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• INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Devastating spring freezes and a historic drought have stripped some charm from rustic fall destinations, leaving some corn too short to create mazes, orchards virtually devoid of apples and fall colors muted.
• Extreme weather has forced agritourism ventures in the heart of the country to scramble to hold onto their share of an industry that generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
• Pat Schaefers, who runs Schaefers Corn Maze near Lollie, Ark., hopes visitors to the farm's two mazes won't mind that the corn is just 6 to 8 feet this fall -- up to 4 feet shorter than the wall of corn families and school groups normally pay to get lost and turned-around in.
• "It's just not up to par," she said of the corn in her two mazes. "It's not anything like it's been in past years."
• Yet Schaefers was one of the lucky ones. Even though the corn in her 30 acres of mazes is shorter than normal, she was able to open them for a seventh year thanks to a summerlong irrigation effort at the 1,000-acre farm she owns with her husband, Bob.
• ___

• DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) -- Paul Ryan is sorry you couldn't get into his event here. He feels badly you had to wait for him to arrive at the county fairgrounds in Virginia. He wants to meet you but he promises he won't disrupt business by staying too long at your New Hampshire restaurant.
• Oh, and please, he says, take a seat.
• Ryan, a congressman from Wisconsin and Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick, is a model of unassuming, Midwestern courtesy, and that will be on display later this week when Ryan debates Vice President Joe Biden.
• With a relaxed and polite style, Ryan easily does what the top of the GOP ticket -- Romney -- struggles to do: connect with voters on a personal level while engaging in retail politicking.
• When Romney campaigns alongside the No. 2 on the ticket, Ryan's casual atti

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