NEW YORK CITY (AP) -- President George W. Bush says, despite Congressional debate over his proposed $700 billion financial bailout plan, "a robust plan" will be passed. The president spoke Wednesday before a meeting to discuss free trade with leaders of other Western Hemisphere nations.

The meeting was one of Bush's final events in his three-day trip to attend the U.N. General Assembly. He said the leaders can see clearly that the legislative process in the U.S. is "give and take."
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - Both of Missouri's U.S. senators are sounding off about the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout for Wall Street. On the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, Republican Kit Bond said throwing money at the problem is not the answer; Democrat Claire McCaskill demanded that the bailout not reward the managers of the firms it aims to save."
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SPRINGFIELD -- A man accused of stealing from the Springfield Associationi for the Blind made his first court appearance on the charge on Wednesday morning. Mickey Martin is charged with taking about $45,000 from the association, a non-profit agency.

Police say the former executive director wrote several checks to himself, stores, and even paid personal utility bills with the money.
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- A payday lender says it will close all 30 of its locations in Arkansas. Advance America says it decided to close the stores because of Attorney General Dustin McDaniel's push to regulate the interest rates charged on the payday loans. With the closures by Oct. 1, there will be fewer than 100 payday lending stores in the state.
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- The estate of a jogger from Fayetteville who was killed in a drunken driving crash in June has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. The estate of 23-year-old Shelby Ann Forbes filed the lawsuit in Washington County Circuit Court. The suit names driver Phillip Joseph Wantland, the woman who owned the pickup that Wantland was driving, and insurer Allstate Corporation.
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