Today is Wednesday, Sept. 17, the 261st day of 2008. There are 105 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:One hundred years ago, on Sept. 17, 1908...

An undercover video shot at an Iowa pig farm shows workers hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about jamming rods up into sows' ...

Investigators say the commuter train engineer in Friday's deadly rail collision in Los Angeles did not hit the brakes before crashing into a freight train.The Nation...

The death toll from Hurricane Ike has risen to 48.Authorities said Tuesday six more deaths are being blamed on the storm in the Houston area, bringing the number of ...

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep concern Tuesday that the U.S. financial crisis will have a serious global impact, especially on rich donor nations that play ke...

For the second time this month, the U.S. government put taxpayer money on the hook to rescue a private financial company, saying the failure of the huge insurer American In...

Just a few months after near-record flooding, roads across the Midwest were under water again Tuesday and more than 1 million people in at least five states were without po...

A man charged with murder who fled to his parents' homeland of South Korea and started a new life a decade ago returned to Philadelphia in handcuffs Tuesday.David He...

About 250 people who withstood Hurricane Ike on a coastal sliver of land will be forced off it so crews can begin the recovery effort, authorities said Tuesday, vowing to i...

Phoenix police say an officer has died four days after he was injured during a charity boxing match.The fight was called shortly before Officer Barry Scott lost cons...

As of Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008, at least 524 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in...

A double murderer scheduled to be executed next month in Ohio said Tuesday he has not deliberately gained weight to rule out his death by lethal injection.Instead, R...

As of Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008, at least 4,159 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.Elizabeth Edwards discouraged by health care focus, Mike Baker

Elizabeth Edwards said Tuesday she is discouraged that health care is falling on the nation's list of priorities and critiqued the plans of both leading presidential candid...

The rain-swollen Rio Grande began sloshing over a levee near this border town Tuesday, and officials cleared everyone from low-lying areas as they awaited a deluge they sai...

PRESIDIO, Texas — Kill BC-Border Flood. A Mexican governor has retracted his statement that the four people onboard a missing plane had died. A new story will be sent sho...

Federal wildlife officials on Tuesday proposed more protection for the threatened California red-legged frog, providing up to four times as much habitat than was set aside ...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an extraordinary pledge Tuesday to veto the state budget because he said the long-overdue spending plan lawmakers approved hours earlier lac...

The government won't immediately try to take gray wolves in the Northern Rockies off the endangered species list, a federal wildlife official said Tuesday.Ed Bangs, ...

A Waterford man told police his crack cocaine habit drove him to steal nearly 250 empty beer cans from a 7-Eleven store.Police in the Detroit suburb say the 46-year-...

A New York man reporting for jury duty has been taken into custody after a records check revealed he's wanted in Ohio.James Geiger, of Sciopo, N.Y., reported Tuesday...

Rail service resumed Tuesday along the tracks where a Metrolink train collided head-on with a freight train and left 25 people dead four days earlier.An Amtrak Surfl...

A Texas district attorney known for his willingness to examine cases of possible wrongful convictions now plans to investigate all death row cases prosecuted in his county....

The best way for the next president to help the CIA would be to "do nothing," agency director Michael Hayden said Tuesday."We've been pulled up by the roots to check...

Alabama authorities say a jail inmate charged with murder is on the loose after he overpowered a bailiff, took his weapon and uniform, and stole a van at gunpoint.Au...

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has recommended that four officers be fired for misconduct when force was used to clear a park during a 2007 immigration rally....

Authorities searched Tuesday for a handcuffed Delaware convict who escaped from a private security guard at Philadelphia International Airport over the weekend.Taari...

The Smithsonian Institution will work to digitize its collections to make science, history and cultural artifacts accessible online and dramatically expand its outreach to ...

Federal officials blamed railroads Monday for refusing their requests to install an expensive safety feature on all U.S. tracks that many say could have prevented Southern ...

A man on death row for 33 years has been executed in Georgia for murdering his wife in 1974.Jack Alderman was pronounced dead Tuesday at 7:25 p.m. EDT at the Georgia...

Sheriff's deputies in Yavapai County said a man picked the wrong place to take a nap, but he'll now have plenty of time to catch up on sleep.Sheriff's spokesman Dwig...

Around his neighborhood, Metrolink engineer Robert Sanchez was considered a recluse with four miniature greyhounds and a poorly kept yard. But among young train fans, he wa...

Many years from now, a small group of Hurricane Ike survivors will probably still be telling the story of how, on the night the storm flattened their island, they took sanc...

A reputed Ku Klux Klansman recently acquitted in the abductions of two black teenagers slain in 1964 is a flight risk and should remain in prison while the government consi...

A top commander acted properly by removing a Marine special operations unit from Afghanistan amid allegations that members killed as many as 19 civilians after a car bomb h...

Today in HistoryToday is Tuesday, Sept. 16, the 260th day of 2008. There are 106 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:One hundred years a...

Entire subdivisions obliterated. Oil and chemical slicks in the surf where vacationers once frolicked. Longhorn cattle roaming desolate streets. But, most stunning of all, ...

Men, women and children of all ages stepped right up and twirled together twine and chile pods at the New Mexico State Fair, trying to create the world's largest chile rist...

A New Hampshire couple are trying to figure out what to do with a homing pigeon that came to the wrong home — theirs. From an identification band, Don and Fran Roy of Man...

A 40-year-old man walking his dog in the nude was Tasered by police when he refused to follow an officer's commands. David McCranie of the Tallahassee Police Department sai...

A Pennsylvania woman who thought she was petting a neighbor's cat got a smelly surprise when it turned out to be a skunk. Not only did the skunk spray the woman before dawn...

Your rabbit's ears aren't floppy? Sorry, that's not an emergency. So said police in Scotland when a woman rang the emergency 999 number to discuss her concerns about her ne...

A wealthy gold trader was charged Monday with paying one of his workers to arrange the stabbing death of the businessman's estranged wife, authorities said.James Fay...

The head of New Mexico's Game and Fish Department could lose his hunting license for two years after he was accused of illegally shooting a deer on private land.An i...

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., threw out plans Monday to allow more than 500 snowmobiles a day into Yellowstone National Park, drawing sharp criticism from Wyoming's ...

Evacuees streaming into hundreds of makeshift shelters set up around Texas are bringing all the belongings they can carry and at least one unanswerable question: What now?<...

Prosecutors said Monday they won't bring criminal charges against a man who carried guns in a case into a Denver hotel during the Democratic National Convention last month....

The former top aide to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick chose to go to trial Monday, rejecting prosecutors' offers that included pleading guilty to two felony counts and serv...

Rescuers say they've found 60 survivors on an isolated barrier island devastated by Hurricane Ike.Rescuers have tried for nearly three days to get in to find out how...

An off-duty Chicago police officer shot and killed his young daughter and critically injured his young son then took his own life Monday, police said.Chicago police ...

A federal agency hit three construction firms with penalties totaling $313,500 on Monday for alleged safety violations leading to a tower crane collapse that killed seven p...

Above the law or victim of a prosecutor's obsession?Dr. George Tiller, who is among the nation's few late-term abortion providers, filed papers Monday seeking to sup...

Three men and three teenagers were indicted Monday on murder and other charges for the execution-style slayings that shocked New Jersey's largest city more than a year ago....

A man on trial for the killings of four people aboard the "Joe Cool" charter fishing boat was a victim of a master manipulator who plotted alone to hijack the vessel and fi...

Two boys ages 15 and 11 were left at Nebraska hospitals over the weekend, the first youngsters surrendered under the state's new safe-haven law that allows caregivers to ab...

Like many parents, Diana Ennen had trouble getting her daughter Amber to exercise.So two years ago, Ennen decided that Amber was coming to the health club. Now age 1...

The Marine Corps is no longer allowing troops who have extra-large tattoos on their arms to serve as recruiters or security guards at U.S. embassies.Marine Corps spo...

Fear rippled through a group of Latino parents in suburban Atlanta when a friend was deported to Mexico and temporarily separated from her two young U.S.-born children. The...

State troopers will lead a slow, somber procession of motorists across the Mississippi River early Thursday to mark the opening of the new bridge replacing one that collaps...

Hurricane Katrina chased bluesman Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown from his adopted home in New Orleans to his hometown here on the Texas Gulf Coast, where he died in exile. Now,...

Commuters reunited Monday for the first workday since a deadly train crash, embracing fellow riders — many known only by sight — and mourning those who died in the acci...

A federal judge in Pittsburgh has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a woman held captive for 10 years.Judge Gary Lancaster ruled Friday the lawsuit failed to meet the sta...

Former FBI agent John Connolly made a corrupt career out of protecting Boston mobsters, including passing along critical information leading to the 1982 slaying of a gambli...

Louisiana's social services chief has resigned amid heavy criticism from the governor over her department's response to Hurricane Gustav.Gov. Bobby Jindal's spokeswo...

Latino advocates and a civil liberties group have filed a federal lawsuit against a Dallas suburb whose officials are trying to drive out illegal immigrants.The grou...

In a Sept. 14 story about college remedial classes, The Associated Press gave the incorrect name of a California school. It is Long Beach City College, not Long Beach Commu...

It's a tough lesson for millions of students just now arriving on campus: even if you have a high school diploma, you may not be ready for college.In fact, a new stu...

Just two weeks ago it was drought that was causing many Illinois farmers some sleepless nights.And now it's the weekend's record rainfall and ensuing flooding that a...

A Vermont man planning to ride in a 508-mile bicycle race in California is taking the long way to the starting line. He's pedaling there.Joe Desena, 39, says he is l...

The former mayor of Newark, N.J., is due at a federal prison camp Monday.Sharpe James was to report to Petersburg, Va., to begin serving a 27-month sentence. He was ...

A kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa that was the target of a sweeping immigration raid this year is not the only venue where the plant's owners are locked in a fight over un...

For four hours the two roommates trudged through crashing waves and deadly currents to escape their island community. He, clinging to a neighbor's small boy. She, helping a...

He may not be caped, but in the bat world, Jason Corbett is definitely a crusader.Since January, the Arizona conservation biologist has taken on a specialized role t...

When O.J Simpson and five other men pushed into a cramped casino hotel room to confront two memorabilia peddlers a year ago they were only trying to retrieve keepsakes and ...

Frank Mundus, the legendary shark fisherman said to have inspired the Captain Quint character in the movie "Jaws," has died. He was 82.Mundus died Wednesday at The Q...

Most of the men in the 2 1/2-ton truck had embarked on the grim hunt for bodies in the wreckage of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. On Sunday, they prepared to risk the...

Students are doing better in elementary and middle school, but key indicators show little progress among high school and college students, Education Secretary Margaret Spel...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Sunday an investigation was planned into why staff at a public housing complex apparently left residents without care overnight during Hurricane ...

An alphabetical list of people killed in Friday's Metrolink train disaster and information known about them.Families of one male victim and one female victim have no...

Houston's airports are planning to reopen to commercial flights Monday with limited service after suffering some damage from Hurricane Ike.Flights stopped coming and...

Houston's airports are planning to reopen Monday with limited service after suffering some damage from Hurricane Ike.George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby A...

A motorist drove onto a sidewalk near a park on Sunday and ran down three men, killing one and injuring the two others, authorities said.One man has been arrested an...

Hundreds of first responders at two staging areas in Texas for Hurricane Ike have run out of food and water.Congressman John Culberson said Sunday that 300 National ...

Albert "Jay" Cox couldn't believe his eyes when he saw a freight train hurtling toward the commuter train he was riding."Because the brakes of our train were not bei...

Rescuers said Sunday they had saved nearly 2,000 people from the waterlogged streets and splintered houses left behind by Hurricane Ike. Glass-strewn Houston was placed und...

The state's top legislative leaders say they have reached a deal to end California's record budget impasse.It was not immediately clear whether the tentative deal wo...

Federal investigators on Sunday combed railroad tracks and crushed wreckage looking for evidence to explain the nation's deadliest rail disaster in 15 years and made plans ...

A father and son drowned in northwest Indiana while trying to rescue children from a flooded ditch as heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Ike forced hundreds of evac...

As of Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008, at least 4,157 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.Pilfered primate freed from jail, returns to Maine

An 8-foot-tall mechanical gorilla is back home at an eastern Maine flea market-style store two weeks after it was stolen and later dumped in a cornfield in Vermont.A...

Houston, a fast-paced metropolis that churns on industries like oil, medical research, space technology and law, was dragged to a near halt by Hurricane Ike. But unlike its...

"Man's best friend" doesn't go far enough for Buddy — a German shepherd who remembered his training and saved his owner's life by calling 911 when the man had a seizure. ...

Three years ago, an elderly Italian man pulled his van into a South Florida park to sell some rare, 2,500-year-old emeralds plundered from a South American tomb. But Ugo Ba...

Nearly 2,000 people in Texas who refused orders to evacuate before Hurricane Ike have been rescued by land, air and water.A door-by-door search is under way in Galve...

U.S. hospitals and long-term care facilities annually flush millions of pounds of unused pharmaceuticals down the drain, pumping contaminants into America's drinking water,...

The new Interstate 35W bridge, replacing one whose deadly collapse into the Mississippi River scarred the city's image and emotions, may be getting kudos for opening ahead ...

In a frustrating quirk in government policy, the most tightly controlled drugs — like painkilling narcotics prone to abuse — are the ones that most often elude environm...

It began as a case of six missing boaters. Then came the dramatic tale of an attack on the high seas by Cuban pirates, four fatal shootings and the rescue of two survivors ...

Hurricane Ike's deadly surge has kept thousands of evacuees holed up in cramped quarters — shelters, RVs, even a warehouse — as they face the prospect of returning to f...

Houston officials have issued a weeklong curfew for the city devastated by Hurricane Ike.Officials announced that a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew would begin Sunday night ...

Forecasters warned of "certain death," a possible 25-foot surge of water that would wash across the Texas and Louisiana coast, wiping away towns in a white-capped, churning...

The walls that line the pair of lanes in this tiny bowling alley seem close enough to make a bowler feel claustrophobic. But at a 100th anniversary party Saturday, the wall...

This isn't just any wheelchair-accessible path — it's part of the Appalachian Trail.The 2,175-mile trail's fourth wheelchair-accessible location opened to the publ...

The school system in coastal Baldwin County — 60 miles by 25 miles of Alabama farmland framed on two sides by waterfront towns — was short on teachers, especially in co...

Hurricane Ike spared Louisiana a direct hit, but its winds and waters killed two people as coastal areas were inundated with a storm surge that crawled some 30 miles inland...

Today is Sunday, Sept. 14, the 258th day of 2008. There are 108 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On Sept. 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key was in...

Even as they plucked people from rooftops and wrecked neighborhoods on Saturday, emergency responders grumbled over how many brushed off dire warnings and tried to ride out...

Rescuers in boats, helicopters and high-water trucks fanned out along the flood-stricken Texas coast Saturday in a monumental effort to reach tens of thousands of people wh...

Authorities report that Hurricane Ike has killed two people in Louisiana and likely two in Texas.Terrebonne Parish coroner senior investigator Gary Alford says a 16-...

Veteran firefighter Searcy Jackson III was among the first to arrive at the steaming wreckage of the Metrolink commuter train Friday. Surrounded by blood and agony, he and ...

It's a rainy day for the Manhattan restaurateur who sued a supermodel claiming she intentionally damaged his designer umbrella, said to be worth $5,000.State Supreme...

A van carrying high school cheerleaders rolled on a southern Arizona interstate, and two other vehicles crashed behind the wrecked van. Two people were killed, and 14 were ...

No charges will be pursued in the case of a Lubbock television station reporter arrested last year after trying to gauge security at two Amarillo hospitals, according to an...

As of Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008, at least 519 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan i...

A family's two pit bulls burst into the house from the backyard to attack a 4-month girl, mauling her to death even as her grandmother tried to escape with the baby into an...

Hurricane Ike created a wave of price spikes at gas stations across the country Saturday.Fears that the massive storm would cut off supply lent to wide disparities i...

The head of the nation's Veterans Affairs system said Saturday it still could be months before inpatient surgeries resume at a southern Illinois hospital. But rehabbing the...

A tanker truck driver has been found guilty of vehicular homicide for a fiery crash in 2005 that killed four people, including the mother of Tampa Bay Lightning center Jeff...

Ray Wilkinson sat with his feet propped on the railing of his front porch Saturday, calmly dragging on a Marlboro Light as reporters asked whether he considered himself bra...

A man accused of shooting four women and then setting their house on fire to cover up the crime surrendered to police Saturday.Rolando Terrell turned himself in to I...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry says no one is allowed on Galveston Island in the aftermath of Ike except emergency personnel.Ike made landfall at Galveston as a Category 2 hu...

The Swiss architects of the iconic Bird's Nest stadium at the Beijing Olympics are bringing their innovative style to New York City with a translucent glass skyscraper desi...

Being homeless in this upper crust enclave is not exactly like living on the street in other places. There are handouts of $2,000 and bottles of Dom Perignon, lucky finds o...

Twelve years after terrorists' gunfire killed 17-year-old American David Boim at a bus stop in a West Bank town near Jerusalem, U.S. courts are still trying to settle wheth...

A jogger grabbed Julie Harmia as she was walking home from a bus stop, shoved his hand into her mouth, dragged her to a vacant lot and raped her.As he left he said: ...

A famous Texas nightclub where Frank Sinata and Bob Hope once performed is no longer — thanks to Hurricane Ike.The 79-year-old Balinese Room — a popular dance an...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says search and rescue teams are at the ready in Houston, poised to go to the aid of those stranded by Hurricane Ike.But a FE...

Officials in one southeast Texas county say they are trying to rescue families trapped by devastating floods from Hurricane Ike.Orange County Judge Carl Thibodeaux s...

Long before her windows started humming and the lanky pine trees began swaying, new mother Claudia Macias had second thoughts about her family's decision to ride out Hurric...

Experts say Hurricane Ike's storm surges are less severe than originally predicted and the worst is probably over.Hydrologist Benton McGee from the U.S. Geological S...

In a wood-paneled basement filled with boxes of nuts, bolts and screws, a college journalism class is under way.Naked wooden beams and ductwork hang overhead. The in...

Investigators are reviewing at least 30 unsolved murder cases for possible links to an unidentified serial killer suspected in at least 11 slayings since 1985.The un...

Nearly 3 million people are without power in the Houston area as Hurricane Ike slams the Texas coast.It will likely be a while before electricity returns. CenterPoin...

A quiet neighborhood on the city's northwest tip was transformed Friday into a scene of incredible devastation when a commuter train carrying hundreds of people home during...

Two brothers accused of running a multistate cocaine ring called the Black Mafia Family have been sent to prison for 30 years.Terry Flenory of Los Angeles and Demetr...

A man who sparked fears of an assassination plot against Barack Obama missed a federal court hearing on a drug charge Friday because he's in the Denver jail on another case...

A 33-year-old woman stole her daughter's identity to attend high school and join the cheerleading squad, according to a criminal complaint filed against the woman.We...

A federal appeals court has rejected a second attempt by a delivery man to claim a piece of Howard Hughes' fortune, a plight first dramatized by the 1980s Academy Award-win...

A woman who slashed a young mother's throat and kidnapped her newborn in rural eastern Missouri, setting off a frantic search that drew national attention, was sentenced Fr...

A federal judge on Friday stopped a Dallas suburb's latest attempt to drive away illegal immigrants, ruling that Farmers Branch cannot enforce a ban on apartment rentals to...

Tensions have flared between Somali workers and officials at a Colorado meatpacking plant over when employees can break for prayer during the Muslim observance of Ramadan.<...

Twenty-two people are riding out Hurricane Ike aboard a crippled freighter in the Gulf of Mexico.But the Coast Guard says the crew is OK Friday after the worst of th...

Prosecutors sought a first-degree murder conviction and could have sent him away for life. Instead, a jury convicted the teacher's husband of reckless homicide, for fatally...

Federal Aviation Administration officials gathered Friday to promote new flight and navigational technologies that reduce fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions while also d...

Mars Petcare US announced a voluntary recall Friday of all dry pet food products produced at its plant in Everson, Pa. between Feb. 18 and July 29, citing potential contami...

Parts of Houston and surrounding areas have been put under a curfew order as Hurricane Ike approaches.Mayor Bill White and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett enacted the ...

It is not the jury of O.J. Simpson's dreams, but neither does it shape up to be his nightmare.The all-white jury that on Monday will begin judging him and a co-defen...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is asking President Bush for a "wide-reaching emergency declaration" in all 88 counties in the line of fire from Hurricane Ike.Perry said a dec...

It's not the best-researched global-warming theory, but it could be the most horrifying to certain fans of college football: Environmentalists said Friday that climate chan...

Four construction workers in northeast Nebraska died in a collapsed trench after one of them fell in and his co-workers tried to rescue him, officials said Friday.Th...

An 18-year-old man was charged Friday with murdering a woman and her three young daughters, then setting fire to their home, and authorities say they consider the man a "pe...

The storm came without a name — without warning — and it shaped the future of weather forecasting.It's known simply as The Great Storm of 1900, and it was the wo...

Scientists accustomed to working alone with deadly pathogens could be forced to buddy up in the laboratory as military officials and civilian contractors review security me...

A Galveston boat and yacht repair warehouse has been destroyed by flames because the streets were too flooded by Hurricane Ike for fire trucks to reach it.Galveston ...

Authorities say tens of thousands have ignored evacuation orders and are staying behind as Hurricane Ike takes aim at the Texas coast.An Associated Press survey show...

Keep your bison off my property or risk having them hunted, software executive Jeff Hawn warned his neighbor outside this old Colorado mining town. In a lawsuit he said the...

The man in charge of the country's nuclear regulatory agency says the United States needs a generation of new scientists, engineers and skilled workers to staff, build and ...

An angry Deltona father whacked his teenage daughter's boyfriend with a metal pipe after finding the boy naked in his daughter's room. Authorities say the father, 45, didn'...

Two gunmen fired on a group of people gathered for a trophy presentation after a neighborhood youth basketball game, killing the league's organizer and a teenager, and woun...

The Connecticut attorney general and communities in four Northeastern states have asked a federal court to halt a new air traffic plan for the region, citing noise, polluti...

At first, even the threat of "certain death" was not enough to persuade Bobby Taylor to flee this small town directly in the path of Hurricane Ike.His wife, Elizabet...

A New York charity says it has turned down a share of a $3 million lottery jackpot because accepting the money could send the wrong message to gambling addicts.The L...

Houston's quiet-spoken mayor is hardly one for bold moves. But there was Bill White, telling Houstonians to ride out Hurricane Ike because it was too late to escape....

The summer's been a bummer for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although he still likes to say being governor of California is the best job he's ever had, Schwarzenegger has faced ne...

A disbarred lawyer who lived three doors down from the Clintons and was down to $300 in his bank account executed his wife of 30 years to collect her nearly $900,000 life i...

Leaders of the largest Haitian community in the U.S. are again pleading to stop their countrymen from being deported to their homeland that has been racked by four deadly s...

There's gold in them thar vaults! But how much? A reader's curiosity about how much of the shiny stuff is stored at Fort Knox inspired one of three questions in this editio...

Police said a man pretending to be a door-to-door vacuum salesman stole $25,000 in jewelry after a widow let him into her Cypress home.Sgt. Tom Bruce said the woman ...

Just thinking about it is enough to rattle your teeth. The Dutch media are enthralled by the trials of two men dubbed the "horror dentists." They were caught separately pra...

When fishing gear is lost off boats, it's not really gone. In webs and rolling clumps, the nets, ropes and traps endure for decades as destructive artifacts of the fishery,...

A man is going to prison for shooting a 7-year-old Detroit girl who took a number of bullets aimed at her mother.Prosecutors say Calvin Tillie was sentenced Friday t...

Pat Bertoletti has eaten 1.75 gallons of ice cream in 8 minutes, 266 pickled jalapenos in 15 minutes and 42 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in 10 minutes, and 21 pounds ...

Boy, how people here wish their busiest vandal would find another way to make his mark. Beginning more than a year ago, some man has been skipping from one business to anot...

A reputed Colombian drug lord more used to a life of luxury than solitary confinement wants out of his cramped maximum security cell in New York City.A lawyer for Ju...

A North Carolina-based convenience store chain is asking customers in 11 states — mostly across the Southeast — to limit gasoline purchases to 10 gallons as Hurricane I...

In a disaster such as an earthquake or terrorist attack, nearly two-thirds of U.S. parents would disregard orders to evacuate and would rush to pick up their kids from scho...

Amid the engines' roar, the Air Force Reserve pilots and navigator worked calmly as their huge plane neared the eyewall of Hurricane Ike.The gray cloud, looming 50,0...

When word surfaced this week that Gov. Brian Schweitzer suggested in a speech this summer that he influenced Montana's 2006 U.S. Senate race to help a fellow Democrat, Schw...

As recently as three years ago, many elderly residents in this part of southeastern North Dakota were forced to order their medications by mail.These days, customers...

A large group of well-meaning officials from several states have a message for you and your family: Go take a hike.They're urging moms and dads to take their kids aw...

A surfer who put his fingers into the mouth of a shark to pry himself free during an attack believes the fish took no further interest in him because it didn't like the tas...

About 40 Chicago police officers rode a bus from Chicago to Des Moines in hopes of persuading an appeals court to free a fellow police officer serving a prison sentence.AP Enterprise: Drugs affect more drinking water, Martha Mendoza

Testing prompted by an Associated Press story that revealed trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies has shown that more Americans are affected by the pr...

The U.S. Navy has followed the other military services by awarding death benefits electronically after a controversy erupted when a grieving father of a dead sailor was mis...

Familiar rituals of grief marked the seventh anniversary of Sept. 11 on Thursday as thousands paid tribute at the attack sites, the presidential candidates laid flowers at ...

Four tree-sitters who ended their occupation of a University of California at Berkeley oak grove this week have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges.The four fa...

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was among hundreds of Muslims attending a suburban Chicago service on Thursday to mourn the death of Imam W.D. Mohammed, the son of N...

A Catholic priest on the University of Illinois campus has been charged with selling cocaine from his church office and rectory.The Reverend Christopher Layden plead...

A 27-year-old Army national guardsman was sentenced Thursday to two years in federal prison for his role in an immigrant smuggling scheme.Pfc. Jose Rodrigo Torres wa...

A Detroit woman pleaded guilty Thursday to setting a New Year's Eve 1999 fire at Michigan State University, an act of eco-terrorism, and also admitted roles in 12 other inc...

A woman who lives near the Smoky Mountains used a musical instrument to scare away two men who broke into her home. The Knoxville News Sentinel quoted a Sevier County Sheri...

Authorities say a 62-year-old man fired a gun and chased his neighbor with a machete after two arguments over watering plants on Tuesday.The Pasco County Sheriff's O...

A businessman said he was so frustrated with the condition of a public bathroom in the western Michigan tourist town of Saugatuck that he cleaned it himself, and billed the...

Hurricane Ike's gargantuan size — not its strength — will likely push an extra large storm surge inland in a region already prone to it, experts said Thursday.Ik...

Authorities who seized scores of illegal African clawed frogs from Nevada residents say they have traced the creatures — banned because of their potential for ecological ...

The Navajo Nation is seeking full control of one of the only national monuments entirely on reservation land, the majestic Canyon de Chelly and its hundreds of ancient rock...

A man suspected of breaking into the home of two California farmworkers, rubbing spices into the face of one man and smacking another with an 8-inch sausage has been set fr...

North Dakota wants assurances that Minnesota officials are closely monitoring cattle and wild deer if the federal government agrees to ease requirements for bovine tubercul...

A former Afghan tribal leader accused of smuggling $50 million worth of heroin into the United States was so influential in his homeland that he formed his own army and tea...

A disgruntled worker at a Boeing plant said he cut electrical wires on a $24 million Chinook military helicopter because he was upset about a job transfer.Matthew Mo...

A New York judge threw out an indictment against five operators of a Florida pharmacy targeted almost two years ago in an investigation of illegal steroid sales over the In...

North Carolina officials say a Mexican court has approved returning a Marine accused of killing a pregnant colleague to the U.S.Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said T...

A man pleaded guilty Thursday to running an organization that authorities said smuggled dozens of illegal immigrants per day through a live bombing range in southeastern Ca...

Investigators say a veteran defense attorney who once represented the mobster immortalized in "Goodfellas" has plotted to murder witnesses in another case.Robert Sim...

A fire broke out early Thursday at an apartment building for the elderly and disabled, forcing firefighters to use a ladder truck to rescue residents from upper floors and ...

Two former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler and trying to cover it up have been denied a request for a new hearing.The 5th U.S. Circuit Cou...

The wave of storms battering the U.S. has plunged the American Red Cross deep into debt as it rushes to prepare for Hurricane Ike, prompting a searching look at how to stab...

At least 46 million Americans are supplied drinking water that has tested positive for trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals, an increase from the 41 million people repor...

Police who videotaped a man having sex with his comatose wife in her nursing home room violated his constitutional rights, an appeals court ruled Thursday.David W. J...

A man acquitted this week on federal charges of abducting two black teenagers slain in 1964 is sick, has no criminal record and should be released from prison immediately, ...

A fluffy little dog named Lexi is being called a hero for helping to rescue an 85-year-old neighbor who collapsed in his Brooklyn apartment.Linda Deutsch concedes th...

A South Carolina judge has delayed sentencing for a man facing a possible death sentence for raping and killing a Clemson University student after his lawyers asked for a m...

If model thin is always in, at least there were fewer protruding collar bones and ribs to be counted at New York Fashion Week.Models were up to sizes 2 and 4 — not...

Seven months ago, Rudy Crew's peers named him the nation's top school superintendent, bolstering a long-standing reputation as an education innovator. Student achievement i...

The killer taunted investigators, scrawling in blood on one dead man's wall: "Victem #4 in 2 weeks. Catch me if u can." He lit candles around the body and laughed when the ...

A judge ruled that a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper reporter can be questioned about unidentified sources he used in a 2004 story about an ethics investigation into a hig...

Call it the time capsule that time forgot.A city committee voted recently to open a time capsule buried in 1958, when the city was celebrating its centennial. The pl...

The Army's top medical officer says commanders are looking to their counterparts in the Air Force and in civilian agencies for ways to cope with an alarming increase in sui...

A sex offender who posed as a 12-year-old boy to enroll in Arizona schools has pleaded guilty to seven criminal charges, two stemming from the charade he pulled for two yea...

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is publishing a ritual blessing for the Quinceanera, the coming-of-age celebration for Hispanic girls on their 15th birthday....

New data from a public health registry that tracks the health effects of 9/11 suggest that as many as 70,000 people may have developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a r...

As New York City's crime rate continues to drop, police officers are using their weapons less, and last year they fired the fewest times since the police department began r...

Arkansas' colleges and universities can admit illegal immigrants, the Arkansas attorney general's office says.Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in an ad...

After a deadly and destructive trip across the Caribbean, Hurricane Ike began to move across the Gulf of Mexico, where it was expected to strengthen before plowing into Tex...

Authorities said the man accused of a shooting rampage that left six people dead in northwest Washington stole the guns used in the attacks as well as a pickup truck involv...

Feeling the pinch of soaring energy costs, and with a projected budget deficit on the horizon, Gov. Chris Gregoire has asked a few hundred state employees to start working ...

Federal regulators trying to contain a fish-killing virus in the Great Lakes region have issued rules for shipping live fish across state lines that some wholesalers say wi...

This seaside gambling resort was counting on a strong August to help it avoid posting a record-breaking second straight year of declining revenues.It didn't get what...

Newspaper editors are struggling to adapt as more and more readers turn away from the printed page and toward the Web, mobile devices and other means to get their news, a l...

One hundred years ago, publisher Walter Williams laid out his vision for the world's first journalism school. Foremost among his ideas: a daily newspaper that would cover t...

The University of Oklahoma wants its main campus to be completely powered by wind by 2013, a plan the school's president calls one of the largest renewable energy commitmen...

Less than two months into the job in the oilfields of West Texas, Brandon Garrett was sliced in half by a motorized spool of steel cable as he and other roughnecks struggle...

The frail and elderly were put aboard buses Wednesday and authorities warned 1 million others to flee inland as Hurricane Ike steamed toward a swath of the Texas coast that...

A judge on Wednesday rejected claims that DNA evidence clears three men convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys in 1993 and denied their requests for a new trial....

A middle school teacher suffered some bruising and a big scratch on his back after he struck a bear while riding his bicycle to school.Jim Litz said he was traveling...

The city plans to turn the stench of its residents' waste into sweet green cash and renewable energy.The San Antonio Water System will sell captured methane gas gene...

Two studies call into question whether many people with arthritis are needlessly undergoing one of the most common operations in America: arthroscopic knee surgery.O...

A construction worker was killed Wednesday when a partially built retail and residential building collapsed in a Richmond suburb, officials said.Emergency crews foun...

Debris piled across medians, drivers passed cautiously under dark traffic lights and at least a few residents camped in front yards to avoid the sweltering heat of houses w...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday proposed scaling back a multibillion-dollar transit hub and abolishing the agency that approved redevelopment plans at ground zero, see...

A lucky cat owes one of its nine lives to a firefighter who revived it with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Al Machado rescued the cat from a burning apartment Tuesday, telli...

Gov. Brian Schweitzer has established himself as the P.T. Barnum of Montana's energy resources, coaxing corporations to tap the state's huge reserves of fossil fuels even a...

The city and the United Nations, which have tussled for years over parking tickets and property taxes, are now squabbling over schoolchildren — specifically, whether it's...

About four out of 10 freshwater fish species in North America are in peril, according to a major study by U.S., Canadian and Mexican scientists.And the number of sub...

A man who says he bought moldy cookies in the King County Jail is suing the county for pain, suffering and emotional distress. Moses Wiggins, 41, said he didn't notice the ...

Heart disease and diabetes caused the sudden death of Imam W.D. Mohammed, the former Nation of Islam leader who abandoned some of its teachings decades ago to embrace mains...

Police in Hunterdon County say two twin brothers attempted to switch their identities during a motor vehicle stop. Readington Township police said a patrolman stopped Julio...

A teenager was arrested for investigation of four counts of murder Wednesday in the killings of a woman and three girls whose bodies were found in a burning house, authorit...

Former President Clinton has been in talks with the directors of a huge college scholarship fund for families of Sept. 11 victims to address complaints that the program has...

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Duke University says former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's son was properly dismissed from the golf team and was never promised a spot on the squad.Andrew Giuliani s...

The National World War II Museum on Wednesday unveiled a Nazi fighter plane rarely exhibited in the U.S., and it will be displayed in a simulated dogfight with its British ...

The ex-wife of former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey said Wednesday she has decided to drop a fraud claim against him, bringing finality to a protracted, bitter and very pub...

Here are ways to protect your joints from osteoarthritis or slow its progression:_Lose weight. Excess weight stresses hips, knees and other joints; every pound lost ...

Real volcanos may take millennia to form, but in Las Vegas they can take just 20 years to look dated.That's what The Mirage hotel-casino concluded before it mounted ...

The publisher of the graduate business school entrance test said Wednesday it has thrown out the scores of 84 prospective students after shutting down a Web site they used ...

Searching for an economic boost and home to perhaps the most compelling story of 9/11, rural Somerset County is trying to pull off a balancing act: Remembering the victims ...

A fifth suspect has been arrested in the slayings of five men believed to be illegal immigrants from Mexico who were beaten, electrocuted and slashed in an alleged drug hit...

Ralph S. Plaisted, an insurance salesman turned explorer who in 1968 led the first expedition that indisputably reached the North Pole over the ice, has died. He was 80.Craig lawyers argue to overturn plea in sex sting, Brian Bakst

Sen. Larry Craig skipped court Wednesday during arguments before an appeals panel that he should be able to take back his guilty plea in an airport men's room sex sting.Another Fossett search winding up in Nevada, Brendan Riley

The biggest search this year for Steve Fossett has ground to a halt with team members leaving a rugged mountain area without finding any sign of the aviator-adventurer who ...

A jail inmate wrestled a gun away from a guard in a hospital emergency room and escaped in a stolen SUV early Wednesday, but crashed hours later during a police chase and t...

In a Sept. 6 story about charges filed against actor Shelley Malil in the stabbing of his former girlfriend, The Associated Press misspelled the last name of the actor's at...

Getting a message from New York to San Francisco these days is as easy as a click of a mouse. But nearly a century ago, sending a missive across the country was an ordeal t...

A federal judge agreed Wednesday to shave two years from former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff's prison sentence for a fraudulent Florida casino boat deal because of his...

Police have arrested a man suspected of brutally attacking a dozing subway passenger with a hammer while other riders did nothing to stop the assault, the city's police com...

A gigantic land deal for a territory larger than the city of Chicago, intended to help restore the dying Everglades, has been delayed as both sides work out details of the ...

A 21-year-old mother of two said Wednesday she survived five days trapped in a wrecked truck at the bottom of a ravine by squeezing water from a leaf and thinking about her...

Authorities in Ohio say a man who was locked out of his apartment tried to climb through a window, got stuck and suffocated.Jack Kasler was found with his legs dangl...

Repeating a favorite line from a Disney movie helped a Florida father and his autistic son survive more than 15 hours treading water in the Atlantic, the man said Wednesday...

A 21-month occupation of an oak grove at the University of California at Berkeley has ended peacefully, but not without some dispute, as the remaining four tree-sitters des...

Diabetics who tightly control their blood sugar — even if only for the first decade after they are diagnosed — have lower risks of heart attack, death and other complic...

A day after telling reporters they were "evil," incoming Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers offered no apologies for her outburst."I meant that yesterday ...

A death row inmate whose lawyers argued a secret romantic relationship between the judge and prosecutor tainted his trial has won a reprieve — but not because of the alle...

Colorado's Supreme Court censured two former prosecutors for failing to turn over information to attorneys for a man who served 10 years in prison on a first-degree murder ...

Talk about a Big Mac attack! Don Gorske says he has eaten 23,000 of the burgers in 36 years.The Fond du Lac man said he hit the 23,000 milestone last month, continui...

Since he started Facebook in college 4 1/2 years ago, Mark Zuckerberg has learned — sometimes painfully — that he can't make significant changes to the popular online h...

The number of immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship has sharply declined in the first half of 2008, compared to the first six months of 2007. A look at application total...

Kent State University is offering financial bonuses to professors if they help student retention numbers and attract more research dollars, an incentive usually given to sc...

Newly built-up sandbars crucial to wildlife in the Grand Canyon have rapidly eroded in the last four months, some shrinking back to the size they were before a costly manma...

Strong grain prices and Montana's oil boom are leading to questions about the future of the state's beet industry and its sugar factories.With the sugar-beet harvest...

Only 2 percent of graduating medical students say they plan to work in primary care internal medicine, raising worries about a looming shortage of the first-stop doctors wh...

A man who tried to send his late wife's body to their native Ecuador for burial is suing American Airlines and a funeral home, claiming her remains were sent to the wrong c...

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 10, the 254th day of 2008. There are 112 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On Sept. 10, 1608, John Smith was electe...

Prosecutors will get to see the marital records of a mystery man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller and who is being investigated in a California couple's disappearance.Ark. boy charged with MySpace threat meant as joke

A teenager in Arkansas has been charged with posting threats on a MySpace page even though he wasn't planning an attack.Police in Fort Smith said Tuesday they obtain...

The union representing state prison guards filed a formal notice Tuesday that it will seek to recall Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an effort his advisers say they are taking ...

A federal oceanographer says a flip-flop in atmospheric conditions is creating a feast for salmon and other sea life off the West Coast, reversing a trend that contributed ...

A dozen valuable paintings including works by Marc Chagall, Diego Rivera and Emil Nolde were stolen from the home of an elderly couple, and police issued an international a...

Imam W.D. Mohammed, who succeeded his father as leader of the Nation of Islam but abandoned its teachings of black supremacy and moved thousands of its followers into mains...

Taxi operators have sued the city over requiring yellow cabs to go green, saying cars that run on a mix of gasoline and electric power can't handle the workout they would g...

A Philadelphia teenager was convicted of first-degree murder Tuesday for killing a 16-year-old boy to steal his dirt bike.The verdict against Eric Smith, 18, carries...

The latest design for the Sept. 11 memorial entrance pavilion has a facade that evokes the World Trade Center's twin towers, and builders still hope the memorial will open ...

As of Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008, at least 4,155 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.Top editor: AP, members can work through disputes, Oskar Garcia

The executive editor of The Associated Press said Tuesday the news cooperative hopes to work through problems with a handful of newspapers who say they may leave the AP as ...

A special lane to speed prescreened pedestrians across the nation's busiest border crossing opened Tuesday, expanding a service that had been available only to motorists co...

A federal judge on Tuesday partially blocked one element of the nation's recently overhauled bankruptcy law, saying that a provision restricting the advice lawyers can give...

A single scrap metal company was responsible for about 70 barges and ships that floated loose in a major New Orleans canal during Hurricane Gustav, with at least a few thre...

Attention, amorous guys: Killarney's an Australian cutie, but woo her with care.The feisty gal once swatted at a beau who got a little close, and gave another poor f...

Some 55 prostate cancer patients were given too-low doses of radiation treatment at the local Veterans Affairs hospital in the past 6 1/2 years, and federal investigators w...

Hurricane Gustav caused an estimated $372 million in damage to Louisiana crops, flattening fields and dumping as many as 20 inches of rain, agriculture officials said Tuesd...

Homeowners already pinched by high food and gas prices have grown increasingly anxious about staying warm this winter.At state assistance offices and at community or...

It's a new era for tipsters as officials announced Tuesday that city hot lines are now able to receive photos and video from computers and cell phones.Callers to the...

Nearly seven years after terrorists took down the World Trade Center's twin towers, police officials have embarked on an ambitious plan to secure the new development that i...

A millionaire convicted of hiring an assassin posing as a flower delivery man to kill his socialite wife asked Georgia's top court for a new trial Tuesday.Attorneys ...

Pierre police are looking for a shoplifting suspect who got away by swimming across a narrow part of the Missouri River. An assistant police chief said officers responded t...

The new Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis is set to open sometime next week.The Minnesota Department of Transportation said Tuesday that Gov. Tim Pawlenty and oth...

CHICAGO (AP — Maybe you CAN blame being fat on your genes. But there's a way to overcome that family history — just get three to four hours of moderate activity a day. ...

Police in Scottsdale say they've arrested a man driving a photo-enforcement van on suspicion of drunken driving. Sgt. Mark Clark said the van owned by Scottsdale-based Redf...

A drifter accused of helping her gang torture an 11-year-old boy was sentenced Tuesday to 37 years in prison.Michaela Clerc, 21, and her gang scalded, whipped and st...

At least one Miami-Dade official thinks it's an embarrassment to have a street named after retired baseball star Jose Canseco.That's why Miami-Dade County Commission...

An escaped kangaroo kept police and firefighters busy after fleeing its owner's home and bounding through a small town near Cologne. The animal was eventually caught in a n...

Nathan Green Gordon, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for rescuing 15 fellow airmen during World War II and later served 20 years as lieutenant governor, has died, a rela...

A 54-year-old man says his obsessive-compulsive disorder drove him to eat 23,000 Big Macs in 36 years. Fifty-four-year-old Don Gorske says he hit the milestone last month, ...

Defense lawyers in the O.J. Simpson kidnapping and armed robbery trial are fighting to seat a racially diverse panel that hasn't prejudged whether the former pro football s...

Deadbeat dads and moms around the country are discovering that their economic stimulus checks from Washington — intended to encourage the purchase of TVs, cars and other ...

A man with four previous drunken driving convictions who was stopped for weaving in and out of traffic on Interstate 40 was ready with an excuse for his poor driving: his p...

The owner and managers of the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant were charged Tuesday with more than 9,000 misdemeanors alleging they hired minors and had children y...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered his intelligence czar to oversee the handling of an international cash scandal last year, a prosecution witness told jurors Tuesday...

Rhode Island's prison system has entered into an agreement with U.S. immigration authorities that allows for the early release of illegal immigrants imprisoned for nonviole...

With just under two weeks until disgraced Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick steps down as part of a plea deal in two criminal cases, his successor is putting his own mark on the posit...

The trial of five men accused of plotting an attack on soldiers at Fort Dix will begin as scheduled on Sept. 29 despite attorneys' requests for a delay, a judge said Tuesda...

The Gulf Coast watched anxiously as Hurricane Ike trudged toward areas still cleaning up after Gustav, with disasters pre-declared in much of eastern Texas and Louisianans ...

A California woman who escaped from a Michigan prison more than 30 years ago and remade her life as a suburban mother pleaded guilty to escape Tuesday after a judge said he...

Former President Bill Clinton has been named the next chairman of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, succeeding former President George H.W. Bush, the center...

An 8-foot-tall mechanical gorilla that was swiped in broad daylight from its longtime location outside a store has turned up several hundred miles away — with an apologet...

A judge in Tennessee is refusing to throw out a first-degree murder charge against a man accused of killing his wife's student lover.A lawyer representing 33-year-ol...

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say the eye of Hurricane Ike has powered ashore in western Cuba's province of Pinal del Rio.The center of the C...

Illinois prison officials say a woman convicted in the drowning deaths of her three children has been released on parole after serving part of a 10-year sentence.Ill...

An island of peace amid the bustle of Logan International Airport was dedicated Tuesday to honor the 147 passengers and crew killed when terrorists flew two planes from her...

The city's transit agency is coming to the defense of subway passengers criticized on national television for not helping an attack victim earlier this month.Surveil...

Nancy and Ricardo Garcia loaded their GMC Yukon with gas cans, clothes, tortillas, beer and the many files they took when they fled ahead of Hurricane Ike.They left ...

A key witness in the O.J. Simpson robbery trial was confronted with contradictions in his testimony Tuesday, including his claim that he didn't try to profit from the casin...

The Federal Aviation Administration says an emergency signal has been detected that appears to be from the plane that disappeared while carrying the Mexican and U.S. heads ...

A former manager in the District of Columbia tax office on Tuesday admitted to cutting dozens of fraudulent property tax refund checks in a scheme that drained more than $4...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has closed one of its stores in the Cleveland area built atop a landfill amid concerns about potentially explosive methane gas.An independent co...

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick refused to answer questions Tuesday about lascivious text messages and an $8.4 million settlement with former police officers, the cornerstones of a ...

The death toll from Hurricane Ike has risen to 47.Authorities said Tuesday six more deaths are being blamed on the storm in the Houston area, bringing the number of ...

An investigation into a scrap metal theft led to the discovery of more than 200 animals at a home, including chinchillas, peacocks, alligators and two baboons living in cra...

Eight stolen scrolls of Hebrew Scriptures have been returned to a New York City synagogue in time for the Rosh Hashana holiday.The Torahs valued at around $500,000 w...

Authorities say a fire swept through a Northern California warehouse, killing a 2-year-old girl and a woman who were sleeping there.Seven people were sleeping in the...

Police are trying to find a woman who apparently drugged a Republican National Convention delegate and robbed him of about $50,000 worth of jewelry, cash and other items in...

Searchers scoured rugged desert Tuesday for a small plane that disappeared while carrying the Mexican and U.S. heads of the International Water and Boundary Commission....

Police say a man who wanted his picture taken next to a moving train suffered "train rash" but no serious injuries when he got too close to the train.Police Sgt. Jef...

A southern Illinois man will probably pay more attention the next time he lights a cigarette near railroad tracks. Authorities said 25-year-old Brandon Robles escaped serio...

If two-ply toilet paper is good, then three-ply tissue must be better. At least that's what toilet-paper researchers in northeastern Wisconsin hope.Yes, there is suc...

A former Georgia state lawmaker has been sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for defrauding his church and for money laundering.Lawyers for former state Rep. Ro...

Authorities have reported a total of 48 deaths in 10 states as Ike moved from Texas northeastward across the U.S. midsection:Texas — 17, including at least five in...

A former federal official accused of accepting bribes to release illegal immigrants pleaded guilty Tuesday to corruption charges.Roy M. Bailey pleaded guilty to cons...

A hedge-fund swindler accused of faking his own death is not yet competent to enter his long-expected guilty plea for skipping out on a 20-year prison term, his attorney sa...

The few hundred holdouts on Texas' ravaged Bolivar Peninsula will be required to leave in the next few days, and officials said Tuesday they are ready to use emergency powe...

Investigators on Tuesday conducted a test to determine when the engineers of two trains were able to see each other in the moments before the head-on crash that killed 25 p...

Wall Street fluctuated Tuesday after the Federal Reserve disappointed some investors by keeping interest rates unchanged, but also sent a signal to the markets that the eco...

The mother of a missing Florida toddler has been released from jail — again.Casey Anthony posted bond Tuesday on charges of petty theft, check forgery and using a ...

Its future in the balance, American International Group huddled Tuesday with Federal Reserve officials to find the cash the huge insurer needs to stay in business and avoid...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg defamed a Georgia sporting goods store when he labeled it one of several "rogue gun dealers" putting firearms on his city's streets, L...

Texas authorities busy trying to clean up after Hurricane Ike have a new problem on their hands: There's a tiger loose.A county official said Tuesday that the animal...

Authorities say the holdouts on Texas' ravaged Bolivar Peninsula will be required to leave in the next few days, and they are prepared to impose martial law if needed to em...

With scientists at odds about the risks of a chemical found in plastic baby bottles, metal cans and other food packaging, the government on Tuesday gave consumers some tips...

More Hurricane Ike relief was on the way for evacuees Tuesday as tens of thousands of people waited for food, water and ice, for the electricity to return to their homes or...

The Detroit City Council says a special election will be held next year to fill the balance of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's term.Kilpatrick leaves office Thursday after ...

Crucial Arctic sea ice this summer shrank to its second lowest level on record, continuing an alarming trend, scientists said Tuesday.The ice covered 1.74 million sq...

Bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical used in consumer goods, was the subject of a federal safety hearing Tuesday where new preliminary research suggested it might be linked to a...

A former congressional aide accused of helping an Iraqi spy agency while Saddam Hussein was in power is mentally unfit for trial, a judge ruled.U.S. District Judge L...

A witness who fell ill during the first day of testimony in the O.J. Simpson armed robbery trial returned to the stand Tuesday morning and was cross-examined about four wor...

Wal-Mart says it has closed one of its stores in the Cleveland area because it is built atop a landfill producing potentially explosive methane gas.A spokeswoman for...

President Bush got a firsthand look Tuesday at the fury that Hurricane Ike unleashed on the Gulf Coast, and was greeted by a virtual ghost town here where it made landfall....

Hurricane Ike destroyed a number of production platforms and damaged pipelines in Gulf of Mexico...

The first major study of health effects in people from a chemical used in plastic baby bottles, food cans and a host of other products links it with possible risks for hear...

A new poll shows Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's popularity dropping, but most voters don't support a prison guard union's attempt to recall him.The Field Poll released...

There can be no quiet goodbye for a slain Hells Angel leader.The funeral of Mark "Papa" Guardado, the 46-year-old president of the San Francisco chapter shot down af...

Stormy weather was expected to persist across portions of the mid-Atlantic and Southeast on Tuesday, while showers and thunderstorms were forecast for the Gulf Coast and so...

California lawmakers early Tuesday attempted to end the longest budget impasse in state history, approving a roughly $145 billion spending plan that relies on accelerated i...

A man accused of impersonating a lawyer in federal courts in at least 10 states has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges — and won't be representing himself at trial....

Amid a federal investigation into whether a commuter train engineer was texting before a deadly collision with another train, the state's top rail safety regulator is seeki...

Meet Chris. He has a nose for trouble.The frisky yellow Labrador retriever is the newest sleuth to join the crime-fighting team in the Chicago office of the federal ...

California lawmakers have ended the longest budget impasse in state history, approving a roughly $145 billion spending plan that relies on accelerated income tax payments r...

Just a few months after near-record flooding across the Midwest, roads in the region were under water again Tuesday and more than 1 million people were without power thanks...

A man charged with murder who fled to his parents' homeland of South Korea and started a new life a decade ago is due to return to Philadelphia in handcuffs.David He...

Lawyers for O.J. Simpson were expecting to take another crack at cross-examining an alleged robbery-kidnapping victim after his first time on the stand was cut short by ill...

Napster Inc., the online music community that rose from a dorm room project to became the scourge of the global recording industry, is being purchased by Best Buy Inc. for ...

With virtually no warning, smoking at 14 of Pennsylvania's state-owned universities has been banned anywhere on campus — even outdoors.The action has sparked prote...

This art is created not by hands, but by paws and claws. Paintings featuring the brush strokes and paw prints of animals such as snow leopards and sea lions from zoos aroun...

Earlier this month, workers dabbed their eyes with tissue as sheets of paper rolled out of two massive milling machines for the last time.After a century of supplyin...

There can be no quiet goodbye for a slain Hells Angel leader.The funeral of Mark "Papa" Guardado, the 46-year-old president of the San Francisco chapter shot down af...

More Hurricane Ike relief was on the way for evacuees Tuesday as tens of thousands of people waited for food, water and ice, for the electricity to return to their homes or...

Corn is taking over wheat acres in much of the nation's heartland.North Dakota farmers are expected to produce more bushels of corn than spring wheat for the second ...

Shell-shocked, hungry and still reeling from the loss of a woman who'd clung to rafters with him against the full fury of Hurricane Ike, Bobby Anderson limped off ravaged B...

State lawmakers on Monday were working toward a compromise that would end California's longest-ever budget stalemate, a proposal that accelerates income tax payments rather...

The state's top rail safety regulator said Monday he would seek an emergency order banning train operators from using cell phones, as federal investigators sought to determ...

The upheaval in the American financial system sent shock waves through the stock market Monday, producing the worst day on Wall Street in seven years as investors digested ...

O.J. Simpson's robbery-kidnapping trial was interrupted Monday when the first witness, a sports memorabilia dealer who has had previous heart attacks, pointed to his chest ...

Police say a 20-year-old woman faces an aggravated assault charge after she bit her boyfriend, broke a picture frame across his face and swung at him with a sword during an...

Midwest residents cleared debris from their yards Monday as crews worked to restore electricity to millions of customers left without power by a weekend of violent storms c...

The following editorial appeared in the Miami Herald on Tuesday, Sept. 16:PAULSON MAKES RIGHT CALL ON LEHMANTo understand how far and how fast mighty Lehman B...

With as many as 15,000 air traffic controllers expected to retire by 2017, the Federal Aviation Administration is ramping up recruitment, hiring and training, even advertis...

The following editorial appeared in the Kansas City Star on Monday, Sept. 15:___Although economic difficulties and political cheap shots have taken center sta...

As a rule, political discourse _ no matter how crude or nonsensical _ has never surprised, much less shocked, me.But over the past few days, with all the important p...

Sarah Palin says we might go to war with Russia over Georgia.I don't really hold her responsible for this astonishing remark. With no foreign-policy experience, the ...

The following editorial appeared in the Phuiladelphia Inquirer on Monday, Sept. 15:___The fellow who writes tax law for the entire country can't even get his ...

Gov. Sarah Palin did about as well on her national security quiz as could have been expected, which is to say she flunked. The world beyond Alaska simply has not grabbed he...

The following editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Monday, Sept. 15:___Republican rock star Sarah Palin's two days of interviews with ABC's Charli...

The following editorial appeared in the Kansas City Star on Saturday, Sept. 13:___Asif Ali Zardari may have been seen by Washington as the least-bad choice as...

HOUSTON _ A peach-colored sun sets in the west. A pale full moon rises in the east, and powerless, the fourth-largest city in the United States descends toward darkness.Show leadership on alternative energy

The following editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Sunday, Sept. 14:___On the campaign trail, John McCain and Barack Obama promise to "do it all" ...

Like hundreds of thousands of people, my folks down in south Louisiana spent more than a week without electricity after Hurricane Gustav barreled through.When New Or...

The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Saturday, Sept. 13:___After promising to help prosecute old murder cases from the civil right...

Bob Woodward's latest book, "The War Within," chronicles the dissension inside the Bush administration as the war in Iraq careens toward chaos.The book is being play...