Big-ticket manufacturing orders take dip in May

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell in May, reflecting a second straight month of weakness in demand for commercial aircraft.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that orders for durable goods dropped by 0.3 percent last month after an even bigger 4.7 percent plunge in April. The weakness in both months was led by big declines in orders for commercial aircraft, an extremely volatile category that had been enjoying large gains at the beginning of the year.

It was the first time that total orders have registered back-to-back declines in two years and provided further evidence that the U.S. economy is slowing under the impact of rising interest rates, soaring gasoline prices and a cooling housing market.

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WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Bush administration said Friday an anti-terrorism program that taps into an immense international database of confidential financial records has adequate safeguards to protect Americans’ privacy.

Democrats and civil liberties groups said the effort had disturbing similarities to another controversial anti-terrorism program of warrantless spying on telephone calls and e-mails. Treasury Secretary John Snow called the financial-records effort “entirely consistent with our democratic values, with our best legal traditions.”