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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

OK, let's turn now to personal wealth. Today's last word in business is disappearing millions.

The number of millionaire households in this country declined in 2011. That's according to this year's Global Wealth Study from the Boston Consulting Group. It found the number of American households with a million dollars of investable assets shrunk by 2.5 percent.

The U.S. still leads the world in millionaires, but developing countries are gaining ground. Other countries added nearly 200,000 millionaire households in 2011.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently held one of his traveling Cabinet meetings in the disputed city of Kirkuk in an effort to show Iraqi Arabs on the edge of the Kurdish-controlled north that he's working on their behalf, too.

But the fact that he felt obliged to bring in large numbers of heavily armed troops for the event illustrated the tension plaguing Iraqi politics.

A decade ago, investors thought Greece would flourish on the euro. Money poured in, and banks started lending it out. Thefilos Papacostakis, a bank teller at Alpha Bank in Thessaloniki, got to hand out a lot of that money.

Last month, Thefilos says, his bosses called him in for a meeting. They told him things were about to get worse. When countries are in this kind of trouble, the bosses said, people panic and pull their money out of banks.

When Robert Holmes' parents moved to Edison, N.J., in 1956, they were one of the first African-American families to integrate the neighborhood.

"After we'd moved to Edison, there was a resentment that we had broken into the community," Holmes says.

Even at the age of 13, Holmes felt the animosity. The neighborhood had a private swim club that opened up to anyone who participated in the Memorial Day parade. Holmes was in the band.

"I arrived at the pool on Memorial Day having marched in the parade with my uniform still on, and they called the police," he says.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the economy grew 1.9 percent in the first three months of the year, down from an earlier estimate of 2.2 percent. And more Americans are jobless and seeking benefits, according to the Labor Department.

Lori Anne Madison has been eliminated from this week's Scripps National Spelling Bee. At six years old, she's the youngest ever to compete.

The DJ was pretty angry after discovering the green paint he used to dress up as the Incredible Hulk wasn't body paint. Turns out, he chose an industrial grade paint that's typically used on ballistic missiles and nuclear submarines. Friends and family spent a day scrubbing the 35 year old until the paint finally washed off.

David Greene checks in with John Wertheim of "Sport Illustrated for an update on the French Open. The big headline from week one is Serena Williams' first-round loss. That's the first time she has lost in the first round in a major tournament.

Fifty years ago this month, comic book artists Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the Incredible Hulk to the world. The Hulk is the volatile alter ego of Dr. Bruce Banner, a physicist who's inadvertently exposed to radiation. As a result, whenever Dr. Banner gets angry or upset, he transforms into a giant, raging monster, capable of stunning feats of strength.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And I'm David Greene. Many families who lost artwork during the Holocaust have spent decades trying to reclaim their treasures. Now they could face a new obstacle: proposed legislation that would protect American museums from these families' claims. David Maxon of member station WNYC has more.

New voter ID laws and other voting restrictions have been enacted in a number of states since the last major election. And that's raised special concerns among African Americans, who feel they're being targeted. Black church leaders and the Congressional Black Caucus met in Washington Wednesday to find ways African-American voters aren't discouraged from turning out in November.

In recent days, three Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule. In the past year, it's been reported that more than 30 people have set themselves on fire and most have died. Renee Montagne talks to Robert Barnett, an expert on Tibet, for more on why Tibetans have been protesting Chinese repression by setting themselves on fire.

Economists had predicted the growth of Asia's third-largest economy would continue to slow this year. But the latest data suggests the Indian economy is in worse shape than many analysts thought. The country's growth in the first quarter of this year was only 5.3 percent, compared to 9.2 percent last year.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Our last word in business today is: Big Gulp. Actually, make that moderately-sized gulp.

New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg has proposed a ban on sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces, which means a large Slurpee or a Grande Frappuccino, would still be legal. Restaurants, movie theaters, and food trucks would all have to abide by the rule, which is aimed at rising obesity rates. Fruit juices and alcoholic drinks would be exempt.