AP - Residents and recovery teams began fanning out across south Texas at dawn Thursday and cars crept along roads with darkened stoplights as the region got its first look at the destruction left by Hurricane Dolly.

AP - The scene repeats itself daily on city streets: a driver gets stuck bumper to bumper, blocking an intersection and preventing another car from turning left.

AP - Cash-strapped homebuyers and borrowers facing foreclosure will get some relief from a housing bill passed by the House on Wednesday but the bill won't solve the deep-rooted ills of the U.S. housing market.

AP - Seven Western states are joining four Canadian provinces to propose a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions through use of a "cap and trade" system.

AP - Growing costs and vulnerability to anti-ship missiles sank the Navy's once-heralded "stealth destroyer," a highly advanced warship designed to slip close to the shore unnoticed and pummel targets with big guns.

AP - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to pay thousands of state employees the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour until lawmakers reach a deal on California's overdue state budget.

AP - About 2 million Americans get a raise Thursday as the federal minimum wage rises 70 cents. The bad news: Higher gas and food prices are swallowing it up, and some small businesses will pass the cost of the wage hike to consumers.

AP - Hundreds of feet beneath Earth's surface, a few seasoned cave explorers venture where no human has set foot. Their headlamps illuminate mud-covered walls, gypsum crystals and mineral deposits.

AP - The employer of a pregnant teenager who died of heat stroke after pruning grapevines for nine hours in hot weather was hit Wednesday with the highest fine ever issued to a California farming operation.

AP - A woman mauled by a bear in a rural area of Southern California was recovering Wednesday as game wardens sought to trap and kill the animal.