AP - Tropical Storm Hermine gave a wet and windy punch to Texas on Tuesday but left only minor scrapes in the storm-weary Rio Grande Valley, which is proving resilient this hurricane season after taking a third tropical system on the chin.

AP - Mayor Richard M. Daley, who wielded more control over Chicago than anyone but his father decades before, said Tuesday he will not seek re-election, a surprising end — at least for now — of a dynasty whose surname became synonymous with the city's legendary political machine.

AP - David Myers knew it was time to leave when he looked out into the forest and spotted bright red flames towering skyward. Then came a blinding cloud of smoke and a deafening roar as the fire ripped through the wilderness.

AP - Disgruntled voters, a sluggish economy and vanishing enthusiasm for President Barack Obama have put 75 seats or more in the House — the vast majority held by Democrats — at risk of changing hands and putting Republicans in charge.

AP - The government turned up the pressure Tuesday on the head of a small Florida church who plans to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, warning him that doing so could endanger U.S. troops and Americans everywhere.

AP - Government scientists studying the BP disaster are reporting the best possible outcome: Microbes are consuming the oil in the Gulf without depleting the oxygen in the water and creating "dead zones" where fish cannot survive.

Reuters - Republicans in Congress showed little willingness to help President Barack Obama approve $350 billion in measures to boost the economy with midterm elections less than two months away.

AP - A salvaged 50-ton steel column was hoisted onto a support structure Tuesday at the World Trade Center site, where it will eventually serve as part of the entryway to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

Reuters - Hewlett-Packard Co sued former Chief Executive Mark Hurd and asked a court to block him from joining Oracle Corp, saying his hiring by the rival technology firm puts HP's trade secrets "in peril."

Reuters - U.S. stocks fell in very light volume on Tuesday as investors seized on renewed concerns about European banks as a reason to sell shares after strong gains last week.

AP - The flight attendant accused of onboard antics that captured the nation's attention when he told off a passenger and slid down the plane's emergency chute with a beer will undergo a mental health evaluation with the aim of avoiding jail time in a possible plea deal.

AP - Iran's nuclear chief said Tehran has the right to bar some U.N. inspectors from monitoring its disputed nuclear program, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.

AFP - The United States said Tuesday that the envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, and other US officials will travel to Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing next week to discuss North Korea.

AFP - Scandal-hit Wayne Rooney scored as England seized control of their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with a comfortable 3-1 victory over 10-man Switzerland here Tuesday.

AFP - Suspected members of an Islamist sect that launched an uprising last year attacked a prison in northern Nigeria on Tuesday, officials said, sparking a fierce gun battle with authorities.

AP - The Obama administration is trying to jump-start its sputtering attempts to tackle the foreclosure crisis with an effort to assist homeowners who owe more on their properties than their homes are worth.

AP - Fidel Castro criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for what he called his anti-Semitic attitudes and questioned his own actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 during interviews with an American journalist he summoned to Havana to discuss fears of global nuclear war.

AP - An Iraqi soldier sprayed gunfire at American troops guarding one of their commanders as he visited an Iraqi military base on Tuesday and killed two of them, the first U.S. servicemen to die since President Barack Obama declared an official end to combat operations in the country last week.

AP - The international crossfire over Iran's stoning sentence for a woman convicted of adultery intensified Tuesday with a top European Union official calling it "barbaric" and an Iranian spokesman saying it's about punishing a criminal and not a human rights issue.

AP - Motorists should see pump prices slide again after spending a little more to fill their tanks over the Labor Day weekend.

AP - Merriam-Webster's "Word of the Summer" is not even a word. That's something no one can "refudiate."

AFP - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard retained power by a tiny, one-seat majority Tuesday after winning the backing of two key independent MPs in the first hung parliament in decades.

AP - President Barack Obama's proposed tax breaks for business sound like ideas that have enjoyed broad Republican backing in the past. But in today's toxic political atmosphere, he's unlikely to get much — if any — GOP help.

AP - President Barack Obama's proposed tax breaks for business sound like ideas that have enjoyed broad Republican backing in the past. But in today's toxic political atmosphere, he's unlikely to get much — if any — GOP help.

Time.com - There are still 60 days to go before Election Day but the smart money -- lots of it -- is on the GOP winning very, very big