• WASHINGTON (AP) -- How does the U.S. economy do it?
• Europe is floundering. China faces slower growth. Japan is struggling to sustain tentative gains.
• Yet the U.S. job market is humming, and the pace of economic growth is steadily rising. Five full years after a devastating recession officially ended, the economy is finally showing the vigor that Americans have long awaited.
• Last month, employers added 288,000 jobs and helped reduce the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent, the lowest since September 2008. June capped a five-month stretch of 200,000-plus job gains -- the first in nearly 15 years.
• After having shrunk at a 2.9 percent annual rate from January through March -- largely because of a brutal winter -- the U.S. economy is expected to grow at a healthy 3 percent pace the rest of the year.
• ___

• MANTEO, N.C. (AP) -- Businesses on two of North Carolina's barrier islands hoped to salvage the rest of the holiday weekend after Arthur clipped the state without causing major damage before churning north toward Canada and losing strength early Saturday morning.
• Arthur was downgraded to a tropical storm early Saturday as its winds weakened to 70 mph (110 kph). Arthur was moving at about 22 mph and located about 65 miles southwest of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
• A tropical storm warning was in effect for Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, from the U.S.-Canada border to Grand-Anse.
• Meanwhile, in North Carolina, some homes and businesses were flooded, trees toppled and initially thousands were without electricity after Arthur raced through the

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