WASHINGTON (AP) — Like a car salesman pushing a luxury vehicle that the customer no longer can afford, NASA has pulled out of its back pocket a deal for a cheaper ride to the moon.
It won’t be as powerful, and its design is a little dated. Think of it as a base-model Ford station wagon instead of a tricked-out Cadillac Escalade.
Officially, the space agency is still on track with a 4-year-old plan to spend $35 billion to build new rockets and return astronauts to the moon in several years. However, a top NASA manager is floating a cut-rate alternative that costs around $6.6 billion.

ATLANTA (AP) — From the wow to the weird, Michael Jackson leaves a fashion legacy to rival his musical one.
His black fedora, silver glove and red leather jacket were worn by millions around the world who channeled Jackson’s spirit and sartorial flair. Later, he made fashion choices that weren’t as popular, but were no less memorable: the pajama pants during his child molestation trial, the black robes and veils while living in Bahrain, the germ masks that were a regular accessory.
All combined to cement Jackson’s legacy as a pop and fashion icon.
“There are a few people who are the innovators, who set the trends that other people follow,” said Stephane Dunn, a frequent writer of popular culture who teaches English at Morehouse College. “Here was Michael, who understood the power of style and was able to translate it in a way that everybody wanted to copy it.”

HOUSTON (AP) — The letters are unfailingly polite, the carefully crafted correspondence of a man with too much time on his hands.
There is no hint of aggression, nothing to suggest that they were penned by the same writer who once terrorized New York City with his missives filled with blood and darkness and death.
In these letters, sent from a prison cell in upstate New York to an office in Houston’s city hall annex, there is an effort to prove contrition for the homicides back then, an eagerness to put distance between the monster he once was and the person he says he has become.
“The past is such a painful memory ... It was all a terrible nightmare. I got into something so evil,” one letter reads. “I would give my life if I could go back into the past to have prevented this from happening.”

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — If someone came up to 23-year-old Brandon Gould and told him The Way wasn’t a real church, he’d tell them they don’t know what goes on inside the church’s graffiti-smothered walls.
Once, twice, or maybe even three or four times a month, the lonely little Alamo-esque building in the industrial land right off I-27 Exit 3A explodes with hardcore punk music and heavy metal: growls, screams, sludgy power chords, karate disguised as dancing, all of it sober, some of it spiritual.
But that’s not what Gould is talking about.
He’s talking about the Bible study.
Every Sunday night, the rock ’n’ roll, testosterone and hipster posturing take a back seat to prayer, fellowship and the fruits of the Spirit.
Right now they’re reading the book of Acts.

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (AP) — Cowboys who needed a place to hang their hats turned to a Wichita Falls western wear store.
More than 500 cowboys hats will go on display next month at the Museum of North Texas History.
Nat Flemming, for more than half-a century, collected old cowboy hats. His store, called The Cow Lot, opened in 1953.
KAUZ-TV reports customers buying new cowboy would sometimes leave their old ones. Flemming would put an identification tag on the old hats and hang them as part of a display.

BIG BAY, Mich. (AP) — A 14-year-old Michigan boy has completed a four-day, 100-mile trip in his wheelchair as part of a fundraiser.
Gene Fletcher said he raised more than $20,000 for the Bay Cliff Health Camp, a nonprofit therapy and wellness center on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for children and adults with physical disabilities.
Gene has cerebral palsy and scoliosis and says he has been going to the camp for six years.
He started out at Rapid River, at the northern tip of Lake Michigan and near his home of Isabella, and on Saturday he reached the camp at Bay Cliff, on Lake Superior.

LONGVIEW, Texas (AP) — Dencil Marsh’s wife calls him a billy goat the way he scrambles over leaf-strewn ledges and through deep, dry washes. Somehow, he said, he never loses his footing.
He wanders foot trails through scrubby forest and brush, exploring a patch of land set aside for a project he considers his “holy calling” — the transformation of 28 acres into a garden showcase and urban forest known as the Longview Arboretum and Gardens.
On a sunny afternoon in June, Marsh leaned his 73-year-old frame against a young pine tree to rest and catch his breath.
“I don’t have the strength and stamina I used to,” he said. “I used to think I was a tough little guy.”

While renovations continue on the new Palestine Senior Center on Church Street, Meals on Wheels Executive Director Lois Durant is looking forward to moving from the old senior center on Kickapoo Street to the new facility at the end of July possibly.
“After 25 years of serving the Anderson, Cherokee and Rusk county residents, we are anxious to begin a new chapter in the Meals on Wheels organizational history,” Durant said. “We hope that they will be finished by mid-July so we can get all moved in before the end of July.”

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Asenet Torres wants to rock ’n’ roll.
She’s 10. On Monday, she wore black capri pants and a ponytail. She talked bubbly about playing drums at Chicas Rock, an all-girls rock camp set up in an old photography studio.
“You can express your feelings with them (the drums),” Asenet said. “When you play drums, you play with your heart.”
The camp, run by La Conquista, an all-female, cumbia/pop band from Monterrey, Mexico, is designed to teach girls how to be a rocker while still being a girl.