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As the nation faces a political showdown over health-insurance reform, insurers worried that an overhaul could hurt their bottom line are funneling a wave of cash to members of Congress.

The news was greeted with great fanfare: The Dead Sea, it was announced last week, is among the finalists in the competition to determine the seven natural wonders of the world.

Someday decades from now, California's sprawling coastal cities could draw their power from floating windmills that bob on the sea like buoys, far from shore.

Their blades would spin over deep ocean water, turning in winds that are steadier and stronger than they are on land. Undersea cables would send their electricity to shore.

Students in Joe Wood's science class at Somerset Middle School in Modesto, Calif., didn't have to hide their cell phones in their backpacks. They used them to take quizzes, shoot photos for class projects and create podcasts.

Wood is among a growing group of educators who consider cell phones an important tool in the classroom.

It's bigger than MySpace. A guiltier indulgence than "American Idol." And sometimes scarier than a Lindsay Lohan-Sam Ronson pillow fight.

It's Facebook, and if you're not using it by now ... well, then that means you have time to mow your lawn and write a book. (The rest of us are too busy taking the "How well do you know Tony Soprano" quiz.)

About 300 people slunk into this town to bid on the earthly goods of the late Betty James, a woman whose life required as much flexibility and rebound as the spring-steel coil she sprung on a toy-hungry world: the Slinky.

On the lawn of her sprawling Tudor home were nine televisions, three refrigerators, nine mink coats and enough Sinatra-era furniture for a rat pack reunion.

The White House wants to lift a Bush administration ban on federal agencies depositing tracking "cookies" on our computers when we visit U.S. government sites.

Between innocuous updates about a wardrobe malfunction and a Cubs game, Twitter user Amanda Bonnen posted this tweet in May:

"(at)JessB123 You should just come anyway. Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it's okay."

Last Saturday, the Islamic Association of Raleigh, N.C. threw open its doors for a "Meet Your Muslim Neighbor" event that drew 600 people, including two congressmen, one cabinet secretary and several mayors.

An Emerald isle sparkles with fresh paint, just-planted flowers and neighborhood pride, thanks in large part to Larry Ocheske.

Weary of watching his neighborhood turn into a weed-infested dumping ground for broken beer bottles, fast-food wrappers, and left-over pothole filler, the 63-year-old Toledoan bought a new mower and went to work this summer.