New Home sales are at their highest levels in two years after climbing 3.6% last month. Brian Wesbury Chief economist with First Trust in Illinois says, he is convinced housing is just on the mend.

Just about every housing number we have seen in the past two or three months has shown that the housing recovery is for real.

On the downside, an additional 4,000 people filed new unemployment claims last week. The last volatile four-week average has also risen slightly.

 

 

Many residents and tourists in the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are feeling the effects of tropical storm Issac as it moves closer. There is a concern it will hit Florida as a hurricane in the next few days. The state says it is prepared though ahead of the Republican National convention to be held in Tampa. 

 

 

Missouri senator Claire McCaskill's gain in the aftermath of challenger Todd Akin's controversial comments on the abortion and rape may be Florida senator Bill Nelson's loss. The conservative tax-exempt group that pulled ads attacking McCaskill in Missouri is starting to run ads against Nelson. NPR's ** reports.

Crossroads GPS has emerged the biggest spending outside group in the coming elections. It had not gone after Nelson this year who is facing a challenge from Republican congressman Connie Mack IV. That changed today. When it announced a 4-million dollar ad campaign in four states. With more than half of it in Florida, accusing Nelson of cutting medicare. 

Bill Nelson has been voting for the new health care law which cuts medicare spending by 700 billion dollars.

Crossroads had invested millions in the Missouri senate race before pulling its ads earlier this week after Akin's remarks about pregnancy and rape. The other states in the new buy are Montana, Ohio, and New Mexico. ** NPR News.

 

 

The man accused of killing 12 people in a Colorado movie theatre is back in court today. His lawyers argued over whether his school records can be used in the case against him. Colorado Public Radio's  Megan Verlee reports. 

Holmes is in the process of dropping out a neuroscience PHD program at the University of Colorado before the attacks. Documents from his time at the school could be used by prosecutors to challenge Holmes expected insanity plea. It's not clear what arguments Holmes lawyers are relying on to keep the documents out of the case. Because their briefs have been sealed by the court. The school records may include things like transcripts and emails between professors about Holmes. Next week, both sides will debate whether Holmes had a doctor-patient relationship with the psychiatrist at the university and whether a package he sent can be used as evidence in the case. For NPR News, I'm Megan Verlee, in San Antonio, Colorado. 

 

 

This is NPR News.

 

 

The last surviving member of one of the most famous Gospel group of the last century has died. Willa Ward was 91 years old. As NPR's Neda Ulaby reports the Ward Singers influenced Aretha Franklin among many others.

The Ward Singers were female centred Gospel force from the 1930s to the 1960s. They brought glamour to Gospel. With their ** covered and they had voices like trumpets and hoots.

That's Willa Ward singing lead. She was never quite as famous as her younger sister Clara Ward, but Willa Ward was part of a galvanizing musical movement. The Ward sisters just played ** musical during the days of segregation, ** Gospel to main street attention with appearance on ** and other national television shows. Willa Ward lacked the group her mother funded early on partly . Because she is more interested in popular music. Ward died in Philadelphia after a long battle with **. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.(纠结。)

 

 

The weekly drought monitor map shows 2/3 of Iowa. The nation's No.1 corn producer now impacted by the nationwide drought. Price of corn, soybeans and wheat have been rising as more states are effected especially in the middle west. 

 

 

A southern Indiana farm has been linked now to a deadly salmonella outbreak from tainted cantaloup. The Food and Drug Administration says Chamberlain farm is under investigation as possibly one source of the outbreak that has killed at least two people and sickened 178 in several states.