National

A proposed road in Alaska is pitting residents against environmentalists. The people who live in a remote village want better access to an airport with year-round flights to Anchorage for medical emergencies. But the road would cut through a wilderness area, which environmentalists say would set a bad precedent.

After decades without any reported cases, dengue fever seems to be getting a foothold in the U.S. In 2009, it surfaced in Key West. This year, 18 cases have been reported this summer in Martin County, Fla.

Thomas Weller would have died in a snow bank in 1966 had a stranger not helped him. Weller has been helping strangers in the same way ever since.

The four top congressional leaders held a closed-door meeting Thursday to assess where they stand on the coming government funding and debt-ceiling deadlines. As has become typical in recent years, some conservative House Republicans appear to be the stumbling block with their insistence that any deal repeal or defund Obamacare.

It's been five years since Lehman Brothers collapsed and touched off a banking crisis that is still being felt by the global economy. Today, the banking industry is a lot stronger than it was, but some critics say efforts to reform banking regulations have fallen short of their potential.

Suicide rates among Native Americans are already four times the national average. And with recent cuts in federal funding for mental health services across the country, suicide prevention programs may lose ground in the communities that need them most.

State lawmakers failed to override the governor's veto of a controversial measure that would have lowered state income taxes. Although Republicans had supermajorities in the House and Senate, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon was able to rally school districts, which feared their budgets would suffer from the decline in general revenue.

Horse slaughter is banned in the U.S., but thousands of American horses are shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter every year. Investors argue restarting the practice in the U.S. would be better for business and offer a more humane end for horses that are neglected under the current model.

With the pause button pushed on the congressional debate over Syria, the House is turning its attention back to the budget. The House was supposed to act this week to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month, and Republican leaders had hoped to avoid drama. But drama is brewing.

Security experts say the U.S. has a dearth of professionals qualified to take on cyberthreats like attacks on power grids or defense systems. A school district in Alabama and the U.S. Army Cyber Command have teamed up to help prepare a new generation for cyberwarfare careers.