Aleutian Islands off Alaska, about 1,000 miles west southwest of Anchorage, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.

The August employment report, due for release at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show that the jobless rate stayed at 9.1 percent, or ticked higher, and that fewer jobs were added to payrolls than in July, both Reuters and Bloomberg News are reporting.

Each news service is basing their forecasts on surveys of economist.