Morning Edition from NPR

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NPR's business news starts with more positive signs for the economy.

The U.S. economy is improving faster than previously predicted. This, according to two dozen economists surveyed by the Associated Press. The economists foresee stronger growth and more hiring than they did two months ago, and predict an unemployment rate at around eight percent by Election Day.

NPR's Dan Charles has been looking into the problem of weeds that America's most widely used weed-killer won't kill anymore. It's a sneak preview of a story that will air later this week.

First responders never know what they'll find when they get called to an accident site. Sometimes crews have to rescue dairy cows from collapsed barns, evacuate horses during wildfires or move pigs off the highway after an accident. These first responders often don't have the proper training to handle large animals.

It would be difficult for some people to let a stranger drive off with one of their most valuable possessions. But not for Stanford graduate student Katie Hagey.

Hagey is one of a growing number of individual car owners who have started renting their wheels to people they don't know through car-sharing startup companies resembling the better-known Zipcar.

The last time Morning Edition spoke with K'naan, he had just gone back to his native Somalia for the first time in 20 years to highlight the effects of the famine there.

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Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Joshua Thompson is a big moviegoer, but high prices at the concession stand left a bad taste in his mouth. So after paying $8 for a Coke and a box of Goobers, Thompson filed a class action lawsuit. It accuses Michigan's AMC Theaters of charging grossly excessive prices for snacks. Consumer lawyers told the Detroit Free Press the lawsuit will likely be a flop, but moviegoers are applauding. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

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Now, we do not know what songs make Hiroshi Hoketsu move, but the Japanese equestrian does move gracefully on a horse. Just shy of his 71st birthday, he has won a spot at the London Olympics for dressage, where you lead a horse through a series of very precise movements. Japanese officials are still deciding whether they'll let him compete.

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Now just as the U.S. economy seems to be picking up, China's is not. The Chinese government has downgraded its economic growth target to the slowest rate in eight years. China's premier says the country needs to boost consumer demand, and address what he calls unsustainable development.

NPR's Louisa Lim reports from Beijing.

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