NPR 2012-06-26

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“I believe we have accomplished³ a lot, in that it was upheld by the United States Supreme Court, and that we will move forward, instructing law enforcement to begin practicing what the United States Supreme Court has upheld.”

 

Meanwhile, speaking for the Service Employees International Union, Eliseo Medina said his rank-and-file is not happy.

 

“We are extremely disappointed that they upheld the “show me your papers” provision. We think that that is clearly a violation⁴ of human and civil rights, that it will, in fact, lead to racial profiling.”

 

President Obama welcomed provisions of the ruling striking down sections of the law and today renewed his call for a national overhaul⁵ of immigration law. The justices also ruled that a mandatory⁶ life sentence without parole is unconstitutional for juveniles⁸. NPR's Nina Totenberg explains.

 

The judge must or the jury must consider the youth and the background of this individual, whether the person was in fact, the shooter, the actual person, the trigger man, or was he or she an accomplice⁹. All of those things have to be considered before you sentence a juvenile⁷ to life in prison without parole. Not that you cannot do it, but you have to consider other factors you can't, on a mandatory basis, sentence juveniles to life in prison without parole. NPR's Nina Totenberg.

 

Some good news for the struggling construction market. NPR's Sonari Glinton reports. 

 

In May, the sale of new homes went up almost 8%. It's the best growth since April, 2010. That was the last month that people could qualify for a federal home-buying tax credit. Americans bought approximately 360,000 new homes. That's a big increase, but it's still far below the 700,000 economists¹⁰ would consider healthy. The sales gains were concentrated in two reasons of the country. New home sales increased more than 36% in the Northeast and nearly 30% in the South. They fell in the West and the Midwest. Some of the reasons for the overall growth in the new home market, affordability¹¹. Mortgage rates are at an all-time low, and prices remain low as well. Sonari Glinton, NPR News.

 

On Wall Street, approaching the close, the Dow was down 128 at 12,512; the NASDAQ down 54 at 2,837.

 

This is NPR News.

 

Eurozone anxieties are leading world oil prices lower, translating into savings¹² at the pump. Analyst¹³ Chelbie Lunber puts the average price of a gallon of regular in the US now at 347 down 48 cents from early April. 

 

The scandal-plagued Vatican has hired a Fox News correspondent in Rome to improve its communications strategy. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports the American journalist is a member of the conservative Catholic group, Opus Dei.

 

Fifty-two-year-old Greg Burke has been with Fox News ten years, and he’ll be the first Vatican communications expert with experience outside the world of religious media. Last week, the Pope's right-hand man Cardinal¹⁴ Tarcisio Bertone accused the media of pettiness and lies. The Vatican has been bedeviled by communication errors since Benedict's 2005 election. The Pope's infamous¹⁵ remarks about Muslims and violence, his decision to rehabilitate¹⁶ a schismatic bishop¹⁷ who denied the holocaust¹⁸ and the Vatican's response to the 2010 explosion of sex abuse scandals in Europe are just a few. The Vatican is now dealing¹⁹ with leaks of sensitive documents. In accordance with Opus Dei discipline, Burke is celibate²⁰ and gives most of his income to the movement. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.

 

A spate²¹ of fires across the state of Colorado could leave many hotels and campgrounds empty for the Fourth of July holiday. A forest fire near Rocky Mountain National Park burned almost two dozen homes and other structures, and Florida Governor Richard Scott has declared a statewide emergency because of Tropical Storm Debby. The system has been drenching²² Florida with rain and spawning²³ tornados²⁴.

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