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WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of tour guides in the nation's capital who challenged city rules that require guides to pay the government $200 and to pass a 100-question multiple-choice exam.

In Washington, operating as a paid, unlicensed tour guide is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $300 fine.

According to the city, the licensing requirement ensures that prospective guides are who they say they are and have at least a minimal grasp of the city's history and geography.

In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the city failed to present any evidence the problems it sought to stop actually exist.

DETROIT (AP) — Want to take some of the stress and mystery out of the car-buying process? Get on the Internet.

Auto Web sites — once filled mostly with reviews and advice — are getting more sophisticated, connecting potential buyers with dealers and offering instant price guarantees. Some let buyers estimate their trade-in values and turn in credit applications online. One company even lets buyers complete the entire sale online and get cars delivered to their door.

The Internet lets shoppers enter a showroom armed with the same information as a dealer, said Chantel Lenard, Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. marketing director. Sites let buyers configure their vehicles, see what others paid and estimate the trade-in value of their current car or truck. They could even walk into a dealership with a price locked in.

"It's truly become an equalizer in the shopping and negotiating process," Lenard said at a recent Ford event.

The no-haggle approach can have a downside. In person, a dealer might drop the price even further, or throw in extras like floor mats or a satellite radio subscription. But for many consumers, the convenience is worth it. And the multiple sites that let you check deals can help assure you're getting a fair price.

Auto sites are rapidly adding features and content to attract buyers. For example, an upcoming mobile app from TrueCar.com will let shoppers submit photos and information about their used car to dealers, who will bid to buy it.

Here are some of the best places to shop for cars on the Web:

— Edmunds.com (http://www.edmunds.com ) got its start in 1966 as a paperback car-pricing guide. It won the highest ranking in J.D. Power's 2014 survey of car shopping sites based on content, ease of navigation, appearance and speed. Edmunds lets buyers shop for new and used cars and also offers reviews and advice.

Once buyers choose a car and trim level, they can see the average price paid for that car in their area and get an estimated price from Edmunds. A 2014 Hyundai Sonata SE is estimated at $23,760 in Chicago, for example, or $540 less than Hyundai's suggested retail price. Shoppers who enter their name, e-mail and phone number can get a specific, locked-in price from dealers before heading to the showroom. Dealers pay Edmunds a monthly fee to be part of the network.

J.D. Power also gives high marks to Cars.com, which connects shoppers to dealers who offer a quote; U.S. News Best Cars, which ranks cars and tracks deals; and Kelley Blue Book, which determines a price buyers should expect to pay based on local demand, seasonal trends and other factors. Kelley Blue Book says the 2014 Hyundai Sonata SE should range between $22,845 and $23,602 in Chicago.

— TrueCar (http://www.truecar.com), which was founded in 2008, monitors millions of transactions to determine the average price of a car in your zip code. For example, the site estimates a 2014 Hyundai Sonata SE will cost $20,392 at a TrueCar certified dealer in the Chicago area. In Atlanta, TrueCar dealers will likely offer the same car for $21,369. Potential buyers get a guaranteed price they can take to a certified dealer. In return, dealers pay TrueCar $299 for every new vehicle sold through the site and $399 for every used vehicle.

TrueCar says nearly 400,000 people bought cars through its 7,700 certified dealers last year.

John Krafcik, TrueCar's president, says it takes around three hours to finalize a car purchase. To ease consumers' frustration, the industry wants to whittle that down to an hour.

— General Motors' Stop-Click-Drive program (http://shopclickdrive.com/) lets buyers shop via local dealer Web sites, estimate the value of a trade-in, estimate monthly payments, turn in a credit application and set up a time to pick up the car at the dealership. The program is good for Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC vehicles and was expanded to all 50 states last year. GM says it has sold more than 3,700 new vehicles through the site, which is offered through 40 percent of the company's 4,300 U.S. dealers.

— Carvana (www.carvana.com ) is perhaps the most radical model, allowing buyers to bypass dealers entirely. Shoppers can browse Carvana's used-car inventory, apply for financing through its partners and arrange for pick-up or delivery — all online. Buyers can choose to pick up their car at Carvana's "vending machine," a three-bay garage in Atlanta. They're given a special code to open the door and hop in their car. Carvana will also deliver a car anywhere in the country. A delivery to Chicago, for example, costs $600; delivery in Atlanta or Nashville, home of the company's distribution center, is free. Carvana, founded last year by Phoenix-based DriveTime Automotive Group, owns all of its inventory, so it gives shoppers fewer options than sites that search other dealers' inventories. But Carvana estimates that cutting out dealers saves buyers $1,500 per car. Carvana was offering a 2011 Sonata SE for $15,500 — sorry, no 2014 model available. The company won't give exact sales figures, but says it has sold thousands of cars since its launch last year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Strong job growth lifted U.S. consumer confidence this month, as Americans looked past the economy's dismal first quarter performance.

The University of Michigan said Friday that its index of consumer sentiment rose slightly to 82.5 in June from 81.9 in May. That is still below April's reading of 84.1, which had been the highest in almost a year.

Confidence "has remained largely unchanged for the past six months," said Richard Curtin, an economist at the University of Michigan and director of the survey. "This was remarkable" given that the economy shrank in the first quarter.

Still, the survey was mostly conducted when the government had estimated that the economy contracted at a 1 percent annual rate in the first quarter. On Wednesday, that estimate was revised much lower, to show a contraction of 2.9 percent.

And so far, steady confidence hasn't yet translated into more spending. Consumer spending rose just 0.2 percent in May after a flat reading in April. Weaker spending suggests growth won't rebound as strongly as many economists had hoped. Some marked down their forecasts for growth in the second quarter, to roughly 2.5 percent from 3 percent.

Still, there were other positive signs in the University of Michigan's report. Steady hiring is improving Americans' finances, the survey found. Forty percent of respondents said their finances had improved in June, the most in seven years.

And more Americans say it is a good time to sell a home, which can help fuel sales as most people need to sell their home before buying a new one. For the first time in eight years, half of all homeowners said sales conditions were positive.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States wants to restart a cybersecurity working group that China shut down after the U.S. indicted five Chinese military officers on charges of hacking into American companies' computers to steal trade secrets.

Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel told The Associated Press the U.S. is ready to resume those discussions, which he described as "useful and important," if China is. Russel said officials would raise it at the annual U.S.-China Security and Economic Dialogue in Beijing in two weeks. The dialogue will be attended by Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.

After the indictments against the five officers were unsealed in May, Beijing pulled the plug on the group. It had been set up a year ago in what Washington viewed at the time as a diplomatic coup after President Barack Obama and China's President Xi Jinping held a summit in California aiming to set relations between the two global powers on a positive track.

Those ties have also come under growing strain because of China's assertive actions in the disputed South and East China seas. Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, reiterated those concerns in an interview Thursday, saying the U.S. views it as essential that China show greater restraint and use diplomacy to manage its differences on territorial issues.

Asian nations, particularly treaty allies like Japan and the Philippines, look to the U.S. to counter China's increasingly muscular actions, but some in the region have voiced doubts about whether the second-term Obama administration can follow through on its commitment to focus on the Asia-Pacific because of its preoccupation with the chaos in the Middle East.

Russel said Asia remains a strategic U.S. priority, even as Washington considers some form of military action to combat the rapid advances of Sunni militants in Iraq who now straddle the border with Syria.

"The fact that events conspired to demand high-level U.S. attention in the Middle East or elsewhere is simply a fact of life," Russel said. "It's always been thus. The strategic imperative, though, that's made the Asia-Pacific region a priority for us in security, economic and political terms is unaffected by the short-term demands of crises here and there."

"I have no trouble in enlisting Secretary Kerry's efforts on our agenda in the region," Russel added, "and that applies to the president and vice president as well."

Kerry and Lew will lead the U.S. delegation at the talks in Beijing, which are an annual fixture and viewed as important in forging a more cooperative relationship with Beijing, notwithstanding current frictions and China's growing challenge to America's post-World War II military predominance in the Asia-Pacific.

The two sides will discuss issues including turmoil in the Middle East, North Korea's nuclear program and cooperation on climate change, and the U.S. will raise the issue of human rights. They'll also address a slew of economic and trade issues, including progress on a bilateral investment treaty that China agreed to negotiate in earnest at last year's talks.

While the cyber working group remains on hold, Russel said the U.S. side will raise concerns over cyber-enabled theft of U.S. corporate data and intellectual property that the U.S. contends is shared with Chinese state-owned enterprises for commercial gain.

"That's an economic problem as well as a bilateral problem, and that kind of behavior risks undermining the support for the U.S.-China relationship among the U.S. and international business community," Russel said. "It's a problem we believe the Chinese must and can address."

Although the revelations from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden on U.S. surveillance tactics have embarrassed Washington — leaving it open to accusations of hypocrisy when it accuses others of cyber espionage — the Obama administration has taken an increasingly trenchant stance on intrusions from China.

The indictment accuses the Chinese officers of targeting U.S. makers of nuclear and solar technology and stealing confidential business information, sensitive trade secrets and internal communications for competitive advantage. But after the indictments were unsealed, the five men were not placed on a public, international list of wanted criminals. There is no evidence that China would even entertain a formal request by the U.S. to extradite the five officers. It has rejected the charges and demanded they be withdrawn.