To celebrate Hot Dog Month, Rob Merlino has eaten a frank every day in July, according to the Boston Globe. The 47-year old father of five is eating them grilled, steamed, boiled and fried at shacks and diners throughout New England.

Victor Burgos fled because he faced criminal charges including domestic violence. He made the Ten Most Wanted list in Utica, N.Y. When he made it to New York City, he taunted police on Facebook, saying, "Catch me if you can. I'm in Brooklyn." According to the Daily News, police obliged.

Set in the old West desert town of Absolution, Cowboys & Aliens has almost everything you'd expect to see in a classic Western: gunslingers, shoot-outs, saloons ... and aliens.

Just think of it as gourmet comfort food.

"Hopefully it's a really, really smart version of a very simplistic concept," actor-turned-director Jon Favreau tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly.

As a director, Favreau is best known for his Iron Man mega-hits, but he says he was cautious not to let his latest film devolve into a sci-fi action popcorn movie.

At some point next week, if Congress doesn't agree to raise the debt ceiling, the U.S. government may have to decide which bills to pay. What comes first: Social Security checks? Military spending? Food stamps?

There's not even a choice, says Jerome Powell, a former Under Secretary of the Treasury for Finance.

"Interest will be paid first," he says. "There's really no thought process there, it just has to be that way."

Jack Segal made his living booking novelty acts from the 1940s to the 1960s in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. There were more than 500 hotels and resorts in the region.

"He employed performers that the other agents would never use or couldn't even find, like the lilliputian stripper, blind xylophone player," Jack's son, Mort, tells his sister Joan Feldman while visiting StoryCorps in New York City.

Jack also had dog acts and the hotels would complain sometimes.

During the worst of the recession, new development ground to a halt and small businesses closed their doors on many Main Streets throughout the country.

That wasn't the case in Greenville, S.C. And while it seems improbable that a city would thrive during the recession, Greenville's mayor credits a mix of good luck and good fundamentals.

'Our Own Little Rockefeller Center'

The "nickel tour" of Greenville, population 58,000, starts at a window on the 10th floor of City Hall.

The brutal twin attacks in Norway last week by self-proclaimed Christian crusader Anders Behring Breivik have reignited an immigration debate in what had appeared to be the most serene multicultural society in Europe.‪ Norway's long-standing reputation as a welcoming haven for immigrants is being tested as its Muslim population grows.

Many immigrants live in the Oslo neighborhood of Greenland. There are a few indigenous Norwegians, but they rush by.‪ Many women shopping at grocery stores wear the hijab.‪

The government of Bahrain has invited a renowned international legal scholar to investigate what went on during mass protests in February and March, and the brutal crackdown on the largely Shiite opposition that ensued. More than 30 people died, hundreds were detained and beaten, and thousands were fired from their jobs.

The commission is headed by Cherif Bassiouni, an Egyptian-born legal expert who has investigated war crimes and human rights violations in the Balkans, Rwanda, Afghanistan and, most recently, Libya.

In the Texas trial of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, the suspect fired his lawyer and told the judge in the case that he wants to defend himself. The proceedings went forward Thursday, with plenty of dramatic moments.

Last night, the House of Representatives postponed a vote on its debt ceiling bill.