Stocks were also helped as a successful Portuguese debt offering eased risk aversion.

U.S. bank stocks recover from Tuesday losses as European bank shares bounced off their lows. JPMorgan Chase and Co (JPM.N) gained 2 percent to $39.06, while the S&P financial sector index (.GSPF) rose 1.4 percent.

“The sectors that were hit in the sell-off yesterday are bouncing back,” said David Chalupnik, head of equities at FAF Advisors in Minneapolis. “And the lower dollar does help the material and energy stocks.”

The Reuters/Jefferies CRB commodities index (.CRB) posted gains for a fifth day running.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 74.40 points, or 0.72 percent, to 10,415.09. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (.SPX) rose 9.01 points, or 0.83 percent, to 1,100.85. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) added 21.27 points, or 0.96 percent, to 2,230.16.

Stocks fell in light volume on Tuesday as investors seized on renewed concerns about European banks’ exposure to sovereign debt to sell shares after strong gains last week.

Later Wednesday, investors will eye the release of the U.S. central bank’s Beige Book, the anecdotal reports gathered from its 12 regional banks that could offer insight into U.S. economic conditions. The report is due at 2 p.m. EDT.

U.S.-traded shares of BP Plc (BP.L)(BP.N) rose 3.1 percent to $38.36 after it issued an internal report on the rig blast that led to the worst-ever U.S. oil spill and the death of 11 crew members.

BP deflected much of the blame, claiming drilling contractor Transocean Ltd (RIG.N) missed danger signs and criticized the cementing of the well conducted by Halliburton Co (HAL.N). Transocean gained 2.5 percent to $54.36, while Halliburton added 1.1 percent to $30.17.

Staples Inc (SPLS.O) was up 2.7 percent to $19.17, and Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O) rose 1.1 percent to $59.31 after Goldman Sachs upgraded their stocks to “buy.

In a warning letter issued Aug. 30, the Food and Drug Administration takes issue with the labeling of Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale. The agency issued a similar letter Aug. 23 to Unilever Inc., over website and product labeling for its Lipton Green Tea.

Food processors increasingly have been adding vitamins and nutrients to their products to make them more appealing to health-conscious consumers. But the FDA letter to Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, which makes Canada Dry, states that the agency “does not consider it appropriate to fortify snack foods such as carbonated beverages.” Furthermore, the agency states that the soft drink does not meet federal requirements to carry the claim that the drink is “enhanced with 200 mg of antioxidants from green tea and vitamin C.” According to FDA regulations, the ingredients in Canada Dry’s product “are not nutrients with recognized antioxidant activity.”

The FDA letter to Unilever takes issue with a company website that mentions four studies that showed a cholesterol-lowering effect with tea. According to the agency, the labeling is misleading because it suggests Lipton tea is designed to treat or prevent disease. The agency also cites antioxidant labeling claims on the company’s Lipton Green Tea, which do not follow federal guidelines.

The agency asks executives from both companies to respond to the citations within 15 days and to outline their plans for addressing the problems.

A spokesman for Plano, Texas-based Dr. Pepper Snapple Group said in a statement the company looks “forward to working with the FDA and addressing the issues raised.”

Unilever issued a similar response. The company’s U.S. operations are in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based, with headquarters in London and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Once a niche market, nutrient-enriched beverages have grown into a multibillion dollar business that includes everything from calcium-enhanced orange juice to energy drinks containing ginseng, ginkgo and other organic products.

In recent years, the FDA has begun cracking down on food companies that overstate the benefits of their products.

The FDA generally endorses health claims on foods only after government researchers have verified that the products help prevent actual disease. Food containing oats, for example, can carry the FDA-approved claim, “may reduce risk of heart disease.”

The FDA regularly issues warning letters to companies that do not follow regulations for manufacturing and marketing. The letters are not legally binding, but the agency can take companies to court if they are ignored.

With the country sharply divided over the sweeping new insurance law, Republicans and their allies are taking to the airwaves to attack it as elections near, often resorting to exaggeration and omissions to make their points. Democrats generally shy away from even talking about the subject, unless it’s to distance themselves from it.

Meanwhile, Obama allies try to draw attention to the most immediate provisions, ignoring the biggest — and most contentious — parts of the expanded health care law that are still four years away.

___

EDITOR’S NOTE — An occasional look at the claims made in political advertising.

___

A look at some of the claims made in ads airing in key contests:

• An ad by Crossroads GPS, a group founded by top Republican strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, took aim at Democrat Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania’s contest for the Senate. It ran similar ads against Sen. Barbara Boxer in California and Democrat Jack Conway, seeking a Senate seat from Kentucky.

The Claim: “Sestak voted to gut Medicare — a $500 billion cut. Reduced benefits for 850,000 Pennsylvania seniors.”

The Facts: The law calls for cuts of about $500 billion over 10 years from projected payment increases to hospitals, insurance companies and others under Medicare and other government health programs. But the Congressional Budget Office places the overall cost of Medicare over 10 years at $7.1 trillion, making the reductions required by the new law amount to 7 percent of Medicare costs.

Not exactly a “gutting.”

And a portion of the reductions in spending would come from cuts to Medicare Advantage, a system of private insurance plans that now covers about one out of four seniors. Those seniors now receive more coverage than typical Medicare recipients and they could lose the extra benefits. The 850,000 seniors mentioned in the ad represent the number of Pennsylvanians covered under Medicare Advantage. But the law did not cut benefits guaranteed under traditional Medicare.

The tactic is a reversal of the usual political playbook. In the past it has been Democrats who have sought to tar Republicans with wanting to dismantle Medicare.

• Radio ads by AUL Action, the legislative arm of Americans United for Life, targets three House Democrats — John Boccieri of Ohio, Christopher Carney of Pennsylvania and Baron Hill of Indiana — for their votes in favor of the health care law.

The Claim: The three Democrats “voted for taxpayer-funded abortion in Nancy Pelosi’s health care bill … the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded abortions ever.”

The Facts: Before the bill passed, Obama signed an executive order affirming long-standing restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortions. In the order, Obama specifically prohibited “the use of tax credits and cost-sharing reduction payments to pay for abortion services (except in case of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered).”

Under the law, private plans in new insurance markets opening for business in 2014 may cover abortion, but payment must come from enrollees themselves, not from federal tax credits that will be offered to make premiums more affordable.

Americans United for Life notes that the executive order is not permanent and could be repealed. Moreover, the group argues that a court “could interpret” the law as requiring federal funding of abortions because it does not specifically prohibit it.

But those are hypotheticals, and the trend is in the other direction. The Health and Human Services Department announced this summer that a program for high-risk uninsured will not cover abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger — exceptions traditionally allowed under federal law. Catholic bishops welcomed the policy while abortion rights supporters said the restriction went too far.

• The Health Information Campaign, a group supporting the law and founded by former Obama administration allies, is launching its own $2 million national cable and online ad campaign promoting the law and features that are now in effect or about to go into effect.

The Claim: The law provides small business tax credits to make employee coverage more affordable, it will begin to allow young people to remain on their parents’ coverage until they turn 26 years of age, and it will prohibit insurers from dropping people from coverage when they get sick.

The Facts: All those changes will indeed occur.

But the most expensive provisions of the new law won’t go into effect until 2014.

That includes the unpopular requirement that all Americans obtain insurance — some with taxpayer help — and that those who don’t will have to pay a fine.

There’s no mention of that provision in the Health Information Campaign ad.

But his words did little to dissuade demonstrators, who spilled into the streets for a second straight night Tuesday — some to pray and light candles and others to pelt a police station near downtown Los Angeles with eggs, rocks and bottles.

Police reported 22 arrests on Tuesday night, mainly for failure to disperse and unlawful assembly, Officer Karen Rayner said.

Officers fired at least two rounds of nonlethal foam projectiles at demonstrators, Rayner said.

At least one officer and a Univision reporter were slightly injured by thrown or slingshot-propelled objects, police told City News Service, and a man who fell off his bicycle suffered a head wound.

Some protesters pushed rolling metal trash bins at officers and tossed household items from apartment buildings.

“People were throwing televisions, air conditioning units, miscellaneous furniture and other objects from the windows,” Lt. Cory Palka said.

Guatemalan immigrant Manuel Jamines, 37, was shot twice by a police officer Sunday afternoon near MacArthur Park, a poor neighborhood packed with recent immigrants from Central America.

In the wake of the protests, authorities scheduled a community meeting for Wednesday evening at a local school.

On Monday, four people were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor inciting a riot, and others threw rocks and bottles at police, slightly injuring three officers, Officer Bruce Borihanh said.

On Tuesday, about 300 protesters took their complaints to the police station only two blocks from where Jamines died, said Lt. Andrew Neiman. Officers tried to move the demonstrators away from the station and keep them away from the park.

A citywide tactical alert was called to free up officers to respond to the area, Rayner said.

Beck said the incident involving Jamines started when someone flagged down three bicycle officers to tell them a man was threatening people with a knife.

The officers approached the suspect and told him in Spanish and English to put down the weapon. Instead, Jamines raised the knife above his head and lunged at Officer Frank Hernandez, a 13-year veteran of the department, Beck said.

Eyewitness accounts from six civilians, nine police personnel and two fire department staff indicate Hernandez fired twice “in immediate defense of life,” Beck said. Jamines, 37, died at the scene.

Investigators recovered a bloody, 6-inch knife at the scene but didn’t know where the blood came from.

“This was a very brief moment in time, just 40 seconds between first contact and the time of the shooting,” Beck said.

Beck said the timeline was based on preliminary interviews. He said the department’s Force Investigation Division will conduct a thorough, transparent probe.

The three officers involved in the shooting have been temporarily reassigned during the investigation.

Jamines had a wife and three children — ages 13, 6 and 8 — in his hometown of Mazatenango, Guatemala, according to his cousin Juan Jaminez, 38. He came to the United States six years ago to find work as a day laborer and spent most of his time looking for jobs in a Home Depot parking lot near his home.

Jamines was drunk but not dangerous, his cousin and neighbors said.

“Killing a drunk isn’t right,” said Juan Jaminez, also a day laborer. He and others described Jamines as a friendly, hardworking man who liked to drink on the weekends but wasn’t violent.

“The officer who did this should be subject to discipline and a thorough investigation,” said Juan Flores, 39, a cook at a downtown restaurant who knew Jamines. “We want to know, is he on vacation or is he fired?”

Flores said the officers should have used a non-lethal weapon to subdue Jamines.

Beck said the officer involved in the shooting didn’t have a baton or stun gun with him. He said bicycle officers frequently do not carry the selection of non-lethal weapons found in patrol cars.

Juana Neri, 57, a Mexican immigrant housewife who lives nearby, pushed her grocery bag in a baby stroller past the corner where Jamines was killed.

“It’s bad, what the police did, but what’s worse is the silly stuff that people were doing here,” she said, referring to Monday’s violence. “We are not in our country, and with the problems that Hispanic immigrants have these days, it’s better not to cause problems.”

MacArthur Park was the site of a May 1, 2007, clash in which police officers pummeled immigration rights marchers and reporters with batons and shot rubber bullets into the crowd. Dozens of protesters and journalists were injured. Police said it began with a group of “agitators” outside the park throwing objects at officers.

The 193-page report was posted on the company’s website even though investigators have not yet begun to fully analyze a key piece of equipment, the blowout preventer, that should have cut off the flow of oil from the ruptured well but did not.

That means BP’s report is far from the definitive ruling on the blowout’s causes, but it may provide some hint of the company’s legal strategy — spreading the blame around between itself, rig owner Transocean, and cement contractor Halliburton — as it faces hundreds of lawsuits and possible criminal charges over the spill. Government investigators and congressional panels are looking into the cause as well.

“This report is not BP’s mea culpa,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., a frequent BP critic and a member of a congressional panel investigating the spill. “Of their own eight key findings, they only explicitly take responsibility for half of one. BP is happy to slice up blame, as long as they get the smallest piece.”

Members of Congress, industry experts and workers who survived the rig explosion have accused BP’s engineers of cutting corners to save time and money on a project that was 43 days and more than $20 million behind schedule at the time of the blast.

BP’s report acknowledged, as investigators have previously suggested, that its engineers and employees of Transocean misinterpreted a pressure test of the well’s integrity. It also blamed employees on the rig from both companies for failing to respond to warning signs that the well was in danger of blowing out.

Outgoing BP chief Tony Hayward, who is being replaced Oct. 1 by American Bob Dudley, said in a statement that there was a bad cement job and a failure of a barrier at the bottom of the well that let oil and gas leak out.

Transocean blasted BP’s report, calling it a self-serving attempt to conceal the real cause of the explosion, which it blamed on what it called “BP’s fatally flawed well design.”

“In both its design and construction, BP made a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk — in some cases, severely,” Transocean said.

Transocean said its own investigation will be concluded when all of the evidence is in, including critical information the company has requested of BP but has yet to receive.

New Orleans attorney Scott Bickford, who represents relatives of a worker who died in the explosion and a worker who survived the blast, said he found no surprises in the report.

“My knee-jerk reaction is that there was no huge smoking gun they found that hasn’t already been discussed,” he said.

An AP analysis of the report shows that the words “blame” and “mistake” never show up. “Fault” appears 20 times, but only once in the same sentence as the company’s name.

Steve Yerrid, special counsel on the oil spill for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, said the report clearly shows the company is attempting to spread blame for the well disaster, foreshadowing what will be a likely legal effort to force Halliburton and Transocean, and perhaps others, to share costs such as paying claims and government penalties.

“What’s you’re seeing right now is the format of BP’s defense. The defense is, ‘We took the initial blow. But it wasn’t only me,’” Yerrid said. “They are looking to restore their losses by seeking to attribute components of the wrongdoing to others.”

BP shares were up 2 percent at 414.95 pence ($6.41) in London shortly after the report was made public Wednesday.

Several divisions of the U.S. government, including the Justice Department, Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, are also investigating the explosion.

The blowout preventer was raised from the water off the coast of Louisiana on Saturday. As of Tuesday afternoon, it had not reached a NASA facility in New Orleans where government investigators planned to analyze it, so those conclusions were not part of BP’s report.

The rig explosion killed 11 workers and sent 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP’s undersea well.

Investigators know the explosion was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before igniting.

But they don’t know exactly how or why the gas escaped. And they don’t know why the blowout preventer didn’t seal the well pipe at the sea bottom after the eruption, as it was supposed to.

The details of BP’s internal report were closely guarded — and only a short list of people saw it ahead of its release.

There were signs of problems prior to the explosion, including an unexpected loss of fluid from a pipe known as a riser five hours before the explosion that could have indicated a leak in the blowout preventer.

Witness statements show that rig workers talked just minutes before the blowout about pressure problems in the well.

At first, nobody seemed too worried, workers have said. Then panic set in.

Workers called their bosses to report that the well was “coming in” and that they were “getting mud back.” The drilling supervisor, Jason Anderson, tried to shut down the well.

It didn’t work. At least two explosions turned the rig into an inferno.

In its report, BP defended the well’s design, which has been criticized by industry experts.

Other findings in the BP report include:

_Flammable fluids rising up the pipe toward the Deepwater Horizon rig were directed to a system that allowed gas to vent onto the rig, and that gas was then circulated by the air conditioning, heating and ventilation systems. BP says that if the crew had directed the fluids overboard, there might have been more time to respond to the pending disaster and the consequences of the accident may have been reduced.

_BP concluded that a “more thorough review and testing by Halliburton” and “stronger quality assurance” by BP’s well team well might have identified potential flaws and weaknesses in the design for the cement job.

_BP counters the concerns that were raised prior to the explosion by Halliburton over the potential for a severe gas flow problem if a BP plan was used. Halliburton and BP were at odds over a key device, known as a centralizer, that is used as part of the process to plug a deepwater well like the oil giant was doing at the time of the disaster. Halliburton’s well design expert testified previously he told BP officials April 15 — five days before the well blew — that fewer centralizers would cause a bigger gas flow problem. BP rejected Halliburton’s recommendation to use 21 centralizers. Instead, BP used six. In its report Wednesday, BP said the decision likely did not contribute to the cement’s failure.

In June, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s chairmen said it was BP that made five crucial decisions before the Deepwater Horizon well blowout that “posed a trade-off between cost and well safety.” One of those decisions: BP opted against conducting a certain kind of test of the integrity of a cement job at the well. The test would have cost more than $128,000 and taken 9 to 12 hours to perform, the committee’s letter notes.

In May, senior BP drilling engineer Mark Hafle told the Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management investigators that BP didn’t order the test even though more than 3,000 barrels of mud had been lost while drilling, a possible warning sign.

The committee also criticized BP’s well design.

Authorities say that with calmer winds in the forecast Tuesday, they plan to dump large amounts of fire retardant from the air. Gusty winds Monday grounded air tankers for much of the day.

The fire has destroyed dozens of homes, and some 3,000 people have been forced to flee the area.

At a news conference Tuesday, Rich Brough of the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office had no detail on precisely how many homes have been damaged or destroyed.

The cause of the fire isn’t know, but he says there’s no indication it was intentionally set.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A wind-whipped wildfire sent flames roaring through a rugged canyon in the Colorado foothills, forcing about 3,000 people to flee the area and destroying dozens of homes — some that belonged to the firefighters themselves, authorities said Tuesday.

Fire officials were assessing the extent of the damage and planned to release details at a morning news conference.

The blaze broke out Monday morning in Four Mile Canyon northwest of Boulder and rapidly spread across 5 1/2 square miles or 3,500 acres. Erratic 45-mph gusts sometimes sent the fire in two directions at once.

Crews managed to save the historic town of Gold Hill, including an old West grocery store and structures once used for stagecoach stops. But firefighters in the area had to relocate their engines and equipment several times to avoid the flames.

“The fire moved too quickly and was much more active than anticipated,” said Brett Haberstick of the Sunshine Fire Protection District.

Despite the fire’s destructive advance, no injuries have been reported, although some residents told of narrow escapes.

“I just drove through a wall of flames,” Tom Neur told KDVR-TV. “The bumper is melted off in the front of the van.”

Neur’s wife, Anna, left earlier, and the couple reunited at temporary shelter. They said their house was destroyed.

“I don’t care about the house,” Anna Neur told her husband. “I’m just glad you’re OK.”

The south line of the evacuation zone — a 17-mile-long road linking Boulder to the town of Netherland — has reopened but classes were canceled for mountain area schools Tuesday. Only 12 people took overnight shelter at the Coors Event Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Fire managers said 1,000 homes had to be evacuated from the canyon and surrounding areas. Four belonging to firefighters were destroyed. Those firefighters were allowed to leave to attend to their families and personal affairs, said Laura McConnell, a spokeswoman for the fire management team.

More than 100 firefighters were on the scene on Monday, and the winds quieted enough by late afternoon to allow three tankers to drop more than 40,000 gallons of fire retardant along the leading edge of the fire.

The winds pushed the fire through three canyons where pine trees have been left prone to fire by disease, drought and beetles that burrow under the bark of pine trees, fire managers said. Such beetles have killed more than 3.5 million acres of trees in Colorado and southeastern Wyoming.

“We haven’t had any rain there for almost a month. Maybe more than a month,” said Craig Douglas, who lives north of the fire and received a knock on the door from a sheriff’s deputy at about 8 p.m. on Monday. “The humidity the last couple of days has been in the single digits, so it was a fire waiting to happen.”

The cause of the fire was unknown, and officials said it was too early to say how much, if any, of it was contained.

“It’s very rocky, hilly, mountainous terrain,” said Boulder County sheriff’s Cmdr. Rick Brough.

Officials said one fire vehicle was destroyed by the blaze.

Some ground crews remained at the fire through the night. At least four more aerial tankers were requested to join the fight Tuesday morning.

More than a half-dozen dirt roads that thread the narrow canyons were closed.

A billowing, white plume of heavy smoke was visible for miles before sunset. County h

Probably not, judging by comments Sunday from two of the GOP’s most senior elected officials – Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham.

Republicans have been basking in the good news about November’s elections from pollsters and analysts. They’re projected to come within a few seats of taking over the House, and even the Senate is now within the realm of serious discussion by pundits and pollsters.

“I think this could be a seismic election,” Sen. McCain told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

“But we’ve got to give Americans a reason to be for us, rather than just against the Democrats and the president,” he said. “When you look at the approval ratings of Republicans, they’re just as bad as Democrats. We’ve got to give [voters] a reason to be for us.”

(Though they don’t think Obama is doing a great job on the economy, Americans are more inclined to blame Republicans than Democrats for the current economic state of affairs, according to a CNN survey.)

On NBC’s Meet the Press, Sen. Graham said essentially the same thing as McCain.

“I think what we have to do is to come up with a uniting agenda, sort of a Contract with America,” he said, referring to the plan put forth by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich that helped win the GOP big gains and control of the House in 1994. “Going forward, [we need to] show the American people that the Republican Party can govern.”

There’s actually something like the 1994 “Contract” out there.

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, senior Republican on the House Budget Committee, has laid out a 99-page “Roadmap for America’s Future.”

Among other things, it would reduce personal income taxes, end the corporate income tax and the estate tax, and privatize some of Social Security.

Critics say it “calls for radical policy changes that would result in a massive transfer of resources from the broad majority of Americans to the nation’s wealthiest individuals.”

Ryan’s “Roadmap” didn’t get many cosponsors, and Democrats no doubt would have had a field day with certain provisions – like the one ending the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (or rather replacing SCHIP with something else, which is harder to explain in a sound bite).

What McCain and Graham have in mind, they say, would include a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, extending the Bush tax cuts to wealthy Americans, and replacing what critics call “Obamacare” with a different health care reform law.

Then there’s the “tea party” movement, which is as much libertarian as it is traditionally conservative and can be as cranky toward mainstream Republicans as it can toward Democrats. This makes it harder for the GOP to come up with an agenda designed to attract independents and some Democrats.

Not many Republicans will be openly critical of this new political insurgency and the problems it may be causing for the GOP. Graham is an exception.

“The problem with the Tea Party, I think it’s just unsustainable because they can never come up with a coherent vision for governing the country,” he told the New York Times. “We don’t have a lot of Reagan-type leaders in our party. Remember Ronald Reagan Democrats? I want a Republican that can attract Democrats. Ronald Reagan would have a hard time getting elected as a Republican today.”

GOP leaders know they need to do something about their perceived lack of a coherent agenda (if not a vision).

The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that they’re “preparing a new campaign manifesto that will be unveiled this month, to answer charges that they offer no credible alternative except to recycle the unpopular policies of the Bush administration.”

Hermine continued dissolving just south of San Antonio and was expected to be downgraded into a tropical depression later Tuesday. Most of south Texas woke up to few signs that a tropical system had swept through, aside from scattered downed trees and power lines.

As when Hurricane Alex lashed the same flood-prone Rio Grande Valley in June, there was a feeling that Hermine could have been worse. There were no reports of serious injuries, damage or flooding, and authorities ordered no evacuations.

Hermine dumped between 5 inches to a foot of rain after crossing into Texas late Monday. The storm made landfall in northeastern Mexico with winds of up to 65 mph (100 kph), arriving near the same spot as Alex, whose remnants killed at least 12 people in flooding in Mexico.

But unlike Alex, which swiped Texas then plunged southwest into Mexico, Hermine was felt in more places.

“This is going to be much more of a memorable storm than Alex,” National Weather Service meteorologist Joseph Tomaselli said Tuesday.

Raymondville won’t forget Hermine anytime soon. The rural farming town, about 20 miles off the Texas coast, began cleaning up early Tuesday without power after Hermine ripped the roof off a roadside motel occupied by terrified guests who say they fled for safety in the nick of time.

Melanie Tamyl and Roy Tamez were in their second-story room when their ceiling began bowing up and down. They opened the door just in time to watch the awning get peeled back like a lid.

“I told (Melanie) that we’ve got to get out of here right now,” said Tamez, 52. “The whole roof is about to go.”

Tamez and Tamyl helped two other families to evacuate the motel. They returned Tuesday to find half the roof over their room gone and their bedding soaked and soiled with ceiling tile and mud. They picked through soggy clothes and food, salvaging what they could.

As many as 35,000 homes were without power in the Rio Grande Valley early Tuesday, according to an online outage map of American Electric Power, the area’s power utility. A company representative did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Shelters throughout Rio Grande Valley were on standby but mostly kept their doors shut, and offers for sandbags saw relatively few takers.

Flash flood warning remained in effect Tuesday, but officials said first reports only indicated nuisances such as high water on neighborhood streets.

Hermine might have been no Alex in terms of strength, but it wasn’t taken lightly: Mexican emergency officials in Tamaulipas worked to evacuate 3,500 people around Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, and schools on both sides of the border canceled classes Tuesday.

Forecasters said remnants of Hermine will be felt as far north as Oklahoma and Kansas in the coming days.

In Mexico, Hermine brought another unwelcome downpour.

Mexico’s northeast cattle-ranching region is one of the most dangerous hotspots in the country’s bloody turf war between two drug cartels. It is the same area where 72 migrants were killed two weeks ago in what it believed to be the country’s worst drug gang massacre to date.

Mexican emergency officials urged those living in low-lying coastal areas to move to shelters. Classes in Matamoros and several other Mexican towns were canceled, and authorities began releasing water from some dams to make room for expected rains.

In inland Hidalgo state, authorities said heavy rains caused by the passing storm unleashed landslides that damaged 20 homes, left 120 people homeless and cut off small communities.

Tropical storm warnings in Mexico were canceled early Tuesday.

On South Padre Island, Hermine arrived too late to ruin another long weekend at the tourist hotspot. Alex plummeted Fourth of July hotel occupancies to about one-third of the normal rate, but most Labor Day weekend vacationers were already packing up for home by the time Hermine came into the picture.

“It really crept up on us,” said Dan Quandt, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau.

An administration official said the tax breaks would save businesses $200 billion over two years, allowing companies to have more cash on hand. The president will outline the proposal during a speech on the economy in Cleveland Wednesday.

Amid an uptick in unemployment to 9.6 percent, and polls showing that the November election could be dismal for Democrats, Obama has promised to propose new steps to stimulate the economy. In addition to the business investment tax breaks, he will also call for a $50 billion infrastructure investment and a permanent expansion of research and development tax credits for companies.

The proposals would requires congressional approval, which is highly uncertain given Washington’s partisan atmosphere.

“The White House is missing the big picture. None of its plans address the two big problems that are hurting our economy: excessive government spending, and the uncertainty that their policies….are creating for small businesses,” House Minority Leader John Boehner said.

Concerns over adding to the mounting federal deficit could also keep some Democratic lawmakers from approving new spending so close to the midterm elections. And even if legislators could pass some of the proposals in the short window between their return to Capitol Hill in mid-September and the elections, it’s unlikely the efforts would significantly stimulate the economy by November.

Stimulus measures enacted in 2008 and 2009 allowed businesses to depreciate 50 percent of their capital investments. A separate small business bill the White House is urging the Senate to pass would extend that tax break through the end of this year.

If Congress passes the administration’s proposal to expand the tax breaks to 100 percent, several million people and 1.5 million businesses would benefit, said the administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the formal announcement has not been made.

The official estimated the ultimate cost to taxpayers over 10 years would be $30 billion, with most of the money lost in tax revenue being recouped as the economy strengthens.

USDA Rural Development: Although it was originally designed to assist farmers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development housing program has since evolved to serve rural communities in their entirety. Through the USDA’s loan guarantee program, the agency agrees to assume as much as 90 percent of the losses on qualified mortgages in the event that they go delinquent. This guarantee, in turn, enables approved lenders to finance as much as 100 percent of the property’s appraised value. “[The mortgages] are government-backed so they are guaranteed,” says Tammye Trevino, the USDA Rural Development housing administrator. (The USDA also has a smaller, direct lending program that provides subsidized mortgages to very low income borrowers.)

The program only applies to rural areas with 20,000 residents or less. Participating families, meanwhile, must demonstrate that they lack adequate housing but have the wherewithal to remain current on their payments. Since the program is aimed at low- and moderate-income residents, applicants can earn no more than 115 percent of the area’s median income to be eligible. “The average credit score is between 670 and 675,” Trevino says.

As private players have left the market, the USDA housing program has increased significantly. Roughly 112,000 mortgages have been made so far this year, up from about 55,000 in 2008. “It’s more than a 50 percent increase,” Trevino says. Even so, USDA-guaranteed mortgages have performed better than other government-backed loans. The USDA’s delinquency rate was 12.16 percent in fiscal year 2009, compared with 14.57 percent for the Federal Housing Administration.

To apply for a home loan through the program, speak with a USDA-approved lender. Consumers can locate USDA-approved lenders by contacting the Rural Development office in their state. Trevino notes that the application process can be lengthy. “We do that second review on 100 percent of the loans,” she says.

VA loans: Veterans, members of the reserves, active duty service members, and even some spouses may be eligible for similar home loans through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. By guaranteeing a portion of the mortgage against default, the agency enables VA-approved lenders to offer eligible applicants access to home loans with no money down. “It’s really the only [no-money-down mortgage program] out there other than USDA,” says Nathan Long, CEO of VAMortgageCenter.com.

Service requirements for VA loan eligibility vary. For example, World War II veterans that weren’t dishonorably discharged qualify for the program with 90 days or more of active duty service. But if you enlisted after Sept. 7, 1980, and weren’t dishonorably discharged, you will need two years of continuous active duty service. (Click here for a complete list of service requirements.)

But establishing qualified service is only one step in the process. “Every vet who is eligible for the home loan program does not get the home loan. They do have to qualify,” says William White, the VA’s acting assistant director for loan policy. “You do have to have sufficient income for the loan and you also have to have satisfactory credit.” In addition, the size of the loan guarantee is subject to restrictions.

Should veterans run into financial trouble after receiving their loan, the VA offers additional support, White says. “We will work with borrowers to see if they can encourage the services to modify the loan–in some cases we can buy it ourselves and even lower the rate,” he says. White credits such efforts for helping VA loans to outperform their government-backed peers. The seasonally-adjusted delinquency rate for VA loans was 7.79 percent in the second quarter of this year, compared with 13.29 percent for FHA-insured mortgages, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s most recent National Delinquency Survey. (The delinquency rate for prime, fixed-rate loans was less than 6 percent, however.)

White estimates that the VA will back roughly 300,000 loans this fiscal year, which is down from 325,000 in 2009. (The fiscal year ends at the close of September.) Eligible veterans interested in obtaining a VA-backed loan should contact an agency-approved lender.