Today is Tuesday, Dec. 15, the 349th day of 2009. There are 16 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On Dec. 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights went in...

Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. is back on the job.A Window Rock judge issued a permanent injunction late Monday against a Tribal Council resolution that placed Shi...

A suburban Denver man believed to be the only consumer to develop "popcorn lung" from regularly eating microwave popcorn and its artificial butter flavoring has settled his...

Authorities allege a south Texas couple put an aborted 7-month-old fetus in a gift box under a Christmas tree after trying to flush the remains down a toilet.Thirty-...

Three Providence, R.I., police detectives have been shot and wounded during a drug raid.Detective Charles Boranian told The Associated Press on Monday night that the...

A man has been convicted of torture and attempted murder for beating and kidnapping a 76-year-old California woman and holding her in a car trunk for 26 hours.Jurors...

A Louisiana high school student was killed after she fell into the path of a departing school bus during a fight with another student.Officials say the Monday aftern...

Two Riverside County men have been found guilty of murdering an 18-year-old girl, putting her body in a 55-gallon drum and leaving it in a field in Southern California....

As of Monday, Dec. 14, 2009, at least 4,370 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.<...

New and dramatic species of coral and sponges have been found in the Pacific during deep sea dives near the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, scientists said Monday.Sub...

Police say a Boston man wanted for drug trafficking tried to conceal his identity by cutting the tips of his fingers to hide the prints. State Police spokesman David Procop...

A federal judge has ruled the New York Police Department must release 2,000 pages of documents related to its surveillance of protesters before the 2004 Republican National...

Scientists say dramatic new species of corals and sponges have been found in the Pacific during deep-sea dives northwest of Hawaii.They were discovered at Papahanaum...

Police arrested a 51-year-old man accused of attacking a relative with a rifle after driving home drunk on a snowmachine. The Tundra Drums reported that Hooper Bay police r...

Zion National Park is establishing a sister relationship with a national park in China.Zion Superintendent Jock Whitworth said the agreement with Danxiashan National...

A decade-long decline in teens' use of pot has stalled and some teen attitudes on how harmful marijuana can be may be softening, according to a federal survey on teen drug ...

A convicted triple murderer has been indicted in the slayings of five Southern California women in the 1980s and '90s.Andrew Urdiales, who's currently on death row i...

New data from satellites show the vast underground pools feeding faucets and irrigation hoses across California are running low, a worrisome trend federal scientists largel...

As a winter storm barreled toward Mount Hood, rescuers raced to find two experienced climbers missing for four days on Oregon's highest peak.A military Black Hawk he...

Missouri acknowledged Monday that it reported inflated numbers of food stamp recipients to the federal government, calling into question millions of dollars of bonuses paid...

Federal officials said Monday they would use $13 million in Great Lakes restoration funds to step up the fight against invasive Asian carp.Lisa Jackson, head of the ...

A conservation group is threatening to go to court if the Obama administration doesn't start making progress on a backlog of endangered species listings.The Center f...

Illinois prison officials say an inmate who took an employee hostage at the Pinckneyville Correctional Center in southern Illinois has been shot and killed.The Illin...

Critics heaped scorn on Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Monday over a secret prison program that allowed hundreds of inmates — some violent offenders — to be released early,...

Salt Lake County authorities say two sheriff's deputies suffered scratches while being dragged up to 75 yards by a vehicle that left a traffic stop.The sheriff's off...

Two Georgia men were each sentenced to more than 10 years in prison Monday for plotting to aid terrorists by sending homemade videos of Washington landmarks overseas and tr...

New data shows that California's two major river basins have lost almost enough water to fill the nation's largest reservoir in just the last six years.NASA scientis...

At least one Molotov cocktail — or something similar — was thrown into a city hall in Ohio, starting a small fire.The fire early Monday set off sprinklers that c...

The North Carolina Court of Appeals on Monday temporarily blocked the release of two convicted murderers sentenced to life in prison under a 1970s law, issuing an order an ...

A group campaigning to put a marijuana legalization measure before California voters said Monday it has enough signatures to qualify for the 2010 ballot.The measure ...

Dennis deLeon, who served as the president of the Latino Commission on AIDS and as the New York City human rights commissioner, has died. He was 61.Latino Commission...

A group campaigning to put a marijuana legalization measure before California voters says it has enough signatures to qualify for the 2010 ballot.Oakland medical mar...

A man accused of shooting to death his girlfriend and two others in a Texas mobile home was upset after the girlfriend allegedly told him about a sexual encounter with the ...

Quentin Patrick will spend at least the next 16 years in prison because the convicted drug dealer, paranoid of being robbed, answered a Halloween knock on his door with a b...

About three dozen Boston students have been sickened by natural gas fumes after a maintenance worker inadvertently opened a natural gas line next to their school's ventilat...

Two Georgia men received more than a decade each in prison on Wednesday for conspiring to support terrorist groups by videotaping U.S. landmarks and sending the videos over...

Prison officials say an inmate is holding an employee hostage at the Pinckneyville Correctional Center in southern Illinois.The Illinois Department of Corrections sa...

Federal officials say they'll use $13 million in Great Lakes restoration funds to step up the fight against invasive Asian carp.Lisa Jackson, head of the Environment...

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that authorities violated the constitutional and privacy rights of suspected illegal immigrants when they used tax returns to try an...

A secular display celebrating the winter solstice and "freethinkers" such as Albert Einstein and Bill Gates can be placed at the state Capitol alongside a traditional Chris...

The number of children killed or injured by falling television sets appears to have risen even as more consumers replace their clunky old TVs with lighter flat screens, stu...

A second Georgia man has been sentenced for conspiring to support terrorist groups by videotaping U.S. landmarks and sending the videos overseas.Syed Haris Ahmed was...

Two Wisconsin women accused of seeking revenge on a cheating lover by gluing his penis to his stomach have reached plea deals.Forty-eight-year-old Therese Ziemann, o...

The North Carolina Court of Appeals on Monday temporarily blocked the release of two convicted murderers sentenced to life in prison under a 1970s law, issuing an order an ...

The gold coins have arrived in much the same manner every year for the past four years: An anonymous donor dropped each one into a Salvation Army kettle somewhere in Fort M...

Armored car robbers, including one toting a shotgun, made off Monday with a $1 million money bag in what police said appeared to be a well-planned daylight heist in the par...

The Bureau of Land Management approved the removal of 2,500 wild horses from the range near Reno on Monday as opposition grows to what would be one of the largest mustang r...

About 300 guests have been moved from a luxury Miami hotel after Legionnaires' disease struck at least three former guests since October. One of them died.Health off...

A Chicago man accused of planning a terrorist attack against a Danish newspaper knew in advance about a plot to attack Mumbai and offered congratulations to the killers aft...

The North Face Apparel Corp. is suing a small suburban St. Louis-area company called The South Butt and the teenager who started it. The lawsuit filed last week in federal ...

Forty-two former University of California, Berkeley students have received their diplomas nearly seven decades after their studies were disrupted when they were sent to int...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says countries cannot solve the problem of climate change without the help of local governments.In a speech planned Tuesday before the U.N...

A judge is saying he will decide by Jan. 15 whether to dismiss a lawsuit by the families of two students slain in the mass shootings at Virginia Tech.The families cl...

Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger has auctioned one of his pilot's caps for $5,800 and will donate the proceeds to three San Francisco Bay area public schools.The s...

A federal prosecutor in Delaware says an Iranian man has been sentenced to five years in prison after secretly pleading guilty in a plot to ship sensitive U.S. military tec...

A 25-year-old man suspected of breaking into an east Texas house is jailed after police found him taking a bath in the house. The incident happened about 3:30 a.m. Sunday i...

A Connecticut Salvation Army chapter got a pleasant surprise when its members were counting change dropped into one of the organization's holiday donation kettles. Members ...

A pilot's inattention and failure to follow safety rules likely caused a commuter plane to plummet from the sky near Buffalo in February, killing 50 people, the airline tol...

Attorneys in North Carolina scrambled Monday to halt the release of two convicted killers serving life sentences.Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand set a 5 p.m. deadli...

The husband of a 28-year-old woman who went missing a week ago without taking her purse or cell phone has retained an attorney.Well-known Salt Lake City defense atto...

About 300 guests have been relocated from a luxury Miami hotel after one guest died and at least two others became sick since October from Legionnaire's disease.Heal...

A military helicopter searched upper elevations of Mount Hood on Monday, as rescuers held onto hope that two experienced climbers would be found alive after a third member ...

One man was killed and another wounded during an early Monday robbery at a downtown Anchorage hotel, police said.Officers arrived at the low-budget Inlet Inn just af...

A 57-year-old fugitive held in Las Vegas in the slaying of his 40-year-old fiancee in Indiana told a judge he'll fight a transfer to face criminal charges.The judge ...

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that Weld County authorities violated the Fourth Amendment and privacy rights of suspected illegal immigrants when they used tax ret...

A Pennsylvania staffing company gamed the nation's visa program by obtaining hundreds of work visas under names culled from a Mexican phonebook and supplying the paperwork ...

Doctors at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in this quiet, bucolic town tucked between coal country and the nation's capital used to go months without treating a female ...

Honolulu police say a man accused of trying to fatally shoot his terminally ill wife in her hospital bed has apparently committed suicide by hanging.Officials say 71...

Police are looking for at least two robbers who escaped with a money bag after a daylight holdup of an armored car guard outside a Las Vegas casino.Detective Ramon D...

About 300 guests have been relocated from a luxury Miami hotel after one guest died and at least two others became sick from a bacteria in the water.Health officials...

A regional airline is blaming the pilot for the commuter plane crash that killed 50 people near Buffalo earlier this year.Colgan Air says in a report submitted this ...

A Georgia man was sentenced to 17 years in prison Monday for conspiring to aid terrorists by sending homemade videos of Washington landmarks overseas and trying to meet wit...

The Colorado Supreme Court says Weld County authorities violated privacy rights of immigrants when sheriff's deputies seized thousands of tax returns to investigate them fo...

Paralyzed by a detective's bullet, a man accused of killing a Seattle police officer on Halloween was wheeled into a courtroom on Monday and pleaded not guilty to charges t...

A gas leak at an oil recycling company forced about 4,000 workers to evacuate nearby office buildings for six hours Monday, sending one person to the hospital, authorities ...

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has suspended a prison program that allowed repeat drunk drivers, drug users and even people convicted of battery and weapons violations to serve le...

A Liberian man testified Monday that he was held naked in a chest-high pit of filth in the jungle, one of several torture victims seeking damages from the son of former Lib...

A teen who pleaded guilty to gang raping a South Florida woman and beating her young son has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.Seventeen-year-old Avion Lawson ple...

A judge is considering whether to dismiss a lawsuit by the families of two students slain in the mass shootings at Virginia Tech.The families claim the school delaye...

Every so often in the Washington Metro subway system, a foot gets caught in an escalator. Usually, the culprit is a shoe lace or a flip-flop. On Monday, it was a bird's tal...

Officials say a gas leak has led about 4,000 people to evacuate an industrial area of Columbus, Ohio.Fire Battalion Chief David Whiting says firefighters were called...

Doctors for former Montana Sen. Conrad Burns have upgraded his condition from critical to serious as he recovers from a stroke he suffered last week.A spokeswoman fo...

Rescuers on Mount Hood who have recovered the body of one climber say "time is critical" in the hunt for his two companions, but all but ruled out a ground search for them ...

During what police say was a 20-year killing spree in Milwaukee, Walter Ellis left his DNA behind all along the way — everywhere but the one place where it might have sav...

Two convicted murderers should be released immediately after good behavior credits shortened life sentences that were already capped under a 1970s law, a judge ruled Monday...

A decade-long decline in the number of teens using pot has apparently stalled, and some teens' attitudes on how harmful marijuana can be may be softening, according to a fe...

An Ohio police chief says it appears items similar to Molotov cocktails were hurled through windows at a city hall, starting a small fire.The fire early Monday set o...

Rescuers on Mount Hood who have recovered the body of one climber say "time is critical" in the hunt for his two companions, after two days of foul weather and avalanche ri...

Students have returned to a New Jersey high school that prosecutors say was the target of a "Columbine-like" plot.Police were on hand Monday morning to reassure stud...

A final hearing on Jenny Sanford's request for a divorce from South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is set for February.Charleston County Family Court records show a hear...

President Barack Obama's chief anti-drug official says marijuana is becoming more popular among U.S. teens and they have cut down on smoking cigarettes, binge drinking and ...

Authorities in Texas say two women and a man were found shot to death inside a mobile home and a man suspected in the killings is in custody.Angelina County Sheriff ...

A NASA spacecraft blasted into space early Monday on a mission to map the whole sky in search of hidden asteroids, comets and other celestial objects.The Wide-Field ...

Students returned Monday to a New Jersey high school that prosecutors say was the target of a "Columbine-like" plot and were greeted by a police presence that was intended ...

The day after Houston voters chose Annise Parker to become the city's first openly gay mayor, she did as she had throughout a contentious, hard-fought campaign: focused on ...

Today is Monday, Dec. 14, the 348th day of 2009. There are 17 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On Dec. 14, 1799, the first president of the ...

A trial is set to begin in Miami in a lawsuit filed by five Liberians who claim they were tortured by the son of former President Charles Taylor.The five men seek mi...

The bidding on eBay topped out at more than $1,000 for a motorized bar stool that an Ohio man rode right into an arrest for drunken driving.The online auction ended ...

Katrina. For most Americans, it needs no qualifiers.Just as we hear the word "Vietnam" and think first of war, someone says "Katrina," and we think, not of a woman, ...

The widely played video clip of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer reprimanding a general for calling her "ma'am" is the gift that keeps on giving for the two Republicans hoping to ch...

During what police say was a 20-year killing spree in Milwaukee, Walter Ellis left his DNA behind all along the way — everywhere but the one place where it might have sav...

A mass of cold air moving south from Canada was forecast to push down temperatures in the central U.S. on Monday, with snow falling across the Great Lakes region and a mix ...

Utah police plan a second interview with the husband of a woman who went missing a week ago without taking her purse or cell phone.Susan Powell, 28, the mother of tw...

Rescuers on Mount Hood who have recovered the body of one climber say "time is critical" in the hunt for his two companions, after two days of foul weather and avalanche ri...

Some Southern lawmakers are seeking billions of dollars in emergency aid for farmers after recent natural disaster declarations in at least 20 states.A farm disaster...

For six years, global consulting firm Accenture PLC featured Tiger Woods in ads designed to highlight the company's claimed attributes of integrity and high performance.Clinics help people represent themselves in court, Greg Risling

Zina Butler didn't know where to turn when county housing officers, sheriff's deputies and her landlord allegedly barged into her subsidized apartment without notice two ye...

Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.'s business practices reveal how the world's biggest seed developer is squeezing competitors, controlling smaller seed companie...