McClatchy-Tribune News Service

News Budget for Sunday, June 08, 2008

Updated at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 UTC).

Additional news stories appear on the MCT-NEWSFEATURES-BJT.

This budget is now available on MCT Direct at http://www.mctdirect.com, with direct links to stories and art. See details at the end of the budget.

TOP STORIES

Consumers face tougher time getting loans as bank crisis spreads

ECONOMY-CREDITCRISIS:WA--The credit crisis triggered by bad home loans is spreading to other areas, forcing banks to tighten credit and probably extending the credit crisis that's dragging down the economy well into next year, and perhaps beyond.

That means consumers are going to have an increasingly difficult time getting bank loans for car purchases, credit cards, home equity credit lines, student loans and even commercial real estate, experts say.

1350 (with trims) by Kevin G. Hall in Washington. (Moved as a business story.) MOVED

Candidates take a final day to relax before rigors of the general campaign

CAMPAIGN:TB--Both presumptive presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, took a final day to relax before beginning major cross-country campaigns on Monday. Obama will begin the day with a speech in North Carolina before attending a fundraising event in St. Louis, while McCain will hold fundraising events in Washington and Virginia.

750 by Jim Tankersley and John McCormick .

POLITICS

Obama's master strategist keeps a low profile

CAMPAIGN-PLOUFFE:TB--Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has been an managerial marvel, owing to the candidate's background in community organizing as well as a disciplined staff.

Campaign manager (and longtime Democratic consultant) David Plouffe is at the center of the organization. Despite his ready availability for quotes, he has maintained a surprisingly low personal profile.

1000 by John McCormick in Washington. .

UNITED STATES

Judge rejects State Farm affiliate's sanctions against policyholders victimized by Hurricane Katrina

KATRINA-INSURANCE:BI--Policyholders are casualties in a battle that has pitted State Farm and one of its vendors, E.A. Renfroe, against the Scruggs Katrina Group of attorneys, U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. wrote in an eight-page opinion filed this week.

Senter issued the opinion and an accompanying order that denies Renfroe's motion for sanctions against SKG and policyholders for filing "baseless" lawsuits against the independent firm that supplied Katrina adjusters to State Farm. The company wanted reimbursement for all costs associated with defending itself in 88 of these lawsuits.

400 by Anita Lee in Gulfport, Miss. MOVED

Central American officials asses California's farm labor crisis

FARM-USLATINAMERICA:FR--president of Honduras and top government figures from El Salvador and Guatemala visited the central San Joaquin Valley Saturday to learn more about California's farm-labor crisis--and to offer their help.

Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya said he'll do what he can to make it easier for his citizens to get permission to work in Valley fields. But he and others at the Western Agriculture Labor Summit acknowledged that all the countries must work together.

"We know there is a great shortage of farm labor in California and the southern United States," he said, speaking through a translator. "We really do hope this meeting can contribute to finding a solution to this problem."

950 (with trims) by Guy Keeler in Fresno, Calif. DIVERSITY. MOVED

THE WORLD

Pakistani families force girls to marry to stem tribal feuds

PAKISTAN-GIRLS:WA--It began with an errant dog, and it's now culminated with the forced betrothal of 15 little girls, some of them as young as three, as compensation in a case of tribal feuding in a remote part of Pakistan.

It's thought that around 20 people have died in the bitter quarrel, and the marriage offer of the girls is meant to end the bloodletting.

1000 (with trims) by Saeed Shah in Islamabad, Pakistan. DIVERSITY. MOVED

PHOTOS

SCIENCE, MEDICINE, ENVIRONMENT

Sierra Club campaigns against formaldehyde levels in FEMA trailers

ENV-FEMA-FORMALDEHYDE:BI--It was when the sight of a bloody child became routine that Lindsay Huckabee broke down and cried. She and her husband, Steve, had spent months dealing with "two, three, four nosebleeds a week," in their FEMA mobile home, she said. When it wasn't a nosebleed, one child or another had burning eyes, coughing, congestion and "colds" that wouldn't go away.

The Huckabees have become icons for a Sierra Club movement that believes formaldehyde fumes in FEMA trailers have caused widespread poisoning of hurricane victims.

700 by Megha Satyanarayana in Biloxi, Miss.. MOVED

PEOPLE

NAMES:PH--Names in the news.

400 by Tirdad Derakhshani.

Celebrity visuals

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