In stark contrast to three years ago when hurricanes Katrina and Rita brought hundreds of evacuees to Bell County from the Gulf Coast area, relatively few have arrived in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. Bob Roberts, branch manager with Heart of Texas Red Cross serving the Temple and Killeen area, said a shelter set up at First United Methodist Church in Belton was expecting about 30 people.

Hurricane Gustav might bring hard rains to some areas of the state, but not likely to Central Texas. According to Andy Andersen, chief meteorologist with KCEN TV Channel 6, Central Texans can expect cooler weather with the help of expected cloud cover, but rainfall amounts will likely be minimal.

NEW ORLEANS - A weaker-than-expected Gustav swirled into the fishing villages and oil-and-gas towns of Louisiana´s Cajun country Monday, delivering only a glancing blow to New Orleans that did little more than send water sloshing harmlessly over its rebuilt floodwalls. It was the first test of New Orleans´ new and improved levees, which are still being rebuilt three years after Hurricane Katrina. And it was a powerful demonstration of how federal, state and local officials learned some of the painful lessons of the catastrophic 2005 storm that killed 1,600 people.

The victim of a shooting on Thursday at a Temple apartment complex died on Monday, according to officials. Justice of the Peace David Barfield pronounced Jamie Lujan dead at 6:55 a.m.

Labor Day came and went with relative quiet as crowds seemingly split their time between cooling off at the lakes and hunting dove in the fields. Dan Thomasson, lake manager for Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir and Lake Belton, said crowds at the two lakes were quiet but not as large as some holiday weekends.

Opera and voice lessons, the psychoanalysis of classic fairy tales, landscape architecture, Soviet studies and Jane Austen - for a group of Temple High School students who wanted to thoroughly study a subject of their choosing, an opportunity presented itself this summer. For the price of $5,000, plus airfare, five seniors at THS studied abroad, traveling to Oxford in the United Kingdom, studying at St. Hugh´s College, an umbrella college for the prestigious University of Oxford.

PASADENA, Calif. - Quarterback Kevin Craft sparked UCLA´s offense in the second half Monday night, and Kai Forbath kicked a 42-yard field goal in overtime to lift the Bruins to a 27-24 victory over No. 18 Tennessee, making coach Rick Neuheisel´s debut a winning one. The season opener for both teams had a wild finish.

NORTON, Mass. - Vijay Singh kept pouring in birdie putts, 35 feet on one hole and 60 feet on the next, as cheers turned from disbelief to sheer amazement. That might be the last bit of excitement for this edition of the FedEx Cup.

NEW YORK - Now comes a challenge for Venus Williams and Serena Williams at the U.S. Open: a match against each other. Except unlike so many of their all-in-the-family meetings at Grand Slam tournaments, including at Wimbledon in July, this Williams vs. Williams showdown will not decide the championship. Instead, this one will come in the quarterfinals after both advanced through the fourth round quite easily Monday.

CHICAGO - Roy Oswalt is pitching like an ace again and the Houston Astros are on a roll headed into the final month of the season. Oswalt allowed four singles - all the Chicago Cubs seem to able to hit these days - and came within two outs of a shutout as the Astros won their sixth straight with a 3-0 victory Monday afternoon at Wrigley Field.