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News In Brief

PODCAST: Consumer bankruptcies down, ostriches are unhappy

Chau Tu Jul 5, 2011

Here are today’s top headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report and from around the web.

Businesses requested more airplanes, autos, and oil drilling equipment in May. The increase in factory orders suggests supply disruptions stemming from the Japan crisis are fading.

Consumer bankruptcies fell 8 percent in the first half of 2011 from the same period last year as households cut debt and the economy recovered, according to data released Tuesday.

Oil prices remain around $95 a barrel as a stronger U.S. dollar is making crude a tad more expensive for other currencies.

General Motors says it sold nearly 200,000 cars in China in June — up 10 percent over a year ago.

In D.C., lawmakers are back at it… on a week they’d expected to take vacation. They’re looking for a compromise that would allow the government to raise the debt ceiling.

Officials say the seeds that caused the E. Coli outbreak in Europe are still on the market in some places. They say they were shipped to countries including Australia, Britain and Spain. Health officials warn there could be further outbreaks.

Ostriches in New York are unhappy. Yeah, you heard me right: Local-vores in New York like to eat ostrich meat and the bird’s gigantic eggs. But, according to the Wall Street Journal, lady ostriches have gone on strike — no more eggs. Apparently, there’s just not been enough sunshine around New York City. This is a problem if you sell ostrich eggs. Apparently the delay in egg laying has cost one farmer $150,000. Super-giant ostrich omelet anyone?

Some homeowners in Miami say they’re tired of tourists anchoring their boats right off their waterfront property. Property taxes on their multi-million-dollar estates top $100,000 a year. Yet the boaters — which enjoy the same sunset views of Biscayne Bay — sit right offshore… for free. There are no laws against it. So some of the homeowners have taken their own hardcore measures, like shining floodlights all night long and playing loud hip-hop music during the day. One of the boaters is undeterred though. Telling the Miami Herald homeowners who don’t want to share the water should move to the desert.

You can read the rest of today’s stories from the Marketplace Morning Report here.

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