Tropical Storm Hermine makes landfall in Mexico (AP)

AP - Tropical Storm Hermine slammed into Mexico's northern Gulf coast near the U.S. border late Monday with winds of 60 mph (95 kph), lashing Mexico and southern Texas with heavy rains that authorities warned could cause flash flooding.

Authorities: 1,000 homes evacuated in Colo. fire (AP)

AP - A wind-driven wildfire in the rugged Colorado foothills spread across 5 1/2 square miles Monday, destroying an unknown number of homes and triggering the evacuation of 1,000 others, authorities said.

Imam behind NYC mosque back in US after Gulf trip (AP)

AP - An imam who has become the public face of a proposed Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero has returned to the United States following a taxpayer-funded tour of the Middle East, his wife said Monday.

Plane crash on NV street kills 1, injures 3 (AP)

AP - A small plane crashed and burst into flames on a street in a southern Nevada residential neighborhood Monday, killing one person and badly injuring three others, authorities said.

Little Rock 9 member Jefferson Thomas dies in Ohio (AP)

AP - Jefferson Thomas was fast and athletic and often played pickup basketball with white students while growing up in Little Rock in the 1950s.

Army: Ex-soldier takes 3 hospital workers hostage (AP)
AP - A former Army soldier seeking help for mental problems at a Georgia military hospital took three workers hostage at gunpoint Monday before authorities persuaded him to surrender.

US won't say if blowout preventer on way to shore (AP)

AP - The Justice Department won't say if the blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from gushing from BP's undersea well into the Gulf of Mexico is on its way to shore.

Colleges buy land they don't know how they'll use (AP)
AP - Colleges and universities are buying up chunks of land at bargain prices, sometimes without a clear idea how they'll be used.

NY cigarette tax plans raise reservation tensions (AP)

AP - As New York Indian Nation leaders battle in courtrooms to preserve their tax-free cigarette market, tensions are rising on reservations, where the state's renewed efforts to tax sales to non-Native customers is viewed as yet another attack on Native American rights.

US investors seek pay for pre-WWII German bonds (AP)

AP - More than 80 years ago, Germany sold tens of thousands of bonds to American investors in an effort to recover financially from World War I. Later, Adolf Hitler used some of the money raised by those bonds to build the powerful Nazi war machine that would ravage Europe during World War II.

1 'censored' bar won't stop online prostitution (AP)

AP - Craiglist's "adult services" section has been shut down in the U.S., but prostitution on the Internet is alive and well — even, quite possibly, on Craigslist.

9 years gone, everyone's a ground zero stakeholder (AP)

AP - It is a place of sacrifice. A place of mourning. A place people pass by on their way to grab lunch. It's a place where tourists crane their necks to snatch a glimpse around barriers walling off an enormous construction site — which is also what it is.

USS Olympia, 2-war naval veteran, battles for survival (AP)

AP - The USS Olympia, a one-of-a-kind steel cruiser that returned home to a hero's welcome after a history-changing victory in the Spanish-American War, is a proud veteran fighting what may be its final battle.

Montana plane crash revives 'lap child' debate (AP)
AP - Federal transportation safety officials are using the deadly crash of an overloaded plane in Montana to revive a long-standing debate about whether small children should be allowed to travel on the laps of adults.

Counselors monitoring prison officers with PTSD (AP)
AP - John Brownfield Jr. became a corrections officer following deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Greeting card giant Hallmark heads for 2nd century (AP)

AP - Hallmark Cards Inc., a $4 billion empire built on a demand for printed sentimentality, enters its second century facing a weak economy and what could be an even greater challenge: a generation that has grown up posting its sentiments online.

Greenest state behind the waste-to-energy race (AP)

AP - Government officials from around the world used to come to this port city to catch a glimpse of the future: Two-story piles of trash would disappear into a furnace and eventually be transformed into electricity to power thousands of homes.

Va. woman devours 181 chicken wings in NY contest (AP)

AP - The Black Widow of eating contests gobbled up nearly 181 chicken wings in 12 minutes, devouring the national championship record in Buffalo on Sunday.

Backyard volunteers helping track firefly numbers (AP)
AP - The yellow-green streaks of fireflies that bring a magical air to summer nights, inspire camp songs and often end up in jars in children's bedrooms may be flickering out in the nation's backyards as suburban sprawl encroaches on their habitats.

Army studies concussions' effects on bomb techs (AP)

AP - Motivated by the deaths of two friends in war-zone explosions, 1st Lt. Timothy Dwyer decided to become a bomb hunter.