NPR 2008-07-02

New vehicle sales in the US dropped 18% in June, just the latest in a string of bad sales months for the auto 1 industry. From Michigan Radio, Dustin Dwyer reports.

The only major automaker that managed to show any improvement in June was Honda. It had a sales increase of one percent. This June did have three fewer business days for car dealers 2 than last June, but the overall factor affecting the market continues to be gas prices. Analyst 3 Rebecca Lindland of Global Insight says plenty of people are looking to buy a new car so that they can get better fuel economy, but only 12% of the vehicles on the market get better than 25 miles per gallon. “So, if you're in the market and think I want to improve my fuel economy significantly from what I am driving now, there just are not a lot of choices.” And those choices that are available are in short supply, because the automakers can't build enough small cars to keep up with demand. For NPR News, I'm Dustin Dwyer.

 Iraqi government says fewer civilians 5 died last month in war-related violence despite several high-casualty bombings. At the same time, the death toll 6 for American forces rose slightly in June to 29. NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from Baghdad.

Iraq's Health Ministry 7 said 448 civilians died in violence last month, down from 505 in May. Those figures conflict slightly with statistics kept by the Associated Press, which counted more than 550 civilian 4 dead in June. The most deadly single attack was a truck bombing in Baghdad on June 17, which killed 63 people. More recently, bombers 8 targeted local council meetings where Americans were present. An attack in Baghdad's Sadr City district killed two American soldiers and two civilians who worked for the US government as well as six Iraqis. A bombing at a council meeting in Anbar Province left 20 people dead, including three US marines and their interpreters. Corey Flintoff, NPR News, Baghdad.

 Retired General Wesley Clark has rejected suggestions he should apologize for remarks made during a television interview where he said that John McCain's military service does not qualify him for the White House. In an interview with NPR today, Clark said his comments about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee 9 have been misconstrued. “When one candidate, like John McCain, has had obvious early experience in the Armed Forces, it is natural then to ask how much is (does) that experience contribute to shaping his judgment 10 and how good his judgment now.” Obama, who did not serve in the military, has frequently cited his own opposition 11 to the 2003 invasion of Iraq as evidence of the judgment needed to be commander-in-chief.

 On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32 points today to close at 11, 382. The NASDAQ gained nearly 12 points, ending the session at 2, 305. The S&P 500 rose nearly five points.

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Coffee giant Starbucks is announcing major cutbacks. The Seattle-based coffee retailer 12 says it will close nearly 600 of its underperforming US stores. The move is expected to result in a loss of as many as 12, 000 full&part time jobs, around seven percent of the company's global workforce 13. The company announced today it expects to have completed the majority of the closings by the end of March of 2009. Starbucks President Howard Schultz called the decision to close the stores a difficult one to make. Starbucks estimates total pretax charges associated with severance 14 would be in the range of 328 million to 348 million dollars.

The FBI is investigating the death of a 19-year-old man who was jailed a day earlier for killing 15 a policeman in Maryland. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports.

The Maryland Medical Examiner ruled Monday that Ronnie White's death in a Prince George's County jail was from strangulation. The Maryland State Police and FBI are investigating, and the FBI is focusing on possible civil rights violations 16. Ronnie White had been charged with first-degree murder in the death last week of a Prince George's County officer. The officer got out of his car and was hit and dragged by a truck. Authorities said White was driving the truck and that it had been stolen. White was one of four people arrested when the truck was found at a nearby apartment complex shortly after the officer was killed. Prison guards say they put White in a maximum-security cell and had been checking on him every half hour. At 10: 15 a.m., they say he was alert and sitting on the side of his bunk 17. Fifteen minutes later, he was found dead. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News, Washington.

More signs problems in the housing market have further to go: the government says construction spending fell four-tenths of a percent in May.