Oregon had the highest voter turnout rate in the nation. Learn more here.

By the Associated Press

For the first time ever, Oregon had the highest voter turnout rate in the nation for last November’s elections.

Former Oregon Secretary of State Phil Keisling, who now leads a national effort to expand voting from home, said 61.5% of all the eligible citizens in Oregon cast a ballot, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Thursday.

“We edged out Maine by .05%,” he said.

Keisling said Oregon has had a relatively high turnout rate since the state implemented its pioneering vote-by-mail system 25 years ago. He said the numbers have really ramped up…

Sam Adventure Baker, an 8-year-old, sets out to become the youngest person to summit El Capitan. Check out more here.

If your parents name you “Adventure,” they probably hoped you’d do some adventurous things.

Sam Adventure Baker understood his assignment.

The Colorado 8-year-old sets out Tuesday to become the youngest person to reach the summit of El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park.

The journey is expected to take four days “of hanging from your fingers or hanging from your anchors,” Sam’s dad Joe Baker told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield on Sunday. They’ll camp one night on the top of El Capitan and then hike down eight miles on the fifth day.

Rising prices take a toll on the new housing market. Learn more here.

By Anna Bahney, CNN Business

New home sales plunged in July as high prices and mortgage rates pushed buyers to think twice about closing the deal.

Sales of newly constructed homes fell by 12.6% in July from June and were down 29.6% from a year ago, according to a joint report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the US Census Bureau. It was the second consecutive month of declines.

Only 511,000 new homes were sold last month, at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, down from a revised 585,000 in June. That’s the lowest sales number since January 2016. A year ago, 726,000 newly…