Businesses try to shake off Irene and prepare for holiday visitors in their hotels, cottages, shops and restaurants. 7A
For beach updates, go to:
800-VISIT-NC
Stumpy Point
Could use help
This little Pamlico Sound community, hard hit by the storm, has become a lifeline to Hatteras Island. But it has its own problems. 6A
Oops. The perils
Of live television
One of Howard Stern's cronies thought a prank call to WRAL would be funny. And some guy in Virginia Beach thought streaking through a Weather Channel live shot would be a hoot. 7A
Hurricane leaves little to harvest
Irene caused hundreds of millions of dollar in crop damage, leaving farms in Eastern North Carolina devastated. 7A
Stocks boosted by
Irene relief rally
Insurers and utilities led the markets because Irene damages were less than feared 4B
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State Auditor Beth Wood proves parking tickets were not hers, but the city of Raleigh won’t refund the $245 she paid to remove the boot from her car. 
After an undisclosed issue is discussed in a closed courtroom, the jurors are again trying to decide whether John Edwards violated campaign finance laws. 
Thirteen months ago children were playing on Atka Court in Durham on a warm spring night when a man in a green van shot and killed 13-year-old Shakanah China. Isn’t the murder of an innocent little girl enough by itself to spark outrage? 
Ali Cherfaoui threatened to kill Chahnaz Kebaier if she took the couple’s children, a court motion says. 
Governments around the world expelled Syrian ambassadors and diplomats Tuesday, an unusual, coordinated blow to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime following a gruesome massacre that the United Nations said involved close-range shootings of scores of children and parents in their homes. 
A powerful earthquake killed at least 15 people and left 200 injured Tuesday as it rocked a swath of northern Italy. Factories, warehouses and churches collapsed, dealing a second blow to a region where thousands are still homeless from another temblor just nine days ago. 
Kudzu bugs are munching soybeans, annoying homeowners and gardeners ... and spreading rapidly 
A Wake County family has filed a complaint against the school system’s decision to suspend allowing elementary school students to take the new middle school math curriculum. 
The Wolfpack opens play against Sacred Heart; Vanderbilt and UNC-Wilmington also in the regional at Doak Field in Raleigh. 
