MENDON - A fund has been established at a local bank to collect donations to supplement the Mendon-Upton Regional School District budget.

WORCESTER - Students and officials this morning celebrated the opening of a new library at Union Hill Elementary School. The 370-student school had been without a library for many years.

WASHINGTON - Private employers hired more workers over the past three month than first thought, lifting hopes for the weak economy ahead of the Labor Day weekend. But the unemployment rate rose in August for the first time in four months as more people entered the market looking for work.

The last blast of summer starts today under a cloud. Hurricane Earl is roaring through the Atlantic Ocean and toward New England just as the calendar is signaling it's time to rest, play, hit the road, fire up the barbecue and maybe take a moment to appreciate the working man and woman.

BOSTON - The projected path of Hurricane Earl shifted closer to the island of Nantucket on Thursday as the storm weakened slightly but still threatened the New England coast, where officials were wary of a turn farther west.

What's a candidate to do? Thomas J. Foley has been head of the Massachusetts State Police, running a department six times the size of the Worcester County Sheriff's Department. Scot J. Bove has been an official in the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction for 27 years, rising through the ranks to be an assistant deputy superintendent

WASHINGTON - Congress seems increasingly reluctant to let taxes go up, even on wealthier Americans.

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WORCESTER - An effort to make major changes to when and how long elementary school recess is held was watered down tonight, but the School Committee agreed to ask principals to consider having at least 30 minutes of recess and to consider having it before lunch.

WORCESTER - With less than two weeks to go to before the primary election that will whittle their field from six to one, candidates for the state representative seat in the 13th Worcester District sharpened their messages and their attacks at a debate tonight at the Willows on Barry Road.

A fatal explosion at a Massachusetts condominium project in July has led the state attorney general to investigate the delivery of faulty propane to locations across New England and New York.

HOLDEN - About 500 homes and businesses lost electricity for over an hour this evening, due to a short-out on a major circuit.

EAST BROOKFIELD - A Barre man who has violated his probation four times in two years was sentenced to 15 months in the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction today.

DUDLEY - Peter, the 18-month-old Black labrador-pit bull mix who has been on death row for 10 weeks, has received a last-minute reprieve and new lease on life.

LEOMINSTER - The Police Department has received a $31,646 grant for new police radios. The grant was awarded as part of the U.S. Department of Justice's Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance program, and is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The US Department of Education announced this morning that a consortium of states led by Massachusetts will receive a $170 million federal grant to come up with a standardized testing system that would replace a patchwork of tests used by individual states, such as the MCAS in Massachusetts.

WORCESTER - The License Commission this morning revoked the license of a Grand Street bar, citing numerous liquor license violations and problems with the bar's management.

STERLING - It appears the First Church, not the town government, owns the Sterling Common, the Historical Society director told selectmen yesterday.

GRAND ISLE, La. - An oil platform exploded and burned off the Louisiana coast today, the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. This time, the Coast Guard said there was no leak, and no one was killed.