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Hope you're having a great day. I'm Nicole Lapin at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Good to see you. Thanks so much for checking in with us today. Here's a look at what's happening NOW IN THE NEWS.
 

Hurricane Dolly has now made landfall and it's packing quite a punch along the southwest Texas and the Mexico border. Dolly is now at a Category 2 hurricane. Residents are now being told to move away from the Rio Grande levees. Also officials say that Dolly could produce flooding that could breach¹ the levees. Meantime across the border, Mexican authorities are planning to move people into government shelters. We'll definitely keep you posted.

The Coast Guard has also closed a stretch of 29 miles along the Mississippi river all around New Orleans right after a collision between a fuel barge² and a tanker³ dumped more than 400,000 gallons of diesel-fuel into this water. The National Transportation Safety Board is now sending investigators⁴ to probe the cause of the accident. Thankfully though, no one was hurt.

President Bush now saying that he's gonna sign a bill designated to help hurting homeowners in an effort to allow the government to pump emergency funds into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government budget office has already estimated that it could cost taxpayers⁵ 25 billion dollars. It says there is a better chance that these companies actually won't need federal funds after all though.

Los Angeles getting ridded of plastic bags. You won't see these types of scenes pretty soon. The City Council has already voted to ban them after July 1st of 2010. After that, you're gonna have to bring your own bags to the grocery store or you're gonna have to pay 25 cents for a paper bag.

Batman star Christian⁶ Bale is now scheduled to appear in court in September. This is of course over those assault allegations made by his estranged⁷ mother and sister. British police say that he's remaining on bail⁸ pending⁹ further inquiries¹⁰. Also yesterday, the actor denying the allegation after spending four hours at the police station. He was released. He was not charged.

Those are the headlines at this hour. For more on those stories and other news of the day, CNN is always your source online, on TV or on your cellphone.