The New York Times leads, while the Wall Street Journal and USA Today go high, with new data that suggest there might be a light at the end of the tunnel for the housing market.
Eight cities saw increases in real estate prices in May, and an index
that tracks home prices in 20 metropolitan areas increased 0.5 percent
in May from April. When adjusted for seasonal factors, the index was
"virtually flat," rather than down. These surprisingly strong numbers
joined a slew of other indicators that have also shown positive signs
in recent months and raised hopes that the housing market has hit
bottom. The WSJ leads its worldwide newsbox with the Senate Judiciary Committee
voting 13-6 to send Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate. Only one Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, voted for the nomination.
The Washington Post leads with an overview of where health-care legislation stands. The Senate Finance Committee is expected to finish negotiations in the next few days and vote on a plan before the recess that begins Aug. 7. Assuming the group of six bipartisan senators who are negotiating in the committee can agree on a plan, it'll likely end up abandoning many of President Obama's priorities. And while it may anger most Democrats, it could also make it more difficult for Republicans to resist. USAT leads with campaign-finance records showing that the lawmakers who are leading the fight against allowing generic drugs to compete sooner with expensive biotechnology drugs list pharmaceutical companies as one of their biggest contributors. President Obama has proposed that drug companies should have 7 years of exclusive rights, but several lawmakers are pushing for 12 years. Cutting the period of exclusivity could save the government billions of dollars in health care costs. The Los Angeles Times leads with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger finally signing a budget to close California's huge deficit, but not before using his line-item veto power to cut $500 million more that will affect children's healthcare, AIDS treatment and prevention programs, and the elderly, to name a few programs. Democrats expressed anger over the move, but Schwarzenegger said he had no choice because lawmakers failed to completely close the budget deficit.
