Bargaining

For many football fans, a new NFL season means an opportunity to hitch their own fortunes to the outcomes of the games. And while you have to be in Las Vegas to experience the full sweep of sports betting, casinos closer to home in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Atlantic City still find ways to help their customers to get in on the football action with pick 'em contests and sweepstakes. And often, those casino football contests are quite a bargain - entry is free, and some of the potential prizes escalate to thousands of dollars and possibly to seven-figure jackpots.

TEMPLE HASN'T beaten Penn State since before Pearl Harbor, but the Owls have covered. And really, outside of North Broad Street and Happy Valley, does anything else really matter? We went back to the 1994 Lions, arguably Penn State's finest team and one that was rooked out of a national title, to see how they have fared against the number in their meetings with Temple. The Owls may not have won any of those games, but they covered four of them. * The 1994 point spread was a ridiculous 44 and Temple acquitted itself quite well in the 48-21 loss.

Democratic Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr. has been elected seven times in South Jersey's Seventh Legislative District, but a few things are different this year. Remapping of the district, which includes parts of Burlington and Camden Counties, made it slightly more Republican. And the new boundaries exclude Pennsauken, hometown of Conaway's longtime colleague Assemblyman Jack Conners, leading Conners to retire. Conaway drew the ire of state unions over the summer when he joined with just over a dozen other Democratic Assembly members to support Gov. Christie's overhaul of public employee pension and health benefits plans.

The humidity is back this Labor Day weekend, but it wasn't long ago that a steady snow fell on Madison, Wis., where more than 70,000 gathered to protest Republican-driven legislation severely limiting collective-bargaining rights for the state's public employees. By the time they rallied on Feb. 26, their supporters had been camping for weeks in the Capitol, shouting slogans outside Republican Gov. Scott Walker's office. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats had fled the state to delay a vote.

NEW YORK - For just the second time since the beginning of the lockout, representatives for the NBA owners and players met Wednesday. The bargaining session, which lasted about six hours, included NBA commissioner David Stern and National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter. Neither side was as forthcoming with details as after previous meetings, but Stern did promise additional sessions would be scheduled for September as the league tries to avoid a delay in the opening of training camps, which historically start around Oct. 1. The NBA is scheduled to begin its regular-season schedule Nov. 1, and many observers believe the "drop-dead date" for not missing any games is around mid-October.

The economy remains stuck on pause and consumers swear they're still too spooked to spend, yet the mall bustles with back-to-school shoppers on the first glorious afternoon post-hurricane. Everyone carries bags, but few smile. We've had fleeting natural distractions, but no one except Michael Vick is making more money this fall than last. No wonder retail therapy feels so depressing. And now the apparel industry has unveiled a season of untimely price hikes. Clothing costs more - on average, 10 percent - yet everything from cut to quality screams cheap and insubstantial to all but the least discriminating shoppers.

NEW YORK - Stocks on Tuesday posted their biggest jump in nearly two weeks as investors bought shares that were cheaply priced after the market's pounding during the last month. The Dow Jones industrials ended with a gain of 322 points. While the average dipped about 60 points shortly after an earthquake hit the East Coast at 1:51 p.m., stocks recovered within 20 minutes and soared even higher later in the afternoon. James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, said the beating that stocks had taken since late July made it look as if investors were preparing for a recession.

MADISON, Wis. - Two Wisconsin Senate Democrats survived recalls Tuesday in elections targeting the lawmakers for fleeing the state amid debate on a contentious collective-bargaining proposal. Unofficial results in Tuesday's election showed that State Sen. Bob Wirch captured 56 percent of the vote compared with 44 percent for his Republican challenger, Jonathan Steitz. In a second recall election, Democratic Sen. Jim Holperin was projected the winner with 54 percent of the vote against his Republican opponent, Kim Simac.

Bargaining resumed Wednesday in Philadelphia and New York between Verizon Communications and the two unions representing 45,000 operators, technicians, and customer service agents that have been on strike since early Sunday morning. But the two sides are far apart, and it's not likely a settlement will be reached soon, said union officials from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communication Workers of America. A Verizon spokesman declined to characterize the state of negotiations, but earlier reports that a tentative agreement had been reached were wrong, company and union officials agreed.