Wednesday, May 26, 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: Today in Iran a new set of Islamic conservatives join the Parliament. Promoters of women's rights and free press consider that a setback for their agenda. But it doesn't necessarily mean economic growth will suffer. From Seattle: A six month delay for Boeing. That's how much time Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says his team needs to decide whether the Air Force really needs 100 new re-fueling tankers from the aerospace giant. Critics say the deal is tilted in Boeing's favor. From Cape Town, South Africa: April housing resale numbers came out yesterday, showing the fastest resale pace this year and the second fastest on record. Why the rush? Expectations of rising interest rates, of course. Elsewhere in the world, housing is hot as well. The world's hottest housing market is in South Africa - where prices jumped almost 23 percent last year. From Washington: The cost of the 30 most popular name brand drugs prescribed for seniors rose at 4.3 times the rate of inflation last year, according to a new study by Families USA. From Los Angeles: If you trade stocks with Charles Schwab, you'll soon get a big discount on commissions. Beginning in mid-June, the cost will drop from about $30 a trade to about $20. From Tokyo: Toyota`s Lexus brand car is sold all over the world - except in Japan. But after more than a decade of success and profits in the U.S., Toyota announced plans to set up Lexus dealerships at home. From London: A leaked Parliamentary report in Britain, accused the British government of failing to tackle the problem of obesity. It claims obesity could threaten the survival of the publicly-funded healthcare system. From Los Angeles: What's the difference between a merger and a takeover? At least $10 to $30 billion dollars according to a new lawsuit filed against DaimlerChrysler. The suit claims that's how much shareholders were cheated out of when the company was created in 1998. From New York: With the amount of attention focusing on how expensive healthcare is becoming for employers you might think companies would welcome information on resumes that would hint at how healthy their candidates are. But they don't. Features Terrorism, Oil, and our Cost of Living If you think gas prices are high now, wait until later this summer. In this edition of The Public’s Business, Marketplace commentator Robert Reich explains how the war on terrorism is putting a premium on the price you’re paying at the pump.

America's Wartime Ghost Towns With U.S. troops currently working in Iraq, some American cities that are home to military bases have become virtual ghost towns. Now, with many troops staying longer in Iraq than expected, Marketplace’s Karen Lowe looks at how the communities are holding up.