Morning Edition on WAMC

New York legislators say the state's important apple crop took a beating this spring.

Lawmakers are proposing the Family Farmers and Apple Growers Relief Act. They say apple growers have lost as much as 75 percent of this year's crop, a major commodity in New York.

Assemblymen Jim Tedisco, George Amedore and Pete Lopez are joining in the measure with Senators Hugh Farley and Patty Ritchie, chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

The Republicans say New York is the second largest apple growing state with 694 farms that employ more than 10,000 people.

Defiant and emotional, Connecticut House Speaker Christopher Donovan denies that he did anything wrong as federal investigators look into his congressional campaign's finances.

Donovan held a sidewalk news conference Sunday evening outside his campaign office in Meriden.

Federal prosecutors had announced Thursday that Donovan's campaign finance manager had been arrested for allegedly conspiring with others to hide the source of $20,000 in campaign contributions.

Listen to Paul Caiano's WAMC Regional forecast.  Paul Caianois a meteorologist at WNYT Newschannel 13. He graduated from SUNY Albany in May of 1993 with a B.S. in the field of Atmospheric Science/Meteorology.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The summer tourism season is what keeps Branson, Missouri thriving. Last year, Branson's live music venues helped draw more than seven million visitors. And so when a tornado tore through the city's popular strip this past February, Branson's future seemed uncertain. As Missy Shelton of member station KSMU reports, city leaders are working hard to let people know that Branson is open for business.

Protests continue against the court rulings on former President Hosni Mubarak. A panel of judges sentenced Mubarak and his former interior minister to life in prison for their role in the deaths of protesters during the Arab Spring uprising in the country. But the panel acquitted six security officials linked to the shootings.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Now, one way Mitt Romney has challenged President Obama is by going after his foreign policy record. Romney has been especially critical of the president's handling of Iran and Syria. But those attacks aside, some analysts say it's been hard to define where Romney stands on key international issues and whether he differs all that much from the president.

Here's NPR's Jackie Northam.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Bad economic headlines have not stopped the celebration in Britain. Britons are in the midst of a four-day holiday celebrating Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne. And yesterday the queen herself led a flotilla of a thousand boats on the Thames. It was described as the largest such river pageant in more than 300 years, and Vicki Barker was there.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Let's turn to Syria now. Syria's president gave his first public speech in five months yesterday. Bashar al-Assad told the Syrian Parliament that his government was not responsible for the massacre in Houla last month, in which more than 100 people were killed, nearly half of them children. Also, there is new Syria-related violence in northern Lebanon, near the Syrian border. And to talk about this we've reached NPR's Kelly McEvers.

Kelly, good morning.

KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: Good morning.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with some good news for Spain.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The NBA is halfway through two riveting conference final playoff series, and there's absolutely no indication how they're going to turn out. Last night in Boston, the aging and creaky Celtics proved that they are really a match for the star-studded Miami Heat. Boston beat Miami 93 to 91 in overtime to tie the Eastern Conference Finals at two games apiece. In the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder also are tied 2-2, and they play tonight in San Antonio.