Posted by Katharine Crnko
For Marketplace Morning Report, Friday June 24, 2011
Here are today’s top headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report and from around the web.
The Commerce Department reported growth in the first quarter of the year was only slightly higher than initially thought. The GDP was revised from 1.8 to 1.9 percent.
New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods rose more than expected in May as bookings for transportation equipment rebounded strongly, according to a government report on Friday that could allay fears of a sharp slowdown in factory activity.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today that European leaders agreed they want Croatia to become a member of the EU.
Oil is trading just below $92-a-share after yesterday’s news that the U.S. and other countries will open up strategic oil reserves to make up for lost production from Libya.
President Obama will be in Pittsburgh today pushing high-tech manufacturing like biotech and robotics. That idea is just one of many to get the nation’s rustbelt out of its long slow industrial decline.
The deficit is big news in Washington. Not only the federal one. The local one too. A couple of years ago, then-mayor Adrian Fenty said by putting cameras on street sweepers, the district could find elusive parking offenders, ticket them and bring in more than $7 million a year in fines. Since the program started nearly a year ago — it’s only brought in a scant $390,000. It seems like deficit fever runs deep in the district.
If you want an indication of just how tense things are getting in Washington look no further than a new bar in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. Its signature drink is a 48 ounce martini that’s as big as your head. It sells for $80. And includes a ladle if necessary. Radio station WTOP reports the bar is selling about 40 of the drinks every week.
On this “Take your Dog to Work Day” here’s something to wrap your leash around. That barking that Fido does? It’s all our fault. From 50,000 years of human companionship and the dog’s evolution to fit our needs. Wired magazine reports on a new study that centers on the fact that domesticated dogs are much more likely to bark than dogs in the wild. And without getting into the complicated algorithms of bark communication between man and man’s best friend suffice it to say when you hear that yappie pup in the apartment upstairs you can thank … you.
You can read the rest of today’s stories from the Marketplace Morning Report here.
Here are the songs we played:
- The Look — MetronomyBuy
- Girl and the Sea — PresetsBuy
- End of the Line — Daft PunkBuy
- They Want Real — D-TensionBuy
- Emma Blowgun’s Last Stand — BeulahBuy
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