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personalized audio message, he didn't think twice about paying $50. Nash never would have walked up to the Los Angeles Dodgers manager and asked for his signature.
• "It's much easier, especially for a grown man," the West Virginia native said. "It's much more personal."
• Egraphs launched at the All-Star break, a technological breakthrough that extends the autograph business from the age-old methods of writing to stars, leaning across ballpark railings and hanging around hotel lobbies.
• Now, power up the computer and get a prize from the likes of R.A. Dickey, Cliff Lee, Andrew McCutchen and Clayton Kershaw. Or even retired stars that include Pedro Martinez.
• ___

• HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) -- Sometimes all President Barack Obama has to do is look out the window to get a firsthand look at the country's economic woes.
• This week in this town, the presidential motorcade speeds past opulent homes lining manmade Lake Las Vegas as he heads to the sprawling luxury development where he's preparing for the upcoming debates with Mitt Romney. But many houses here are empty, victims of Nevada's foreclosure crisis, and others are worth far less than their purchase price.
• Farther down the road, a golf course is abandoned -- one of two shuttered in the neighborhood. A sparkling shopping center off the main drag has no shops to fill its storefronts.
• And if Obama didn't get the message of pocketbook pain, the marquee at a business -- one that is open if perhaps not thriving -- spells it out: "President Obama, we need lower taxes."
• Views like these from the window of his fortified Chevy Suburban or armored limousine give Obama an unvarnished look both at the country he runs and the challenges he faces in winning a second term amid a struggling economic recovery.
• ___

• BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- As her family mourned her death, the friends of a col

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