BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / New York Times News Service On the final day of the Republican National Convention, Sen. John McCain accepted the party's presidential nomination.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Sen. John McCain, the former prisoner of war whose bid for the White House appeared in complete collapse about a year ago, accepted the Republican presidential nomination last night with a pledge to move the nation beyond “partisan rancor” and narrow self-interest.

• Speech mixes his past with presidential plans
• Excerpts from yesterday's speech

The 10-month state investigation into three wildfires that scarred San Diego County last year has prompted new concerns over potential safety hazards across the electricity grid. The investigation report, released this week by the California Public Utilities Commission, raised alarms over the discovery of a number of broken lashing wires identical to the Cox Communications wire found to have ignited the deadly Guejito fire.

A dozen local schools received confirmation yesterday that they've beaten the odds. Years of low state test scores had landed them on a federal watch list that some say brands schools as failing. Not many schools get off the list. These did.

Last month, Cox in San Diego began offering digital cable customers the opportunity to watch every Padres home game from six camera angles – all at the same time. On Sunday, when the NFL kicks off its season in earnest, DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket Superfan subscribers once again will be able to view eight football games simultaneously.