CHILMARK, Mass. (AP) - President Barack Obama played tennis with his wife and golf with his buddies Monday, starting his first vacation in office on Martha’s Vineyard, a picturesque island known as a refuge for the wealthy and privileged.
Obama began the day with a workout at his rented retreat, then tennis with Michelle Obama, White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters traveling with the president. Obama later played golf with UBS Investment Bank President Robert Wolf and Chicago physician Eric Whitaker, both friends. White House aide Marvin Nicholson was also in the foursome.
White House officials have stressed that the president is on a private vacation and very little is planned.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Schools should be ready with hard-copy packets and online lessons to keep learning going even if swine flu sickens large numbers of students, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Monday.
Speaking at an elementary school on the first day of classes in Washington, Duncan released recommendations on how educators can ensure instruction continues should the virus cause high absenteeism or school closings.
“As the school year begins, I’m concerned that the H1N1 virus might disrupt learning in some schools across the country,” he said.
Duncan said schools should evaluate what materials they have available for at-home learning. The latest guidance provides more details on methods schools could use, such as distributing recorded classes on podcasts and DVDs; creating take-home packets with up to 12 weeks of printed class material; or holding live classes via conference calls or “webinars.”

WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security officials are warning that some e-mails purporting to be from the department’s intelligence division were fake and contained malicious software.
The e-mails actually originated from Internet addresses in Latvia and Russia, according to a brief alert from the Homeland Security Department’s counterintelligence unit the department said, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
The Homeland Security Department has sent the warning to the Defense Department and state and local officials after receiving complaints about the e-mails since June. The e-mails were made to look as if they had actual text from a department intelligence assessment. They included links embedded with malware known for stealing banking data protected passwords.

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, Maine (AP) - The chief ranger at Acadia National Park says officials did all they could to caution throngs of visitors to keep back from the hurricane-fueled waves that crashed against the rocky cliffs - but many didn’t heed their warnings.
As the tide rose in early afternoon Sunday, a dozen people were battered by a fierce wave, three were washed to sea and one of them - a 7-year-old girl - died.
Chief Ranger Stuart West said Monday that 10,000 people had parked along the roadway to view the dramatic surf spun off by Hurricane Bill hours before a monster wave caused the injuries. West says signs were posted, extra rangers were out and a rescue truck was on call.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - NASA is putting the finishing touches on Discovery for an early morning flight to the international space station.
The space shuttle is scheduled to blast off at 1:36 a.m. Tuesday with a full load of supplies. Forecasters put the odds of good launch weather at 80 percent. But there is a 40 percent chance thunderstorms will hamper Monday afternoon’s fueling.
NASA says it can delay the start of fueling by three hours and still launch Tuesday morning. Any longer delay, and the launch would slide to Wednesday.
The seven astronauts, meanwhile, are asleep until mid-afternoon.
They will deliver experiments and equipment, including a new treadmill named after TV comedian Stephen Colbert. The treadmill will fly up in more than 100 pieces.

Reader’s Digest Association Inc., publisher of the iconic general interest magazine that began gracing American homes in 1922, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday as it faces falling print circulation in the Internet age and looming debt payments.
Known for its heartwarming stories about American life as other publications moved toward edgier fare, the company’s flagship Reader’s Digest magazine has seen its U.S. circulation drop from a peak of more than 17 million in the 1970s to just above 8 million last year.
Magnifying the publishing world’s woes is an advertising slump that already has led to the closing of several high-profile magazines, including Conde Nast’s Portfolio, Domino and Blender.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is moving more forcefully than ever to abandon Bush administration interrogation policies, approving creation of a White House-led unit for questioning terrorism suspects, as Attorney General Eric Holder weighs whether to reopen and pursue prisoner abuse cases.
A senior administration official told The Associated Press Monday that Obama has approved establishment of the new unit, to be known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which will be overseen by the National Security Council. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the program has not yet been officially announced.
A U.S. intelligence official said Monday that the CIA welcomes the change, saying the agency does not want to be in the long-term detention business. The official spoke on grounds of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Obama campaigned vigorously against President George W. Bush’s interrogation policies in his successful run for the presidency. He has said more recently he didn’t particularly favor prosecuting Bush administration officials in connection with instances of prisoner abuse. But the issue now before Holder for consideration would have the new administration do precisely that: reopen several such cases with an eye toward possible criminal prosecution.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Fire officials in Buffalo, N.Y., say two firefighters are missing after a floor in a burning building collapsed.
Fire Commissioner Michael Lombardo says the firefighters were inside a convenience store Monday morning when the floor gave way. There were reports that a third person was also in the basement of the two-story building, but authorities aren’t releasing any other information.
Smoke continues to waft from the roof.
There is no immediate information on a possible cause of the fire.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina’s first lady Jenny Sanford is working to fix her shattered marriage after her husband admitted a yearlong affair.
Two longtime friends of the governor’s wife told CBS’s “The Early Show” Monday that Jenny Sanford wants to be able to say that she did everything possible to reconcile with Gov. Mark Sanford.
The Republican governor returned from a weeklong mystery absence in June to admit to an affair with an Argentine woman he called his soul mate. He’s vowed to stay in office and says he is trying to reconcile with his wife.
The Sanfords and their four sons took a two-week vacation to Europe last month. After they returned, Jenny Sanford moved out of the governor’s mansion with the children and is staying at the family’s coastal home.

NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks are rising as investors look to build on last week’s momentum that sent major indexes to their highest levels of the year.
The moderate advance early Monday follows gains in overseas markets. Oil and other commodities are higher, while Treasury prices are mostly lower ahead of the government’s latest round of auctions.
Investors have been encouraged by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s declaration Friday that the economy is on the verge of recovery. This week, traders will look to data on housing and the consumer to determine if Bernanke’s upbeat view can be backed by actual activity.
The Dow Jones industrial average is up 49 at 9,555. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up 5 at 1,032, while the Nasdaq composite index is up 7 at 2,028.