Segments From This Episode

• Big Tobacco’s troubles spread to Africa

  by Scott Jagow

  Can't find new smokers in the West? Why not try kids in Africa! The Nigerian state of Kano says that's what tobacco companies have done, and now they're suing. Times of London's Tosin Sulaiman fills us in.

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• Firecracker fun made in China

  by John Dimsdale

  Fireworks are as American as apple pie and the Fourth of July, except that almost all of them are made in China. So how do we know if they're safe? The industry acted to defuse that issue nearly 20 years ago, but it's not failsafe, John Dimsdale reports.

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• Freedom of information overload

  by John Dimsdale

  The Freedom of Information Act requires the federal government to release unclassified documents. That'd be great if people were always getting them. A new study has found a mounting backlog of unanswered requests, John Dimsdale reports.

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• Tequila puts agave on the hog cycle

  by Dan Grech

  Back in the late '90s, tequila made such a big splash in U.S. pop culture that it drove up the price of agave, the spiky plant used to make Mexico's national liquor. The events that followed tell an age-old story in agriculture. Dan Grech explains.

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• Happy 4th! Please return your kegs

  by Marketplace Staff

  Keg thieves are tapping into the beer industry's collective bottom line, siphoning off over $40 million a year, into scrap metal mostly. The Beer Institute's Jeff Becker tells us how they're making off with so many empty kegs, and what's being done about it.

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• Don’t buy your plane ticket just yet…

  by Amy Scott

  Airfares have been sky-high this summer travel season. Luckily some new websites have cropped up recently to help you figure out when to buy for the best bargain. Amy Scott checks them out.

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• Private equity has a new place to stay

  by Scott Jagow

  The Blackstone Group is planning an extended stay in the hotel biz. It announced last night that it's buying Hilton Hotels for $26 billion, the latest and certainly greatest evidence of private equity's rising interest in hospitality.

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