News Buzz: Primaries Wrap Up, Hummer Woes, and More

It could finally be over. As Democratic voters in Montana and South Dakota head to the polls for the final two primary contests today, Barack Obama is a mere 40 delegates away from clinching the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton. Clinton appears ready to bow out, and her campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said today that once Obama gained the majority of convention delegates, she would step aside. "I think Hillary Clinton will congratulate him and call him the nominee," McAuliffe said.

As gas prices have increased, the demand for large gas-guzzling vehicles has decreased, and General Motors is responding by closing four truck and SUV plants in North America. The Hummer brand will also be either revamped or potentially sold off. Instead, the company will be producing a small Chevrolet car in Ohio and the new Chevy Volt, an electric vehicle, in Detroit.

Chinese police today hauled away more than 100 parents from a courthouse in Dujiangyan, a resort city northwest of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu. The parents were protesting the shoddy school construction they believed was partially responsible for the deaths of their children. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Chinese children perished during the May 12 earthquake, which destroyed 7,000 classrooms.

NASA's press office "marginalized or mischaracterized" studies on global warming between 2004 and 2006, manipulating information in press releases and blocking access to scientists whose views were contrary to the Bush administration's positions on climate change. In a report, NASA's inspector general office called it "inappropriate political interference" by political appointees in the press office. It said that the agency's top management wasn't part of the censorship, nor were career officials. NASA downplayed the report as old news on a problem that has since been fixed.