Tuesday, May 25, 2004 The Marketplace Morning Report with Kai Ryssdal and Tess Vigeland is a series of seven 9-minute business news modules airing weekdays. This timely report delivers a global business newscast and a hard-hitting feature report. Visit the archive to browse previous stories. Note: Each of the broadcasts contains some of the newscast items below and one of the features. Since only a few radio markets get all seven broadcasts, we've made them available below.

Broadcasts Listen: 5:50 | 6:50 | 7:50 | 8:50 | 9:50 | 10:50 | 11:50 (times are a.m., Eastern Daylight Time)

Newscast Stories From Washington: For years many American executives have been free to make huge political contributions directly from their companies' treasuries. And often they can cut those checks without telling stockholders where those gifts are going. Some public employee pension funds are trying to change that. From New York: A report on existing home sales for April comes out later this morning. Analysts say it may show a slight slip from March's record-breaking numbers. But its far from the slump we've seen in mobile home sales in recent years. From Los Angeles: Seems like every month or so, the record industry announces it's suing another bunch of people for illegally downloading music. It's happening again. From Tokyo: Good news out of Japan - many of the country`s top banks are back in the black. For the past decade Japan`s bad loan crisis has hobbled the country`s massive economy and caused more than a few jitters on world financial markets. From London: The campaign against huge illicit trade gets underway in Brussels today. Police officers and government officials from around the world are attending the first global conference on counterfeit goods. From Los Angeles: Kmart has won high marks for fighting its way out of bankruptcy. But now the retailer faces an even bigger challenge: keeping up with Wal-Mart and Target. Kmart is holding it first annual meeting in three years today, giving shareholders a chance to hear the company's survival strategy. From Hungary: Outsourcing has become the buzzword of late. It seems like every industry is doing it. Including Hollywood. Now, even big-budget movies like Troy are being filmed at inexpensive locations overseas. Features The Vocation Vacation Ever wonder what it would be like to actually work in your dream job? Next time you’re on vacation you might be able to find out. As part of our series on unusual (Western) Businesses, reporter Mitchell Hartman introduces us to a business where people use their vacation to try out a new vocation.

Visa Battles The U.S. is close to awarding a contract for a system to track foreign visitors to the U.S. Ashley Milne-Tyte looks at just how useful the new system would be. Then, there is an economic down side to imposing tougher restrictions on foreign visitors. Commentator Lawrence Krauss explains how a crackdown on visas poses a threat to the country’s future in science.