revenues from penney's lots are up. many states are making the penny-stock changers -- slot changes. >> the business news is now coming up in a bloomberg business briefs. >> we will get a peek at any possible recovery in the manufacturing industry. economist at bloomberg state manufacturers will expand in august. that'll be the first time we have seen that in 19 months. builders have accounted for half of the job loss during the recession may be growing in the coming months. apple is hosting an event next week. a camera on the ipod touch may be added. extra content may be added to summer. back-to-school and holiday shopping season is their busiest sales time. there was a global sell-off in stocks. a lot of concern that this global rally has out paste profits for economic recovery. stock futures are lower today. reporting for wbal tv 11 news. back to you. >> we will see you back here at 6:15 for your next report. >> coming up, we get another look at your morning commute with traffic and weather together. >> everybody in

penney's and other things like that, have they achieved what you have hoped for them? >> i'm creating careers for them, and it's sad that the title is "america's next top model" but who the hell is right now? >> one might be forgiven for suggesting that the real star of "america's next top model" is miss banks herself. how much of a diva are you? >> i wish i was more of a diva. i wish i was harder -- i wish i didn't care so much about being the nice girl all the time. because a lot of the times people can take kindness for weakness. so i wish i had a little bit more oomph, you know, in me. >> oomph. paula porizkova and janice dickinson when they left the show were not very nice about you. >> let's not go there. >> well, i am going there. i am going to ask that question. when we come back. still haven't tried activia? listen to this story. my problem was occasional irregularity. my commercials didn't convince you? i am definitely a skeptic. actually, my mom convinced me. and i have activia every morning for breakfast. activia definitely helped with my occasional irregul

they're both from jc penney, get the blinds, get the heavy drapes, you're going to seal everything outrdable, this is a great option. >> let me ask you about]"át tax credit a second. i've seen the ads in the paper for this. so is it $1,500 or $1,400 if you do the whole thing? >> that's a good question. it's 30% of your total purchase price. >> deductible? >> up to $1,500. >> so you need to go online and see what kind of reconstruction you can do on how you can save money. >> yeah, do a little bit of math and save some money. people are really running to lowe's and home depot right now. >> might as well get the tax credit, right? very cool. >> if you can't afford anything at all, single-pane windows, all you need is water and bubble wrap. this is a crazy idea. this is what they do in greenhous greenhouses. i don't want to be a 5-year-old. this is what they do in greenhouses to increase the efficiency in greenhouses. you literally spray the window with water, you take a sheet of bubble wrap and you stick it on the window. make sure i get this right. and what this does is that the bubbles

is, weren't spending as much money as many anticipated at the department stores like the macys, jc penneysd, weaker than many had expected. there is another key component to this question and that is labor day. labor day came a lot later this year. as a result of that school is starting later and you still have a couple days in the month of september where people could be out shopping. those months, those days, rather, aren't encompassed in these august same-store sales data we are seeing today. there are some who say, i spoke to monica novotny of this said i haven't gone out and purchased anything for my son's return to school, there are others like that as well. some people will be spending those last dollars in these next couple of days and that could be a boone for some of the september data. >> if you combine labor day sales with back-to-school sales, maybe there are deeper discounts like being out shopping this weekend. >> exactly. 'cause you bring up a great point. as consumers, we are so used to if you wait till the last minute, you get the best deal what we saw last year throughou

penney burglaries.tolen property of $3.35 million has been recovered, much from the man's home. investigators are still searching for suspected accomplices. wolf? >> all right, mary, thank you. >>> one of the world's most powerful nations may be sapping america's strength with a very aggressive spying campaign. is this rival a potential enemy, and is it already setting up the united states for a knockout blow? our homeland security correspondent jeanne meserve has been digging and digging. jeanne, what are you learning? >> reporter: well, wolf, you know, the cold war is over, but spying is not. experts say along with russia one country runs a particularly comprehensive and successful espionage operation against the united states, and that country is china. >> and liftoff of the space shuttle do havery. >> reporter: the space shuttle, the international space station, the delta four rocket and the f-15 fighter, some of the most sensitive and valuable technologies developed by the united states, and inform

. >> reporter: stephanie locke was right in front of mccambridge's jc penney register, and locke was trying to open a credit card using a fake i.d. her face was familiar because just a few weeks earlier, locke opened a credit card in mccambridge's name. mccambridge recognized the identity theft suspect from these police photos taken at a different department store. now locke was inches away, doing it again to someone else. >> out of all the registers you could have gone to and out of all the associates who could have rung her up in our store, and she came to me, it's a little ironic. >> reporter: mccambridge alerted security who tracked the suspect through the store, but it was locke's paper trail that was even longer. >> i received a bill from babies 'r' us for $2,100, kohl's, $1500. >> reporter: according to authorities locke had racked up thousands of dollars in charges under mccambridge's name, and she wasn't working alone. federal agents say a ring of five suspects had stolen more than 40 identities, charging over $140,000. opportunity brought one of the suspects and one of the