News In Brief

Uh, yeah, it's my inheritance

If you lost more than $1 million recently, the Chicago police are holding it for you. But before you lay claim, you should be ready to explain how you got so much cash. Officers, who figure the money is drug-related, stumbled across it in a suitcase in a private home while investigating a burglary. It took two of them to carry the 125-pound item out. If nobody can prove the money was obtained legally, police said they get to keep it.

cook it medium-rare, please

For better or worse, computers have taken on more and more human characteristics. Now, for instance, there's a robot that runs on meat. Nicknamed Chew Chew the "gastrobot," it runs on a fuel cell that breaks down food and converts it into electrical energy, according to a report in New Scientist magazine. "Changing food into electricity isn't unique," said inventor Stuart Wilkinson of the University of South Florida in Tampa. "What I've done is to make it small enough to fit in a robot."

Don't blame gas prices alone for summer's travel costs

Have you had any summer vacation time yet? Did you - or are you planning to - travel to a resort or another part of the country? If not, but you're still expecting to, a new American Automobile Association survey indicates you'd better budget plenty of money for your adventure. The AAA's Travel Leisure Index, which measures national average costs in airfares, car-rental rates, and lodging, shows an almost 10 percent increase over July of last year. The index is based on data for the organization's two- and three-diamond-rated resorts, hotels, motels, and inns; airfares for 20 major domestic destinations; and rental rates on 3,000 intermediate-size cars. The monthly fluctuations in the leisure travel index since the year began:

January $382.61

February 420.69

March 436.99

April 403.16

May 410.60

June 446.60

July 436.95

- Business Wire

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