CK Pep

AP – Hurricane Earl churned past the North Carolina Outer Banks and its powerful gusts and driving rains were starting to be felt in southeastern Virginia early Friday, the beginning of at least 24 hours of stormy, windy weather along the East Coast.

AP – A passenger was detained and four of Miami International Airport’s six concourses were evacuated after a screener spotted something suspicious in a checked bag, authorities said.

AP – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he saw and heard evidence the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy is taking hold in critical Kandahar province.

AP – The unemployment rate may be about to rise again.

AP – Stark differences exist between the oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico and the blast that led to the massive BP spill. Mostly notably, no one was killed and no crude was gushing into the water, but the distinctions don’t end there.

AP – Republican Jesse Kelly was still basking in the glow of his victory in an Arizona congressional primary when the Democratic congresswoman he’s trying to unseat released a scathing TV ad branding him “a risk” who would gamble away people’s retirement savings.

AP – U.S. Agriculture Department employees worked full-time at two Iowa egg farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive recall, but two former workers said they ignored complaints about conditions at one site.