NPR News 2011-07-02 加文本

NPR News 2011-07-02

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, has been freed from house arrest and is no longer on bail. NPR's Margot Adler reports that prosecutors now say there are holes in the credibility of the housekeeper who accused him of rape at a Manhattan hotel.

Strauss-Kahn's accuser had said she was gang-raped in her country Guinea when she applied for political asylum. Turns out not true. She misrepresented her income and claimed another child as her own on tax returns. According to the New York Times, she made a phone call to a man in prison for drug charges, discussing whether she should press her case. This man had in the past apparently deposited cash in the woman's account. Most of these findings have nothing to do with the alleged rape, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said the case goes forward.

"Today's proceedings did not dismiss the indictment or any of the charges against the defendant."

Strauss-Kahn will now be allowed to travel within the United States. He still has no passport and can't leave the country. Margot Adler, NPR News, New York.

Thousands of state workers in Minnesota are in limbo with a government shutdown over stalled budget talks. This also means state projects such as roadwork are on hold just as the country gears up for the long holiday weekend. So far this year, Minnesota's government is the only one in the nation to close, and this would be the state's second shutdown in six years.

The Democratic governor of Illinois is looking to narrow his state's budget problems by canceling raises for state employees. Amanda Vinicky, statehouse bureau chief for Illinois Public Radio, says Governor Pat Quinn's proposal comes after the state promised raises in union contracts.

The budget that legislators sent to Govenor Pat Quinn is the most austere that Illinois has seen in quite some time after years of bloated budgets and overspending. They say that they're really trying to rein things in and including they did not give as much money to pay for state employees' salaries.

Illinois Public Radio's Amanda Vinicky.

Authorities in Greece say that they won't allow ships heading to the Gaza Strip to leave Greek ports. Several hundred activists in nine ships are waiting to sail to the Palestinian territory. We have more from Joanna Kakissis.

The Greek coast guard said it intercepted the ship called "The Audacity of Hope" after it left the port of Perama near Athens. The ship is carrying 36 Americans including Pulitzer prize-winning writer Alice Walker. Donna Nevel, a spokeswoman for the ship, said that passengers told her the coast guard forced them to stop sailing and is diverting them to another port. The Obama administration and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have told activists not to sail to Gaza. A spokesman for the Greek Foreign Ministry said Greece also supports its position, and that's why it has banned Gaza-bound ships from leaving its ports.

Joanna Kakissis reporting.

The Dow was up 170 points.

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Builders began work on fewer projects in May, the Commerce Department saying construction spending slipped 0.6%, largely because of a big drop in government projects. Danielle Karson reports the money spent on new construction is at the lowest level in more than 10 years.

Spending in private building jobs and government projects such as new schools fell to just under 758 billion dollars, about half of the 1.5-trillion-dollar level that's considered healthy. But Patrick Newport, an economist with IHS Global Insight, says with the construction sector scraping bottom, it has no where to go, but up.

"We have a population that grows by three million a year. People have to live somewhere. So at some point, we will need to start putting up more homes."

But that won't be for a while. Builders have been struggling to keep their heads above water since the housing bust. They're competing with a market overflowing with more than three million cheaper existing homes. For NPR News, I'm Danielle Karson in Washington.

The Michigan ban preventing universities from using race and gender in considering which students to admit has been struck down. In a 2-1 decision today, a federal appeals court found the voter-approved Proposal 2 was unconstitutional because it says it burdens minorities. The law had forced many schools including the University of Michigan to change their admissions policies, which had given minorities preferential treatment.

In a long-awaited civil ceremony, Monaco's Prince Albert II has wed South African former Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock. Grace Kelly, the late Hollywood legend, married Albert's father Prince Rainier in 1956. Celebrations of today's ceremony will continue into the weekend.

This is NPR News.