NASHVILLE – There was a little reprieve from the opressive heat yesterday afternoon when storms moved through the mid state area on Thursday, but the relief will be short lasting.

Temperatures are expected to be up near 100 degrees by the start of next week, say the National Weather Service forecasters in Nashville.

"Starting Monday, it's going to get hot again," said John Cohen, a meteorologist with the service.

"We will see temperatures head back up into the upper 90s and the humidity will also head back up there. It's difficult to tell about heat advisories, but it's a possibility that they may be flying again next week."

Thursday saw temperatures drop from the 90s to the mid-70s as a late afternoon storm front passed through. The only damage was a few downed trees and power lines, according to Amanda Sluss, spokeswoman for the Metro Office of Emergency Management.

NES listed 8,607 customers as being without power just after the storm moved through at about 1:15 p.m. Most were in the southern pars of Davidson County.

Today, temperatures will go back up to the mid-90s with a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms, Cohen said. Nashville is going to see dry conditions with the hear in the mid-90s Saturday and Sunday, he added.

The American Red Cross-operated cooling center at the Mount Nebo Baptist Church or Clifton Ave closes at 9 a.m. today. Metro is urging people that do not have air conditioning to go to public libraries, community ceneters or the Nashville Farmer's Market to escape the heat.

Health officials reported that three heat related deaths in the Memphis area brought the total to 13.

A statement from Dr Karen E. Chancellor, Shelby County's medical examiner, said that a 64-year-old woman was found in her backyard by her husband. Chancellor says that the excessive heat contributed to her demise.

Two other deaths were caused by heat stroke. An 81-year-old woman who died in her home and a 70-year-old man was found in the middle of a major thoroughfare.

Heat indexes have been cresting over 100 degrees throughout the summer in Memphis. Heat index combines the air temperature and the humidity level to show how it actually feels outside.

County officials urge people to limit outdoor time and drink plenty of fluids.

No deaths in Nashville have been contributed to the hear, but area hospitals have reported a number of heat-related illnesses.

A police dog died from heat exhaustion after a search for two burglars in Blount County in East Tennessee. A deputy and another dog, also in the Blount County Sheriff's Office, were treated for heat exhaustion.

Meteorologists blame the continuing heat on high-pressure pressure systems hanging over Tennesse with little movement. There is no indication that it is going to move away any time soon. Higher than normal temperatures could last through September into October.

The executive from Apple who was in charge of the troubled iPhone 4's development is leaving the company.

Mark Papermaster has been in charge of Apple's iPhone and iPod hardware department since 2009 when he came over the Apple from IBM.

His leaving is thought to be due to the problems with the antennae on the iPhone 4.

Apple had no comment on his reasons for leaving or whether he resigned or was asked to leave.

In late June, when the iPhone 4 was released, owners began complaining of dropped calls. Evidence them came to light showing that signal strength dropped when the phone was held in a particular way.

The metal casing used to house the antenna was what engineers found to be the problem. Bridging the small gap between the two antennas on the lower left-hand side of the case caused the signal to fade.

The Consumer Reports organization executed an investigation and confirmed the problem and ended up not recommending the phone.

Apple initially downplayed the problem, but the continuing controversy led it to offer free cases to all iPhone 4 owners as they stop the gap from being bridged. Mr Papermaster was not at the press conference where the offer to iPhone 4 owners was unveiled.

A spokesman for Apple said that Mr Papermaster's responsibilities would be taken over by Bob Mansfield who currently oversees engineering for the company's Macintosh products.

He had a role in guiding the development of some aspects of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Mr Papermaster worked at IBM for 25 years before joining Apple. Although he came on in 2008. he did no start working for Apple until 2009 because IBM sued him for breaching terms of his contract.

WASHINGTON – A $26 billion aid package is supposed to be passed by the House today. The bill should send Tennessee $239 million for Medicaid and $194 million for teacher salaries. This money could save teaching jobs in our state.

Tennessee's state budget problems have not led to teacher layoffs as they have in other states. Some preliminary calculation shows that it could make quite an impact if the state's budget issues keep worsening. The Republican gubernatorial candidate Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam thinks that after last week's preliminary election Tennessee may see a $1 billion budget deficit.

The teaching funds will go through the Department of Education and be distributed using the existing payment formulas. The money is restricted to elementary and secondary schools and only to retain existing employees, rehire previous workers and hire new ones.

The state does not have a breakdown of how the additional money would be distributed regionally, according to Amanda Anderson, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

The National Education Association thought that the additional funds from the government could save as many as 3,094 teaching jobs in our state, said executive director of the Tennessee Education Association, Al Mance. The US Department of Education thinks the money will save 3,700 jobs.

The state has 60,000 teachers and 136 school systems, said Mance.

Metro-Nashville districts are still awaiting the plan to see how much money they get, if the bill is finally approved. Most have not said what the money will go towards.

"We're waiting for the details to trickle down to our level," said James Evans, spokesman for Rutherford County schools.

The legislation passed in the Senate last week, surprising those who thought the bill to be dead. Tennessee's two Republican senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, voted against the bill.

The money for education could start flowing ass soon as 45 days from now.

Tennessee has not been counting on the extra Medicaid assistance when it got its budget together for the fiscal year that started last month.

The legislature made a list of projects that would be funded if the extra funding were approved.

Some of those are:

• $120 million to community and technical colleges

• $90 million to go towards the Tennessee Highway Patrol's communication systems

The Tennessee Highway Patrol thinks that about half of the state has reliable radio communication.

"We have towers in the state that are aged and in need of repair," said Mike Browning, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Safety.

• $60 million economic development projects, which includes $9.6 million for a 3,500-acre West Tennessee “megasite” near I-40 in Haywood County.

• $10 million for a small-business jobs fund

$341.6 million in contingency money was marked by the legislature. It was not obvious how less money would be distributed.

Congress has been debating the additional financial aid for months, due, in part, to the extra Medicaid funding for states that was included in the stimulus package will run out at the end of this year. The passing of the law was thought to be unlikely because of the upcoming election and growing concerns about federal spending and the swelling national debt.

The it went through the Senate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced that the House would interrupt as soon as its August recess to return to Washington to put the bill to a vote. President Obama has said he will sign it.

Democrats are hoping that the vote will give their party'd candidates a needed boost of momentum as lawmakers head home for summer recess before congressional elections in November.

The showdown on the $26.1 billion aid package "defines the difference between the two parties," according to Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Angry Republicans have agreed.

"The American people don't want more stimulus spending," said House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, "especially in the form of a payoff to union bosses and liberal special interests."

Significant progress has been made on putting a new cap on the hemorrhaging oil well in Gulf of Mexico, according to US Coast Guard Commander Thad Allen.

Adm Allen is in charge of overseeing the response to the spill. He said, "This could lead to the shutting of the well."

He added that later today, BP hopes to close the cap and run a pressure test.

The cap is the newest of several devices that BP has deployed as it grinds away on a permanent solution, which should come by mid-August.

The progress comes just before a planned visit to the Gulf by First Lady Michelle Obama, who is expected to be briefed by officials and local government leaders and speak to the local community.

Monday saw the presidential commission to research the oil spill's beginning.

President Barack Obama, after visiting the area several times, has donned the spill the nation's worst-ever environmental disaster.

The coastal towns and areas from Florida to Alabama rely heavily, almost exclusively, on fishing and tourism, and many people think that the oil spill will completely eliminate that livelihood.

Work on the new cap, which BP hopes will eventually help capture all of the leaking oil, was begun Saturday.

"The hope is that we can slowly turn off the valves, close the capping completely and then test pressure to see how the well is performing," Adm Allen told CBS News on Monday.

The White House says that containment is at a “critical point”.

"The new containment procedure will more than triple our containment capacity when it's all said and done," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told NBC television.

BP claims to have spent $3.5 billion on the response so far.

The firm has also set up an additional $20bn fund to finance the clean-up operations and other costs.

BP shares have almost halved since the disaster, but early trading shoed its price riding a rally, climing 5.5% to 384.7p.

BP said in a statement that the sealing cap was "proceeding as planned".

The oil giant's vice president, Kent Wells, said he was pleased with operation's progress.

"We have carefully planned and practiced this whole procedure. We've tried to work out as many of the bugs as we can," he said.

He then warned that "something unexpected" was bound to show up to challenge to undersea robots while installing the cap.

The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in April killed 11 people right off the bat. Since the explosion, thousands of barrels of oil have been spilling into the sea every day.

BP's current permanent solution to fixing the leak is to drill two relief wells, which they hope and expect to be completed by mid-August.

The first of the relief wells got as deep as 17,810ft on Sunday, and the tenth randing tun, a test to help hone in the casing of the leaking well, was done.