REUTERS
U.S. says Petters faked checks, orders in Ponzi scheme
Tom Petters concocted fake checks and purchase orders as part of a Ponzi scheme to deceive retailers into believing that he was transacting more business with them than he actually was, the U.S. government said at his trial on Thursday.

With Petters looking on at the first full day of testimony into his alleged $3.65 billion fraud, prosecutors questioned several witnesses, introducing what they called evidence of bogus transactions involving Costco Wholesale Corp and General Electric Co's GE Capital unit.

GE Capital executives testified how the lender extended a $50 million line of credit to one of Petters' companies, before confronting the Minnesota businessman about documentation for some Costco transactions. One said Petters became irritated when asked to repay $45 million that had been drawn down.

"Tom Petters called me and read me the riot act," said GE Capital risk executive Paul Feehan. "He gave me a butt-kicking. He was adamant that I stay the hell away from Costco."

The full story is here.

NPR'S ONLY A GAME
Twins Say Bye-Bye to Metrodome
The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis — home to the Minnesota Twins since 1982 — is a place baseball purists love to hate. Visiting outfielders often lose sight of pop flies. The right field wall is elastic. The grass is fake. The seats are plastic. And some people think the home team cheated in winning its first World Series by manipulating air vents during games. The audio is here.

WORLD VISION REPORT
Esperanza Perez Sings
An expensive hotel is an oasis from reality. It’s cloistered, air conditioned and perfectly manicured. Everything a person might need — food, entertainment, a place to sleep — is inside this bubble. On a recent trip to Phoenix for a conference, I stayed at a place that even had a fake waterfall. Everything was going fine.

And then one afternoon, I headed up to my room … walked out of the elevator and heard a faint voice. It was coming from inside one of the rooms. And it belonged to a maid. I couldn’t understand the words to her song — it was in Spanish, a class I’d nearly flunked in college — but it moved me.

It lifted my spirits because it was so fresh, so human, so unexpected. (Photo courtesy of World Vision Report)