National (U.S.)

"West Nile virus cases nationally were up 40% from last week, now totaling 1,590, including 66 deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday."

"Two U.S. health and environment organizations sued the federal government on Wednesday for what the groups say is a failure to implement and enforce a new food safety law that could help prevent thousands of deaths caused by food-borne illnesses each year."

"The G.O.P. platform approved Tuesday in Florida included tough language on many expected issues like abortion, but also takes a stand on an issue that has historically been out of the party’s mainstream: Agenda 21."

"NEW ORLEANS — Isaac's whistling winds lashed this city and the storm dumped nearly a foot of rain on its desolate streets, but the system of levee pumps, walls and gates appeared to withstand one of the stiffest challenges yet. To the north and south, though, people had to be evacuated or rescued as Isaac lingered over Louisiana."

"When GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited an Ohio coal mine this month to promote jobs in the coal industry, workers who appeared with him at the rally lost pay because their mine was shut down."

"As extremely hot temperatures continue to hit much of the country, high school football teams are busy getting ready for the fall season. Last year, five high school football players died of heat stroke. Across the country, experts are trying to prevent those kinds of tragedies."

"YAKIMA, Wash. -- The company hired to design and build a massive plant at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site should no longer have authority over its design, according to an internal U.S. Department of Energy memo released Tuesday."

"A worker caught on undercover video abusing turkeys at a Butterball factory farm in North Carolina pled guilty Tuesday to felonious cruelty to animals."

"The Obama administration announced strict new vehicle fuel-efficiency standards Tuesday, requiring that the U.S. auto fleet average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, an uncontroversial move that, unlike other administration energy policies, was endorsed by industry and environmentalists alike."

Hurricane Isaac made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River as a Category 1 storm, cutting power, overtopping levees, dumping massive rains, damaging buildings, and potentially stirring up oil left over from the BP oil spill.