TULSA, Okla. (AP) — As extreme drought and scorching heat creep back into the Southern Plains, ranchers and state foresters fear a repeat of last summer's tinderbox conditions that turned pastures into wasteland, sparked hundreds of wildfires and ravaged countless acres of crops.

2. Fed Nearing a Plan to Clarify Direction of Rates - Tuesday, December 13, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Reserve under Ben Bernanke has gone further than ever to explain its policies to the public. It's ready to go further still.

A Fed policy meeting Tuesday will likely focus, in part, on an evolving plan to reveal the direction of interest rates more explicitly. The Fed may decide, for example, to regularly update the public on how long it plans to keep short-term rates at record lows.

3. Bernanke is Tolerating Dissent but Pushing Past It - Tuesday, September 20, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) – For someone known as a consensus builder, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sure generates – and shrugs off – a lot of dissent.

Bernanke last month pushed ahead with a plan to keep short-term interest rates near zero through mid-2013 despite three dissenting votes on the Fed's policy-making committee. For decades, the Fed's culture, and sometimes its strong-willed chiefs, have normally capped dissents at two.

4. Burns Aims to Help PDS Work Toward Public Purpose - Friday, March 11, 2011

Lee Burns has always been passionate about education.

Although his job as headmaster is to inspire the more than 630 boys that attend Presbyterian Day School, it was his grandfather, Maj. Arthur Burns, and Lee’s brother, Graham, who first inspired Burns to learn.