WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress is once again allowing shutdown politics to bring the federal government to the brink of closing.

Default rates and delinquencies dropped once again in August for most of the major credit card issuers. Chase, Discover, American Express, and Bank of America all reported drops in both important figures in their August regulatory filings.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) -- Troy Davis' sister said Friday she's not wasting time being angry as she presses to keep the 20-year legal fight her brother lost when he was executed. He used his final words in Georgia's death chamber to insist he wasn't a killer.

Republicans in early voting states, once excited about the Texas governor's presidential bid, are openly questioning the strength of his candidacy. High expectations have been met by the sudden national scrutiny that comes with the front-runner bull's-eye.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Every year or so - and sometimes more often - Facebook manages to miff a vocal percentage of users by changing the look and feel of its site. As it adds new features, it invariably takes away things that people have grown attached to. It's no different with the changes unveiled this week. Some have already gone live while others will be coming to your Facebook page soon.

CHICAGO (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. said Thursday that he and two other Democratic congressmen from Illinois won't help defend the state's new congressional voting districts, which he suggested fellow Democrats drew to help politicians instead of minority voters.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The union in a high-profile labor dispute with Boeing Co. says newly released documents show the company opened a new plant in South Carolina to limit the power of employee unions in Washington state.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- A photojournalist who captured iconic images of the civil rights movement but who slowly turned away from the profession to become a furniture maker after photographing a fatally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald has died.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government has doled out more than $600 million in benefit payments to dead people over the past five years, a watchdog report says.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) -- Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis quit the race for New Jersey state Senate on Friday, a day after a federal appeals panel removed him from the ballot because he didn't meet a four-year residency requirement.