RALEIGH, N.C. Jesse Helms forever changed North Carolina politics and the conservative movement. The former senator did it without ever changing much about himself.

LOS ANGELES A wildfire threatening thousands of homes in Southern California spread slowly through scenic canyonlands Saturday, straining resources as crews struggled to contain hundreds of other blazes around the state.

SHERMAN, Texas Three months after four bodies were found shot execution-style in an airplane hangar on the B&B Ranch north of Dallas in 1984, chemical salesman Lester Leroy Bower Jr. was charged with capital murder.

DES MOINES, Iowa A Fourth of July fireworks shell misfired in a northern Iowa town, sending a fireball skidding down a street into a crowd of spectators and injuring 37 people, officials said Saturday.

MIAMI Tropical Storm Bertha continues to speed across the Atlantic Ocean.

CROWN KING, Ariz. Playing with matches, being careless with a campfire, even burning a letter from an estranged husband: Some of the most devastating wildfires in the country's recent history have been started by people.

GRAPEVINE, Texas On a pedestal in a Texas intersection hundreds of miles from where terrorists crashed planes seven years ago, two flight attendants and two pilots, rendered in bronze, now care for a traveling child.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. Authorities say the lone survivor of a mid-air crash of two medical helicopters has died at a hospital.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist won't be sleeping alone in the governor's mansion much longer - he is engaged to a woman he met in New York City last September who quickly captured his heart.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. A vast collection of 78 rpm records - valued at $1 million, weighing 50 tons and representing more than a half-century of American music history - is being donated to Syracuse University by the estate of a prominent New York City record shop owner.

Highlights of the history of Old Point Comfort and Fort Monroe:

TOLEDO, Ohio Authorities in Toledo, Ohio, say a fast-moving fire at an apartment complex has destroyed eight buildings and left more than 100 people homeless.

Even folks in the Optimist Club are having a tough time toeing an upbeat line these days.

NEW YORK It was many and many a year ago in a cottage in the Bronx where Edgar Allan Poe lived his last years and wrote some of his classic pieces.

GRANITE CITY, Ill. The television image of fugitive murder suspect Nicholas Sheley's mug shot was fresh in Samantha Butler's mind as she ventured out to get dinner for the family, warning her relatives to lock the door behind her.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. The American Civil Liberties Union said Saturday that it plans to investigate the actions of federal law enforcers who arrested five Rainbow Family members in western Wyoming during their annual gathering.

NEW ORLEANS Fuel prices are soaring and credit markets tightening, but the super-rich are still lining up to pay tens of millions of dollars for mega yachts.

Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

BELMAR, N.J. After battling rowdy renters and out-of-control keggers for decades, this Jersey shore party town has finally decided to lighten up a little.