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The nation’s largest hot dog makers argued about the meaning of “100 percent pure beef” and the merits of ketchup Monday in a lawsuit over advertising claims stemming from their years of dog-eat-dog competition.

Attorneys for Sara Lee Corp., which makes Ball Park franks, and Kraft Foods Inc., which makes Oscar Mayer, superimposed giant hot dogs on a courtroom screen as they delivered opening remarks in a case that could clarify how far companies can go when boasting about their products.

“There’s never been anything of this scope . . . in the entire history of hot dogs,” Sara Lee’s attorney, Richard Leighton, said about what the company says is Kraft’s false and deceptive ad campaign that claimed Oscar Mayer wieners were the best-tasting franks.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Morton Denlow, who will decide if either company broke false advertising laws, couldn’t resist a note of levity as he cast his eyes at the attorneys and proclaimed, “Let the wiener wars begin.”

The legal dog fight began when Sara Lee filed a lawsuit in 2009, singling out Oscar Mayer ads that brag its dogs beat Ball Park franks in a national taste test. Leighton argued the tests were deeply flawed and gave as an example that the hot dogs were presented to participants without buns or any condiments, such as ketchup.

“They were served boiled hot dogs on a white paper plate,” he told Denlow. As a result, Leighton said, Sara Lee’s hot dogs may well have tasted too salty or smoky when consumed sans buns.

Among other flaws, he went on, was a rule barring anyone who ever worked in a factory from taking the test no fax payday loans.

“You may be excluding blue-collar workers,” he said. “And they’re big hot-dog eaters.”

Kraft filed a countersuit later in 2009, accusing Sara Lee of running ads for Ball Parks with the tagline “America’s Best Franks” based on an award from ChefsBest, a food-judging organization based in San Francisco.

The other focus of the trial is Kraft’s claim that its Oscar Mayer Jumbo Beef Franks are “100 percent pure beef.” Sara Lee says the claim is untrue, that it cast aspersions on Ball Park franks and damaged their sales.

But Kraft’s attorney, Stephen O’Neil, told the judge the 100 percent beef tag was never intended to suggest there weren’t other ingredients _ like water, salt and various spices. It was only meant to convey that the meat that was used was all beef, he said.

That stress was designed to counter lingering impressions that hot dogs contain suspect, “mysterious meats,” he added. And he said it defied common sense to argue that consumers might take the label as meaning that the one and only ingredient was beef.

“If there was nothing but beef, it wouldn’t be a hot dog,” he said, “It would be a hamburger.”

Denlow let slip that, according to his own personal tastes, neither Oscar Mayer nor Ball Park are top dog.

“I already have my favorite . . . and it’s none of the brands on trial,” he told attorneys. He said he may reveal which one it is _ but only after a ruling.

The trial is expected to last about two weeks.

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It has been a bittersweet anniversary for Chile’s rescued miners, who were honored as heroes in their hometown only to come under attack by anti-government protesters who threw fruit and small stones at them, accusing them of being ungrateful, greedy sellouts.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and his ministers joined most of the 33 miners Friday at a Catholic Mass and then the inauguration of a regional museum exhibit recognizing their remarkable survival story.

But the events were marred by scuffles between riot police and students, teachers, environmentalists and other miners, all trying to make Pinera bow to their pressure on issues from reforming public education and increasing miners’ pay to stopping controversial dams and power plants.

Some of the activists threw oranges and apples at the miners, accusing them of getting too cozy with Pinera’s government and trying to cash in on their fame.

The treatment shocked rescued miner Omar Reygadas into silence. His son told The Associated Press in an interview that his father was deeply hurt to be accused of selling out to the government. Other activists shouted that the miners were trying to get rich with their $17 million lawsuit accusing Chile’s mine regulator of failing to enforce safety requirements.

“My father was saddened, deeply saddened. He doesn’t understand how people could act this way,” said his son, also named Omar Reygadas. “When I got home I found him sitting alone, very sad. I asked him what happened and at first he wouldn’t say anything, but gradually he let on what happened.”

Some Chilean newspapers called the attack a low blow, especially considering how many of the miners still suffer from psychological problems after being stuck for 69 days underground.

“They aren’t heroes … they’re victims who are simply trying to recover from their tragedy,” El Diario de Atacama, Copiapo’s hometown newspaper, printed Saturday under a picture showing riot police with a confiscated box of oranges and apples activists had thrown at the honorees.

“We have become accustomed to judging the 33 of Atacama, forgetting that they’ve only been victims of the terrible circumstances that confront hundreds of Chileans every day.”

Psychologist Alberto Iturra, who was part of the medical team that participated in the mine rescue, criticized the incident, saying the attack on the miners was “irrational, crazy.”

He said the incident is “part of a process of alienation _ which implies not distinguishing spaces, people or anything, not being conscious of what they’re doing _ that the students suffer from.”

The miners were clearly grateful for Pinera’s leadership of the rescue mission, which succeeded in bringing them all out alive more than two months after the Aug. 5, 2010 collapse. “I wouldn’t be here talking with you today” if Pinera hadn’t become personally involved, miner Jose Fuentes told the AP. “We were down there praying that he would do it.”

But Pinera’s ministers also are defending the government against the miners’ suit, saying that they have to protect the Chilean taxpayers.

Pinera’s popularity has plunged to 26 percent, the lowest of any president since Chile recovered its democracy in 1990, as protests have roiled the country. Environmentalists hope to block hydroelectric dams in southern Patagonia and a huge coal-fired energy plant in northern Chile. Unionized miners have briefly paralyzed the nation’s largest copper mines, costing companies millions of dollars in lost production. Mapuche Indians have occupied ancestral lands, setting off violent confrontations with police and landowners. Striking high school and university students have taken over their schools and stopped classes for more than two months.

At the museum on Friday, Pinera appealed for an end to the unrest.

“The time of the protests, the strikes, the takeovers, the violence has passed. Now has come the time to construct and not keep destroying, the time of dialogue and not of intransigence; the time of solutions and not of confrontation, the time of unity and not of division,” Pinera said.

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Portugal’s financial plight deepened Wednesday, with borrowing rates jumping higher and stocks slumping after its bonds were downgraded to junk status. Spain and Italy were dragged into the downturn, adding new momentum to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.

Portugal’s hopes of slowly emerging from its debt crisis were knocked by ratings agency Moody’s, which downgraded Portugal’s debt four notches Tuesday and said the country will likely follow Greece in needing a second rescue package.

Portugal took a euro78 billion ($112 billion) bailout from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund earlier this year after jittery investors began charging it unsustainably steep returns on loans.

After the abrupt worsening of Portugal’s financial situation, neighboring Spain immediately suffered a knock-down effect, with Madrid’s main stock index down 1.5 percent in midday trading while its bond yields rose. Spain, a much bigger country, up until now has so far managed to dodge major fallout from the continent’s fiscal woes.

In Italy, stocks were down 2 percent Wednesday on concerns that current spending cuts were not enough to resolve the country’s high debt level.

“The increasing risk is Italy gets caught up further in the contagion, and the bond market vigilantes dictate a more abrupt pace for its adjustment,” said Alan Ruskin, an analyst at Deutsche Bank.

The Moody’s downgrade triggered new outrage in Portugal, where austerity measures over the past year have included tax hikes, pay freezes and welfare cuts.

Fernando Faria de Oliveira, the head of Portugal’s largest bank Caixa Geral de Depositos, which is state-owned, described the downgrade as “immoral and insulting.” Antonio Sousa, head of the Portuguese Bank Association, said it was “incomprehensible.”

Even Barclays Capital Research said the severity of the downgrade was surprising, adding it “seems more like a reaction to the Greek situation.”

Still, the tensions created by the Moody’s report were reflected in a Portuguese bond sale. Although the country managed to raise euro848 million ($1.2 billion) from markets, investors demanded a high return.

The Portuguese debt agency said the yield in the sale of 3-month Treasury bills was 4.926 percent. That was up from 4.863 percent on the same bills in mid-June and not far from the record 4.967 percent on June 1.

The yield on Portuguese 10-year bonds rose to 12.2 percent, while the Lisbon stock exchange fell 2.4 percent with banks leading the decline.

Unicredit economist Tullia Bucco said the threat of possible private sector burden-sharing in Portugal, currently being discussed for Greece, increased the chances of it being shut out of the market beyond 2013, when it hopes to resume bond issues.

Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, a spokesman for the EU’s Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, also hit out at the Moody’s downgrade, saying “the timing of Moody’s decision is not only questionable but also based on absolutely hypothetical scenarios which are not in line at all with the economic program.”

“This is an unfortunate episode and it raises once more the issue of the appropriateness of behavior of rating agencies and of their clairvoyance,” Tardio said in Brussels.

Portugal faces a daunting task in reducing its debt load _ it is in a recession, with its economy expected to contract 4 percent through next year, and unemployment stands at a record 12.4 percent.

A center-right coalition government that took office last month has promised to abide by debt targets and economic reforms demanded in return for the bailout. It has already introduced new austerity measures, including a one-off supplemental tax on personal income this year, and said it would accelerate a privatization program.

The grim economic prospects will likely make it harder for Portugal to settle its debts, propelling it into a downward spiral, and fuel investor worries about the 17-nation eurozone’s fiscal health, especially as Greece struggles to restore market confidence.

The government debt agency said last week it wants to raise up to euro6.5 billion in Treasury bill auctions over the next three months.

In Spain, the difference between the yield on the 10-year government bonds on the secondary market and the benchmark German equivalent, edged up to 262 basis points Wednesday after closing at 247 Tuesday. The jump was significant, but remained far below the 300-point high reached last week amid fears of contagion from the Greek debt crisis.

Spain’s Treasury will test market confidence in the country’s ability to handle its debt with three- and five-year bond auctions on Thursday.

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Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed to this report.

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Boeing Co.’s long-delayed 787 completed its maiden trans-Pacific journey and landed in Japan, where the more fuel-efficient jet will undergo testing this week with All Nippon Airways in preparation for its first commercial launch.

The “Dreamliner” touched down at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport from Seattle early Sunday to applause and a white “Welcome to Japan” banner held by flight attendants and workers. Two fire trucks shot out celebratory arches of water as the aircraft approached the hangar.

ANA even offered a live video feed of the landing on Ustream. As of Sunday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than 37,000 times.

Pilot Masayuki Ishii said he stayed calm during the flight but grew emotional upon landing and seeing the excitement on the ground.

“I was moved beyond my own expectations,” he told reporters.

The 787’s much-anticipated arrival marks the near-end of a long wait by ANA, the first customer in line for the next-generation aircraft. Boeing missed the initial May 2008 delivery target and has repeatedly delayed its introduction because of problems in development.

The twin-engine jet is made mostly of carbon fiber and other composite materials instead of aluminum, making it lighter and 20 percent more fuel-efficient than other mid-sized airliners, according to Boeing.

As airlines around the world grapple with rising fuel prices, demand is high for low-consumption planes.

Chicago-based Boeing Co. has taken orders for 835 of the Dreamliners, and hopes to deliver the first one to ANA in August or September.

ANA has ordered 55 787s. Qantas and United Continental Holdings Inc. have each ordered 50, and Japan Airlines has ordered 35.

Rival Airbus’ competitor with the 787, the A350, is scheduled to enter service with Qatar Airways in 2013. Airbus has racked up nearly 600 orders for the new jetliner, which is also made mainly of carbon-fiber polymers.

ANA, the world’s eighth-largest airline by revenue, considers the Dreamliner an integral part of its global expansion efforts. Because of the 787’s range, ANA plans to use it on a number of new long-haul routes that were not previously commercially viable because there were not enough passengers to justify using larger aircraft such as the Boeing 747.

The cabin will have bigger windows and larger overhead compartments. ANA also says passengers will be more comfortable because air pressure during flights will be equivalent to an altitude of 6,000 feet instead of the conventional 8,000 feet.

Masami Tsukamoto, another pilot who flew from Seattle on Sunday, said the higher oxygen level made a noticeable difference on the nine-hour trip.

“Maybe part of it was because we were excited, but compared to regular flights from Los Angeles or San Francisco, I didn’t feel so tired,” he said.

The test aircraft will fly several of ANA’s domestic routes out of Tokyo this week to confirm the jet’s readiness for passenger travel. Maintenance crews will also practice refueling, towing and other routine servicing operations.

It is scheduled to depart for Seattle on Saturday, according to ANA.

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AP Airlines Writer Josh Freed in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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The Senate’s top Republican says throwing more tax revenue into the mix isn’t the answer as budget talks move into a new stage.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tells ABC’s “This Week” that proposals to seek more tax revenue won’t pass Congress.

McConnell is set to meet with President Barack Obama on Monday evening, and he says the focus should be on proposals that can pass Congress.

Democrats want to raise some revenue by closing loopholes and trimming tax breaks for big companies and wealthy people payday loan lenders.

The Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, is meeting with Obama on Monday morning.

Talks between congressional leaders of both parties ended last week when Republicans walked out amid an impasse over the question of taxes.

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As budget cuts and tax increases push Greece deeper into recession, politicians, economists and business leaders are calling for a new approach _ a Marshall Plan that would jolt its economy back to life and give its citizens new hope.

Debt-ridden Greece is currently negotiating a second rescue package, on top of the euro110 billion ($158 billion) it was granted a year ago. However, those loans depend on harsh austerity measures and an overhaul of Greece’s economy, which are designed to make the country fit in the long-term, but will likely worsen citizens’ financial pain in the short-term.

At the same time, billions of euros foreseen for Greece are languishing in EU coffers, as the country struggles to come up with its part of the funding.

“You can’t tighten the thumb screws indefinitely,” warned Andreas Rees, an UniCredit economist based in Munich. Yet more austerity might drown the economy, lead to lower tax intakes and ultimately backfire and drive the debt burden yet higher.

Already, the Greek economy is expected to shrink 3.7 percent this year, following a decline of 4.5 percent in 2010 and 2 percent in 2009, while unemployment has shot above 16 percent. Citizens who have held on to their jobs have lost much of their pension, had their salaries slashed and face more job cuts in the years to come as Greece slims down its public sector.

As angry demonstrations and defecting lawmakers endanger the passage of the vital new reforms in parliament, politicians are increasingly realizing that Greece’s people will need some prospect of a better future to make the belt-tightening more bearable.

Lawmakers in the European Parliament, economists and business leaders _ including the heads of German heavyweights Deutsche Bank and Allianz _ have increased their calls recently for a stimulus package for Greece, similar to the U.S.-funded Marshall Plan that helped create Germany’s “Wirtschaftswunder” _ or “economic miracle” _ after the Second World War.

“It is very important to supplement our macroeconomic efforts with something credible,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Tuesday, referring to the eurozone’s rescue loans. “If we are going to get benefits in the long-term we have to already start mobilizing our resources for more practical purposes so that Greek people become aware that there is hope and that we are not just asking them to make sacrifices.”

Just days before a summit of European Union leaders, at which Greece’s imploding financing will be top of the agenda, Barroso urged the bloc’s members to help the country get access to billions of euros in EU funds.

Of the euro20.2 billion in development funds budgeted to help Greece catch up with the richer regions in the 27-country EU between 2007 and 2013, only euro4.9 billion have actually been paid out. The rest is still sitting unused in EU coffers as Greece struggles to show it can put them to work efficiently and come up with its 50 percent of the funding for any proposed project.

Barroso said the European Commission, which manages the funds, could accelerate payments and frontload projects to give Greece quick access to about euro1 billion _ a small fraction of what is available _ to boost job creation and help make Greek businesses more competitive no fax needed payday loans.

That money would come with “tight supervision” and increased technical assistance for Greek authorities from the Commission and other EU states, Barroso stressed.

However, even international help to set up projects that qualify for EU support would not get rid of the problem Greece is facing in co-financing them at a time when government spending is being slashed.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg who also chairs the meetings of the 17 eurozone finance ministers, has called for the co-financing requirement to be waved for Greece, and the idea appears to be gaining momentum.

“I don’t exclude that this is something that could be discussed” at the EU summit this week, said an official at the European Commission. The official declined to be named because Barroso’s push for easier access to EU funds for Greece is still in its early stages.

Some alterntive plans already exist. Jorgo Chazimarkakis, a member of the European Parliament for the German Free Democrats, has proposed a euro30 billion stimulus package for Greece, dubbed the “Hercules Plan.” The package would combine the EU regional funds for the coming years with one fourth of the proceeds of Greece’s highly unpopular euro50 billion privatization program.

“That would also set an even higher incentive for the Greeks to go ahead with the privatization,” said Chazimarkakis, who is half Greek, adding that any stimulus plan has to come with EU officials overseeing how the funds are spent locally.

To get around the co-financing problem, Chazimarkakis proposed low-interest loans from the European Investment Bank that could be repaid once Greece is back in shape.

However, the plan faces some significant obstacles. While the EIB regularly provides loans for specific projects, sharing half the burden of Chazimarkakis’s Herkules plan could well put too much strain on the bank, which last year only had euro72 billion to finance projects in all 27 member states.

More importantly, the EU’s poorer states, which struggle as much as Greece with the co-financing requirement, would likely balk at any attempts to soften it for one country only. Greece’s per capita income may only be 89 percent of EU average, but states like Bugaria and Estonia, which have managed their budgets much more tightly, have per-head incomes that lie 57 percent and 35 percent below average respectively.

What no one denies is that Greece is in deep trouble, as it now has to convince not only the markets that it has the wherewithal to get its finances back under control, but also its own citizens that the efforts are worth it.

“Foremost you need a strategy for the time after the imminent debt crisis,” said Ulrich Kater, chief economist of Germany’s DekaBank. “And that has to be a growth strategy.”

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The economy hit a soft patch in the first three months of this year, caused by a big jump in oil prices, and the impact of those higher prices are likely to weigh on growth for the rest of the year.msg

After growing at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the final three months of last year, the economy slowed to just 1.8 percent growth in the January-March period.

The Commerce Department is scheduled to revise that figure Thursday. Analysts surveyed by FactSet are looking for an upward revision to around 2.2 percent growth, still a lackluster pace.

Going forward, many analysts believe the economy will perform only slightly better in the current April-June quarter and in the second half of this year. They see overall growth, as measured by the gross domestic product, bumping along at an annual rate just below 3 percent.

“The rest of this year is not going to be a barn burner,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University. “The higher energy prices are going to continue to cascade throughout the economy.”

And in addition to higher energy prices, there are also concerns that the European debt crisis could once again threaten to derail the U.S. economy, just as it did in the spring of 2010.

Analysts are also concerned about how much of an impact the supply disruptions stemming from the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan will have on U.S. manufacturing, especially factories making cars and electronic products that depend on component parts from Japan low fee payday loans.

Some analysts think that Japan’s supply chain problems could shave as much as one-half percentage point from growth in the April-June period.

David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s in New York, said he believed economic growth in the current quarter will come in at an annual rate of 2.5 percent, little changed from the first quarter.

He said he looked for growth in the second half of the year to strengthen slightly to around 3 percent as the manufacturing supply disruptions ease and auto plants and other factories get back to full production.

Wyss said he saw growth for the whole year at around 2.7 percent, slightly below last year’s 2.9 percent growth.

“There are just too many headwinds for the economy to fight against at the moment,” Wyss said.

Some economists are more optimistic that the economy will be able to shake off all its problems and grow at a faster rate in the second half of the year.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, is forecasting growth will average close to 4 percent from July through December.

“For this year, the first quarter will be the low point but the final quarter will be the high point, providing good momentum going into 2012,” Zandi said. “I am looking for 2012 to be a good year.”

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Wheat is one of the world’s primary crops and, in the American landscape, an almost mythical one. But over the past decades, American farmers have turned away from their amber waves of grain online cash advance.

That’s a trend the wheat industry and seed companies