STORM

The world's largest economy was headed toward an unprecedented default, and all Washington wanted to talk about was the manner in which the president had left a room.

A New Orleans jury began deliberating Wednesday after shootings occurred when a dozen officers responded to a radio call that police had been fired on and that the shooters were headed toward the Danziger Bridge, just days after the Hurricane Katrina storm.

RIM released new BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Torch smartphone models on Wednesday after a year since its last smartphone release.

As of 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Emily was located at about 145 miles southeast of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic with maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour, or 85 kilometers per hour. Emily is still on a westward movement at a speed of 14 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.

The furore over consumer group Choice's mortgage switching campaign may be a "storm in a teacup" according to one broker.

A strengthening Tropical Storm Emily is continues to move westward through the Caribbean inching closer to the islands of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti where watches and warnings are in effect. The National Hurricane Center said as of 2 p.m. Emily about 215 miles southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, moving at 12 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour.

Sales rose almost eight percent for Chevrolet in July, as the company benefits from the fuel-efficient Cruze and other new products. The 2012 subcompact Sonic is due to arrive in dealer showrooms in October.

Overnight thunderstorms peppered the Northeast on Monday and threatened to return with damaging wind gusts and hail as record-breaking heat tightened its grip on the Southern and Central Plains.

OC Fisher Reservoir in West Texas has dried up into a small pool of blood-red water. This has several doomsday preachers predicting the end of times.

Tropical storm Emily is gaining strength and is expected to approach Hispaniola tonight and Wednesday.

Tropical Storm Emily may be poorly organized but it continues to make its way slowly through the Caribbean with tropical storm warning still in effect for Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe and the Dominican Republic. Tropical storm watch remains in effect for U.S Virgin Islands and Haiti.

Oil fell on Monday, reversing gains as weak U.S. manufacturing data and a firming dollar hit crude prices that were buoyed earlier by a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling.

Midwest cash gasoline differentials rose on Monday following cycle changes in both Chicago and Group Three markets.

Brent crude futures hit a 6-week high on Monday, topping $120 a barrel, due to a relief rally after Washington reached a last-minute deal to escape default.

Sticky heat was expected to smother much of the country's midsection in the coming days as hotter-than-usual temperatures continued to roast parts of the Midwest and South, forecasters said on Sunday.

Acclaimed climate change scientist Charles Monnett has been suspended over "integrity issues" in regards to a 2006 paper on polar bear drownings in the Arctic.

A study suggests that users of Internet Explorer have the lower IQ than the users of other Web browsers.

Tropical Storm Don has lost momentum, the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported as the storm was approaching Baffin Bay with maximum sustained winds of 25 miles per hour at 10 p.m. Don has steadily been moving west-northwest at speeds of 14 mph. At 10 p.m. Friday, the center reported the tropical storm was about forty miles south of Corpus Christi, Texas.

As Tropical Storm Don fizzled out, hopes that heavy rains would provide some relief to a dry and parched south Texas suffering its worst drought in years also disappeared.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami lifted its storm warning by Friday.

The US solider charged with an attempt to stage an attack on Fort Hood Military base shouted out in court the name of the defendant in the 2009 shooting at the military camp that killed 13 soldiers. The US military leadership chose to ramp up hiring Muslim personnel in the hope of creating a more inclusive culture within the army, but recent events are casting a shadow over the success of this policy.