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After applying for a waiver for flexibility from the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law, Vermont has changed its mind and will not pursue the application.

The U.S. Department of Education announced this week that it has approved waivers for another eight states. A total of 19 states have gotten waivers to date in exchange for providing their own plans to improve student outcomes and teaching quality.

New York legislators say the state's important apple crop took a beating this spring.

Lawmakers are proposing the Family Farmers and Apple Growers Relief Act. They say apple growers have lost as much as 75 percent of this year's crop, a major commodity in New York.

Assemblymen Jim Tedisco, George Amedore and Pete Lopez are joining in the measure with Senators Hugh Farley and Patty Ritchie, chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

The Republicans say New York is the second largest apple growing state with 694 farms that employ more than 10,000 people.

Defiant and emotional, Connecticut House Speaker Christopher Donovan denies that he did anything wrong as federal investigators look into his congressional campaign's finances.

Donovan held a sidewalk news conference Sunday evening outside his campaign office in Meriden.

Federal prosecutors had announced Thursday that Donovan's campaign finance manager had been arrested for allegedly conspiring with others to hide the source of $20,000 in campaign contributions.

Listen to Paul Caiano's WAMC Regional forecast.  Paul Caianois a meteorologist at WNYT Newschannel 13. He graduated from SUNY Albany in May of 1993 with a B.S. in the field of Atmospheric Science/Meteorology.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The summer tourism season is what keeps Branson, Missouri thriving. Last year, Branson's live music venues helped draw more than seven million visitors. And so when a tornado tore through the city's popular strip this past February, Branson's future seemed uncertain. As Missy Shelton of member station KSMU reports, city leaders are working hard to let people know that Branson is open for business.

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In Egypt, protests continue against the verdicts in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak and various people in his old regime. Mubarak was handed a life sentence in connection to the deaths of protesters during last year's revolution. But critics say the judge's ruling all but ensured the former president's sentence will be overturned on appeal.

NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson has the story from Cairo.

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Now, one way Mitt Romney has challenged President Obama is by going after his foreign policy record. Romney has been especially critical of the president's handling of Iran and Syria. But those attacks aside, some analysts say it's been hard to define where Romney stands on key international issues and whether he differs all that much from the president.

Here's NPR's Jackie Northam.

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Bad economic headlines have not stopped the celebration in Britain. Britons are in the midst of a four-day holiday celebrating Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne. And yesterday the queen herself led a flotilla of a thousand boats on the Thames. It was described as the largest such river pageant in more than 300 years, and Vicki Barker was there.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Let's turn to Syria now. Syria's president gave his first public speech in five months yesterday. Bashar al-Assad told the Syrian Parliament that his government was not responsible for the massacre in Houla last month, in which more than 100 people were killed, nearly half of them children. Also, there is new Syria-related violence in northern Lebanon, near the Syrian border. And to talk about this we've reached NPR's Kelly McEvers.

Kelly, good morning.

KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: Good morning.

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NPR's business news starts with some good news for Spain.

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