DIGEST

Project preps packages for overseas U.S. troops

NORTH ORANGE - Twelve volunteers are getting together Saturday to prepare 65 boxes of donated toiletries and snacks and send them to local residents serving in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Lookout: Feeling the tick of clockworks, as Jupiter chases the sun

This month we were all made aware of the changing seasons through the artificial changing of our clocks back to standard time. The abrupt change of waking to the daylight but having night come by dinner was startling to those of us not paying attention.

As House health vote nears, opponents take to streets

WASHINGTON - With a historic House vote on a $1 trillion health care bill barely 48 hours away, battle lines are hardening as lobbying groups for seniors and doctors endorsed the legislation, while thousands of protesters swarmed Capitol Hill to oppose it.

12 dead in Fort Hood rampage

FORT HOOD, Texas - An Army psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post Thursday, authorities said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States.

U.N. scales back climate pact ambitions

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - With the U.S. Congress still struggling to agree on sharp cuts in greenhouse gases or how to fund them, European officials said Thursday they were now striving for a political agreement instead of a new treaty to allow the U.S. and other rich nations to make commitments that are not legally binding.

House votes to speed up credit card regulations

WASHINGTON - The House voted on Wednesday to impose immediately tough new rules for credit card companies after voters complained of increased interest rates and steep new fees.

The bill, approved 331-92, would accelerate the enactment date of legislation passed this spring that limits when and how banks can charge borrowers.

Clunkers did little for fuel economy

WASHINGTON - The most common deals under the government's $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program, aimed at putting more fuel-efficient cars on the road, replaced old Ford or Chevrolet pickups with new ones that got only marginally better gas mileage, according to an analysis of new federal data by The Associated Press.