Morning Edition

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm David Greene. Some photos on Twitter ended Anthony Weiner's congressional career. The latest online image, not quite as damaging. Weiner launched his campaign yesterday to be mayor of New York City, and a gorgeous city skyline showed up on his homepage: the skyline of Pittsburgh, my home town. I'm honored if the Web designer is impressed with our city's skyline.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.

Fracking may have met its match in Germany, where beer makers have lined against it. Fracking, of course, is a way of bringing up natural gas by pumping water and chemicals into the ground. Germany's powerful beer industry is concerned fracking would pollute groundwater. Half of Germany's 1,300 brewers have their own wells and say the pure water is the essence of their famous beers. And if there's one thing Germans take seriously, its beer. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And our last word in business today, quite a tongue lashing for McDonald's. The company held its annual shareholders meeting in yesterday, and when the floor opened for questions, a nine-year-old girl approached the microphone.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Hannah Robertson spoke loud and clear, saying quote, "there are things in life that aren't fair, like when your pet dies." And she continued, "I don't think it's fair when big companies try to trick kids into eating food."

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And I'm David Greene.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

More now, on the new federal health care law. States are preparing for that law to take effect. In California, officials have now unveiled plans and prices from millions of residents who will be using a new health insurance exchange two purchase their coverage next year. This is a key test of the federal health law's ability to draw competitive bids from insurance companies.

Sarah Varney reports.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And for the past few months, global stock markets appeared to be on an escalator going up, relentlessly reaching new highs. This week, that ride seems to be over - or maybe not. To find out, we turn, as we often do, to David Wessel, he's the economics editor of The Wall Street Journal.

Good morning.

DAVID WESSEL: Good morning, Renee.

MONTAGNE: David, put the stock markets into perspective for us. Apart from the day-to-day ups and downs, which we have been seeing, how have the markets been doing?