WASHINGTON
Congress seeks fast session
Lawmakers return to Washington this week for an abbreviated election-season session in which they will likely do what they do best: the bare minimum. All Congress must do this month is keep the government from shutting down on Oct. 1 and, with any luck, finally provide money for the fight against the mosquito-borne Zika virus. A chief motivation for the September session is allowing lawmakers to return to campaigning as soon as possible as Republicans scramble to hold onto their Senate edge.
OMAHA, Neb.
Alligator victim remembered
The parents of the toddler who was killed by an alligator at Walt Disney World in Florida said they will always remember their sweet little boy. Melissa and Matt Graves spoke to a group of several hundred people gathered at a high school football stadium Saturday to remember Lane Graves on what would have been his third birthday, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Lane died June 14 after an alligator pulled him into a lagoon at Disney’s upscale Grand Floridian Resort. Melissa Graves said the family wanted to celebrate Lane’s “first birthday in heaven.”
HONOLULU
Eastern gorilla threatened
The world’s largest living primate has been listed as critically endangered, making four of the six great ape species only one step away from extinction, according to a report released Sunday at the World Conservation Congress in Hawaii. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, cited illegal hunting in downgrading the status of the eastern gorilla on its Red List of Endangered Species.
PHILADELPHIA
Crowdfunding aids teachers
Teachers are increasingly relying on crowdfunding efforts to stock their classrooms with both the mundane and sometimes big-ticket items. Contributions to education campaigns have climbed on GoFundMe and DonorsChoose, collectively, from just more than $31.2 million in 2010 to nearly $140 million in 2015, the do-it-yourself fundraising sites report. Both sites are on pace to eclipse that in 2016. GoFundMe has collected $58 million in just the last 12 months, and DonorsChoose saw more than 50,000 campaigns live on the site for the first time this back-to-school season.
Compiled from wire reports