Posted: 8:51 AM Dozens of homes have been burned and hundreds of people were told to evacuate. The state is monitoring close to a dozen fires. One fire may have been set.

Updated: 3:49 PM Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is keeping his future political plans to himself after losing the U.S. Senate runoff to tea party darling Ted Cruz.

Posted: 7:30 AM Futures are rising sharply ahead of the report from the Labor Department on hiring and unemployment trends in July.

Updated: 5:40 PM Federal officials say they are investigating what happened when three commuter jets flew too close to one another near Washington. But they say none of three planes ever were on a collision course.

Posted: 12:54 PM Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart Corp. are recalling about 795,000 Kenmore dehumidifiers because of potential fire and burn hazards.

Posted: 8:34 AM The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week, though the data was likely skewed higher by seasonal factors.

Posted: 7:01 AM General Motors says its second-quarter profit fell 41 percent as losses in Europe and South America cut into strong North American earnings.

Updated: 9:45 AM President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney are campaigning in three of the most tightly contested states, laboring to raise their profiles with a public otherwise preoccupied with vacations, the Olympics and the sweltering August heat.

Updated: 10:40 AM Health officials say West Nile virus season is off to a menacing start, with more serious illnesses reported so far this year than any since 2004.

Posted: 5:31 PM Republicans controlling the House have passed a bill to extend tax cuts due to expire Dec. 31, officially laying down their marker in an election-year showdown with President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies.

Posted: 3:43 PM The Louisiana Tech mascot believed to be missing has actually died because the bulldog was left outside in the sun for too long, according to school officials.

Posted: 8:15 PM It seems that eight Texas Air National Guard cargo transport planes used for post-hurricane evacuations will remain in Texas - at least until 2014.

Posted: 8:15 PM Mitt Romney is back home in Boston. A spokesman says the Republican presidential candidate's plane has landed in the Massachusetts capital.

Updated: 9:06 AM NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. consumer confidence rose in July after four months of declines, as a brighter outlook for short-term hiring offset longer-term worries about the economy.

Posted: 11:26 AM Colorado prosecutors have formally charged a former doctorate student with 24 counts of murder in the shooting at an Aurora movie theater.

Posted: 8:43 AM Former University of Colorado Denver grad student James Holmes will learn the charges against him when he appears in court this morning.

Updated: 12:10 PM BEVERLY HLLS, Calif. (AP) - "Face the Nation" is remaining an hour long.

Posted: 8:33 AM U.S. stock futures are mixed as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner meets with economic policy makers in Europe. New data out of Europe suggests a tricky path to recovery.

Posted: 7:19 AM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is welcoming Mitt Romney to Israel as a representative of the U.S. He tells the Republican presidential candidate he agrees with his approach to the threat of a nuclear Iran.

Posted: 10:39 AM More than 200 people have gathered in western Ohio to mourn one of the victims of the deadly shooting spree in a Colorado movie theater.

Updated: 9:43 AM President Barack Obama and Republicans are sparring on familiar ground today in their weekly media messages -- criticizing one another on the economy.

Posted: 6:06 AM Today marks the beginning of the London Olympics, with the opening ceremony.

Posted: 2:57 AM LONDON (AP) - On a trip already marked by misstep, Mitt Romney has an Olympic history that could prove problematic: His stewardship of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City was not without controversy.

Posted: 8:29 AM The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 35,000 last week, but the numbers were skewed by seasonal factors.

Posted: 6:58 AM Hundreds of well-wishers crammed into the north London district of Camden as the Olympic torch set off on a celebratory tour of London's prime tourist sites.