When you can't beat the slowness of late summer as an entertainment season, you can at least embrace it, and that's what we did this week. Dog days of summer winding down, you say? We say it's time to talk about pop culture dogs. Not dogs in the "lousy product" sense, but dogs in the sense of literal, actual dogs. Faithful, friendly, silly, whether the size of an ottoman or the size of a wallet.

Among the little treasures, Stephen is fond of this slightly obscure dog — at least these eight minutes of him.

As the AP reads it, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stopped just short of "committing the Fed to any specific move, such as another round of bond purchases to lower long-term interest rates."

Bernanke gave a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole, Wy. today. As with all his speeches, it was being closely watched for signs on what the Federal Reserve would do next.

Red Raider football kicks off this weekend and on this week's 24 Frames on 89.1FM Paul Hunton talks about memorable football movies.

Just hours after accepting the presidential nomination of the Republican party, Mitt Romney is headed to Louisiana for a more sober occasion: He will tour the damage left by Hurricane Isaac.

Update at 11:42 a.m. ET. President Obama also announced that he would visit the affected areas on Monday.

NPR's Ari Shapiro reports Romney hopes to console the victims of the floods. Ari filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"This New Orleans trip was a last-minute addition to the schedule.

Ivan Doig's The Bartender's Tale, about a single father facing his past, debuts at No. 13.

If teachers and administrators can't reach a deal for a new contract by Sept. 10, Chicago Teachers Union members will walk out of classrooms.

As the AP reports, the union's president said they made that decision because they were "tired of being bullied, belittled and betrayed."

The AP adds: