NPR News

There was a 0.8 percent increase in retail sales in July from June, the Census Bureau says, thanks in part to gains in purchases of cars, furniture and appliances.

Overall, The Associated Press says, "all major categories showed increases, a sign that consumers may be gaining confidence." If that is indeed the case, it's good news for the economy. Consumers purchase about 70 percent of all goods and services.

We expect that most folks won't need to look up the definition. But just in case, "f-bomb" now has its own entry in the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

While a Colorado judge on Monday kept sealed most key documents in the case against Aurora movie theater shootings suspect James Holmes, the materials that have been made public do "hint at the evidence being marshaled," The Denv

The first set of cars put through a new type of safety test did poorly even though they were "luxury and near-luxury cars" that should have the latest safety technology built in, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports today.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

A listener to sports radio station WWL noticed an uncanny resemblance. New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is the spitting image of the late U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes. That is, long before the 19th president grew that long grey beard.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was in Miami, where he courted Cuban-American voters Monday. They're one of the few minority communities that vote solidly Republican. In a news conference Monday, Romney suggested voters don't care about a candidate's race.

Brown became famous in the 1960s with her bestseller Sex and the Single Girl. In it, she urged single women to embrace careers and sexuality. The book led to a three decades long career editing Cosmopolitan. Brown took the magazine from dowdy home and garden coverage to a saucy handbook for single women.