Obama to return to Indiana city after seven years to highlight progress

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans a return visit to Elkhart, Indiana, next week, some seven years after going to the city on his first trip as president, to highlight economic progress there and across the United States, the White House said on Tuesday. The repeat visit to Concord High School on June 1 will feature a town hall hosted by broadcaster PBS, as Obama looks to burnish his legacy in the final year of his administration. Unemployment in Elkhart, a manufacturing center for recreational vehicles and band instruments, has fallen to 4.1 percent from 19.6 percent in 2009, according to a White House statement that also noted improvements in high school graduation and mortgage foreclosure rates. The White House also touted improved healthcare coverage in Indiana and nationally under Obama's signature Affordable Care Act. Obama said that in addition to economic progress already made, he planned to talk about the future. "We still face some tough economic challenges, there’s no doubt about it. And all of us have to make some very important decisions about where we go from here," he said in the statement. (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Peter Cooney)