The season changes, and a Jersey Shore town wistfully decompresses.

Summer’s Almost Over

I.B.M. is probably the largest company to do away with tracking vacation.

At I.B.M., a Vacation Anytime, or Maybe None

Next Thursday is the birthday of a fellow who, for Americans, may be the most significant Frenchman not named Gérard Depardieu.

Lafayette’s 250th: Iraq Aside, We’re Still Grateful to France

NBC Universal and Apple were unable to come to an agreement on pricing, leading to the a withdrawal that highlights escalating tensions between Apple and media companies.

NBC Will Not Renew ITunes Contract

You can navigate natural water slide chutes near river beds where tumbling water and time have worn smooth paths over stone.

Water Parks Gone Wild in Vermont

Dell reported on Thursday that second-quarter earnings rose 46 percent, but production delays are preventing the company from growing as quickly as hoped.

Dell’s Earnings Rise, but Delays Hinder Recovery

The global financial turmoil, ignited by the subprime mortgage problems in the U.S., has exposed the downsides of spreading risk so broadly that upheavals are felt worldwide.

Why a U.S. Subprime Mortgage Crisis Is Felt Around the World

President Bush announced several steps to help Americans who have credit problems meet the rising cost of their housing loans.

Bush Offers Relief for Some on Home Loans

After the shooting, the gunman, who is said to have been enraged at losing his job at Co-op City, turned himself in to security officers at a courthouse.

One Dead and Two Wounded in Bronx Shooting

“Song for New York: What Women Do While Men Sit Knitting,” a seaborne celebration of New York in music and verse, is the first site-specific piece by the Mabou Mines theater company.

Portable Theater (Just Go With the Flow)

For Shatha al-Musawi, a Shiite member of Parliament in Iraq, the urge to reconcile is being blacked out by distrust.

Shiite’s Tale: How Gulf With Sunnis Widened

Given how deeply the Berkshire Theater Festival has its roots in expressions of female ingenuity, it seems fitting that a portion of the current season should be given over to Shaw.

A Festival Rooted in Female Ingenuity

In the span of three months, John Isner has gone from being a big man on campus at Athens, Ga., to the biggest story of the Open’s first week.

John Who? Isner Stands Out in a Crowd in More Ways Than One

Chien-Ming Wang worked seven scoreless innings while Boston’s Curt Schilling pitched six innings, allowing two runs, both on opposite-field home runs by Robinson Cano.

History Repeats as Yankees Sweep Red Sox

Audley Bent, the worker who was shot dead at Co-op City, was known for his friendly compliments to residents.

The Face That Greeted Residents as They Greeted Their Day

Mike Rowe, the host of “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel, has dealt with untold tons of sludge, sewage,  excreta and plain old nastiness. Yet, he seems to enjoy it.

Gross-Out Fanfares for the Common Man

Smaller banks find problems in some commercial real estate loans.

New Worries for Small Banks

In the aftermath of a crushing 11-10 Mets defeat was the inescapable feeling that in the now-likely event of a divisional race, no Joba Chamberlain for the Mets equals mission improbable.

In Need of Relief, the Mets Find None

India has a growing military appetite that is attracting American contractors seeking big arms deals.

Building a Modern Arsenal in India

The American Cancer Society plans to devote its 2007 ad budget to the consequences of inadequate health coverage.

Cancer Society Focuses Its Ads on the Uninsured

An American-owned company paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to U.S. officers in efforts to win more than $11 million in contracts.

U.S. Says Company Bribed Officers for Work in Iraq

A potentially deadly chemical agent produced by Saddam Hussein’s regime has turned up, improbably, in an office at the United Nations in New York.

Chemical From Iraq Discovered at U.N.

An independent commission will recommend remaking Iraq’s police force to purge it of Shiite militants suspected of complicity in sectarian killings, officials said.

Panel Will Urge Broad Overhaul of Iraqi Police

A $2 million lawsuit against the author Augusten Burroughs, by the family that sued him for defamation for his best-selling book “Running With Scissors,” has been settled, The Associated Press reported yesterday. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Mr. Burroughs and the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, agreed to call the volume a “book” instead of “memoirs” in the author’s note, although the word memoir will still appear on the cover and elsewhere, and to change the acknowledgments in future editions to say that the Turcotte family’s memories of events he describes are “different from my own.” In addition future editions will express regret for “any unintentional harm” to them. But in a statement released yesterday by St. Martin’s, Mr. Burroughs declared his work “an entirely accurate memoir.” Howard Cooper, a lawyer for the family, said financial terms of the settlement were confidential. Mr. Burroughs lived with the Turcottes as a teenager, and though the book calls them “the Finches,” the lawsuit maintains that they are easily identified.

Scissors Author Settles Suit

The byline for a front-page article yesterday about the legal troubles of a prominent Democratic fund-raiser and contributor to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign misidentified one of the writers. The article was by Mike McIntire and Leslie Wayne — not by Leslie Eaton, another Times reporter.

Corrections

Gay Robert Brewer Jr. was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and won the 1967 Masters Tournament.

Gay Brewer, American golfer (born 1932)

Gay_Brewer

Lieutenant General Jean Jacques Paradis CMM, CD was the Commander, Mobile Command of the Canadian Forces.

August 31, 2007

Headlines from August 31, 2007

Summer’s Almost Over

At I.B.M., a Vacation Anytime, or Maybe None

Lafayette’s 250th: Iraq Aside, We’re Still Grateful to France

NBC Will Not Renew ITunes Contract

Water Parks Gone Wild in Vermont

Billboard 200

High School Musical 2

Hannah Montana 2 (Soundtrack)/Meet Miley Cyrus

Live At Radio City

NOW 25

Hairspray

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for August 31, 2007