An Oregon school district has rejected more than $2.5 million in federal funds. Oregon City — just south of Portland — turned down money that would have given performance-based pay bonuses to teachers, a controversial part of the Obama administration's education policy.

It's called the Teacher Incentive Fund, and it's meant to reward results. Oregon City actually applied for the money it's now turned down.

Home prices rose slightly in August, according to the latest data from the S&P/Case-Shiller index. They're still down compared to August 2010, and way down from their pre-recession peak in 2006. But it's good-ish news, reports the AP:

Because you can apparently never have enough flat-tax plans in a race for the Republican presidential nomination, Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday officially introduced his own version.

That gives us two flat tax proposals in the GOP race, Perry's and Herman Cain's (all together now) 9-9-9 plan.

Actually, Perry's plan is not so much a flat tax as a flatter tax since he maintains some deductions and exemptions and even the current tax code for those who would prefer to use it.

Beware Massachusetts fish fans: If you're buying or ordering red snapper, white tuna, local cod or haddock, there's a pretty good chance that's not what you're going to get.

The debate over regulation has been in the news lately, because it's been a point of conversation among the 2012 presidential candidates. The Republicans have said that over-regulation has kept businesses from expanding and creating jobs. But a new report from the World Bank that measures business regulation is throwing some cold water on the side that thinks the U.S. is a hostile place for business.

If you thought the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer was controversial before, things are just warming up.

A panel of experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policies has recommended routine vaccination of 11- and 12-year-old boys with Gardasil, Merck's vaccine against human papillomavirus. Vaccinations could start as early as age 9 and extend to 21-year-old men who weren't previously vaccinated.

A sting operation resulted in the arrest of 12 people, including five New York Police Department officers, on charges that they smuggled $1 million worth of firearms, cigarettes and slot machines they thought were stolen, authorities said Tuesday.

Three retired NYPD officers and a New Jersey corrections officer and three civilians are among the other defendants named in a federal criminal complaint.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said they were willing to smuggle a variety of contraband "as long as the price was right."

"The defining sound of the Occupy Wall Street" protests in Manhattan, as Weekend Edition Sunday's Audie Cornish has said, is "the never-ending drum circle."

After a year-long survey, the World Wildlife Foundation has come to the conclusion that there are no more rhinoceros left in Vietnam. Specifically, the Javan rhino has disappeared from Cat Tien National Park, one of two of its remaining habitats in the world.

The WWF took dung samples from 2009 to 2010 and through genetic analysis they found the 22 samples belonged to a rhino that was found dead in the national preserve in 2010. That rhino was found with a bullet in its leg and with its horn cut off.