Today is Thursday, Nov. 19, the 323rd day of 2009. There are 42 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln...

A suburban Philadelphia police chief says two teenagers are being held after officers arrested them and found video recordings they made of themselves burglarizing homes.California wildfire 100 percent contained

Firefighters have fully surrounded a 145-acre wildfire in Southern California.Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Greg McKeown says the fire was 100 percent contained...

One of two Chicago men accused of plotting an armed attack on a Danish newspaper may have been involved in planning the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, au...

Colum McCann's "Let the Great World Spin," a novel about daring, luck and mortality in 1970s New York, won the fiction prize Wednesday night at the 60th annual National Boo...

An airline passenger suffered a slight injury while coming down an escape slide when a charter plane made an emergency landing in Kansas after losing an engine.Alleg...

The case of one of four teens who were cited after rapping their order at a McDonald's in Utah appears headed for trial.Police in American Fork, about 30 miles south...

The U.S. Forest Service should allow helicopters to fight fires during darkness, a tactic that could have been used in the critical first hours of the summer's gigantic and...

The Los Angeles County Fire Department says the U.S. Forest Service needs to change policy and allow helicopters to fight fires at night, especially in forests near urban a...

The case of one of four teens who were cited for disorderly conduct after rapping their order at a McDonald's in a Utah city appears headed for trial.A trial to hear...

Of all the adjectives one might use to describe Newsweek's current Sarah Palin cover, "unflattering" probably isn't one of them.But Palin says the cover's posed shot...

The George W. Bush Presidential Center will be a modern brick and limestone building set amid a Texas-inspired landscape including wildflowers and prairies.Former fi...

Officials said an elaborate marijuana growing site was found in an industrial building 25 feet from the back door of the Topanga police station in Los Angeles, and three pe...

A former U.S. Marine Corps recruiter has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Southern California's Riverside County after pleading guilty to child sex charges.Pr...

As of Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009, at least 841 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan i...

Despite multiple attempts to balance California's budget, the state can still expect to confront shortfalls approaching $20 billion during each of the next five years, acco...

As of Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009, at least 4,363 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.Judge: Corps' negligence caused Katrina flooding, Cain Burdeau

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding in Hurricane Katrina, a decision...

College students ditched class, employees skipped work and some huddled in the cold overnight just to make sure they get an orange wristband Wednesday that would let them m...

Chicago police said Wednesday that tests have revealed gunshot residue on the hand of Michael Scott — the strongest evidence yet that the president of the city's school b...

A new judge will take over the case of a 9-year-old eastern Arizona boy who killed his father's roommate after a defense motion for new oversight was granted Wednesday....

A tour bus returning from an Iowa casino ran off a southern Minnesota interstate and rolled over in a ditch Wednesday, killing two people and injuring 21, authorities said....

A convicted killer who volunteered for execution but in recent weeks changed his mind has been put to death in Texas.Thirty-year-old Danielle Simpson received lethal...

State inspectors say an oil spill that sent hundreds of gallons of bunker oil into San Francisco Bay was caused by a fuel tank that overflowed during a morning refueling st...

Why did the Nazis hate the Jews? Why did the Hutus hate the Tutsis?Hate is everywhere, but the fundamental question of why one person can hate another has never been...

An epileptic garbage truck driver in New York City who skipped his anti-seizure medication before crashing his truck and killing a British couple has been sentenced to 20 y...

Federal health experts said Wednesday an updated version of Pfizer's best-selling anti-infection vaccine is safe and effective for infants and toddlers, despite company stu...

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford will face charges he violated state laws, according to an ethics panel ruling Wednesday that came after its three-month investigation into ...

A disbarred lawyer convicted in a terrorism case should report to prison by Thursday after an appeals court upheld her conviction, a judge said Wednesday.U.S. Distri...

Authorities have arrested a fugitive wanted in three San Francisco Bay area slayings after his case was featured on "America's Most Wanted."Twenty-five-year-old Rafa...

Space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday for a weeklong stay, and the astronauts quickly unloaded a huge platform full of spare parts ...

Prosecutors say the owner of a storied New York City bagel business shortchanged the state out of a lot of dough by cheating on taxes.Manhattan District Attorney Rob...

After widespread and prolonged student protests at U.S. universities, sports apparel maker Russell Athletic says it will open a new factory in Honduras and rehire ousted un...

Blessed with a Friday off school, 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante dug two holes in the ground to be used as a grave, authorities said. For the next week, she attended classes...

Senate health bill to cost $849 billion over a decade, cover 94 percent of eligible AmericansWASHINGTON (AP) — The political stakes enormous, Senate Majority Leade...

A tour bus ran off a southern Minnesota interstate and rolled over in a ditch Wednesday. A state official said fatalities were reported but the number of people killed was ...

California regulators adopted the nation's first energy-efficiency standards for televisions Wednesday in hopes of reducing electricity use at a time when millions of Ameri...

An ethics panel says South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford should face a hearing into potential violations of state law found during a probe into his travel and campaign finance...

Phoenix police arrested three Army soldiers after they were pulled over for speeding in a rental car with 680 pounds of marijuana and $10,000 cash inside.Maricopa Co...

Prosecutors say a 38-year-old Oakland man killed his girlfriend's young son, dumped his body in the water, then killed her to stop her from telling anyone.Charles Ma...

A list of witnesses in an upcoming competency hearing for a man charged in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart does not include his estranged wife, even though she has agreed ...

An Arizona prosecutor says his office has filed the first civil complaint against a business under a 22-month-old state law that prohibits employers from knowingly hiring i...

Fatalities were reported after a tour bus ran off a southern Minnesota interstate and rolled over in a ditch Wednesday, but a state official said the number of people kille...

The government's Cash for Clunkers program offered a lot of Americans great deals on new cars. Now, those falling prices have shifted into reverse.Prices for new and...

A former Louisiana congressman who was sentenced to 13 years in prison on bribery charges will be allowed to remain free on bond while he appeals his conviction.Wedn...

A tour bus has crashed and rolled over on Interstate 90 in southern Minnesota, injuring as many as 22 people.Minnesota State Patrol spokeswoman Sgt. Jackie Sticha sa...

A 37-year-old father irate over hearing his 15-year-old son had sexual contact with a 3-year-old girl made the teen strip at gunpoint, marched him to a vacant lot and shot ...

A 2-year-old in north Mississippi has done something few toddlers can: He helped his mother give birth to his brother. Bobbye Favazza told The Commercial Appeal she went in...

A New Hampshire man was charged Wednesday with helping two others come up with an alibi in a home-invasion attack that killed a woman and severely injured her 11-year-old d...

In some versions of Today in History of April 18, The Associated Press erroneously reported in the birthday list the age of actress Mary Birdsong. She is 41, not 48....

A relative says a 37-year-old Detroit man irate after hearing his 15-year-old son had sexual contact with a 3-year-old made the teen strip naked at gunpoint, marched him ou...

Two Miami men cast as role players in a plot to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices have been sentenced to prison.U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard on W...

Financially hobbled University of California moved Wednesday to boost student fees by $2,500 over two years as students staged raucous demonstrations across the state again...

"You get a concussion, they've got to take you out of the game. So if you can hide it and conceal it as much as possible, you pay for it the next day, but you'll be able to...

Police in Marion and postal authorities are investigating the case of a mail carrier who was allegedly found drunk inside a residence while on the job. Police said the post...

A federal judge on Wednesday reduced the prison sentence for a former Ukrainian prime minister convicted in the United States of corruption in his homeland.U.S. Dist...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Mary Cheney has delivered a baby girl.It's the second child for Cheney and her partner of more than 17 years, Heather Po...

NBC newsman Brian Williams said Wednesday he's not sure if Walter Cronkite would have succeeded in the age of cable news, blogs and Twitter."I am convinced that had ...

Data from The Associated Press' interviews about concussions with five players from each of the NFL's 32 teams. A total of 160 players, almost 10 percent of the league, wer...

Dear Kellogg: Leggo my Eggo!Kellogg Co. says there will be a nationwide shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffles until next summer because of interruptions in pro...

Washington Redskins kick returner Rock Cartwright remembers his brain "shaking like a bell" when he was walloped in a game against the New York Giants a few years ago.<...

A man and woman who reported to police that robbers stole their marijuana are now facing charges themselves. The 32-year-old man and 29-year-old woman told police five arme...

Danish Modern furniture. Flat-screen TVs. Free Wi-Fi.You want fries with that?A McDonald's in midtown Manhattan became the first in the U.S. this fall to unde...

In a story Nov. 14, The Associated Press reported that lethal injection is used by Ohio and 35 other states. The story should have made clear that one of the states, Nebras...

Financially hobbled University of California moved Wednesday to boost student fees by 32 percent over two years as students staged raucous demonstrations against the higher...

A wild turkey that's taken up residence at a New Jersey tollbooth and spends its days scooting around 18-wheelers won't have to dodge Thanksgiving traffic. State Fish and W...

A wild turkey that has been playing chicken along the New Jersey Turnpike won't have to dodge Thanksgiving traffic.State Fish and Wildlife officials netted the bird ...

You might call him the Mickey Mouse of video games. He's reminiscent of a doughnut, round and sweet and comforting. He's also a vessel, devoid of a real personality so you ...

A New Mexico public safety official says investigators have found no mechanical malfunctions in a state police helicopter that crashed during a mountain rescue effort.<...

The split over gay clergy within the country's largest Lutheran denomination has prompted a conservative faction to begin forming a new Lutheran church body separate from t...

A woman quietly left $40,000 worth of rare U.S. coins near a Catholic shrine for safekeeping so the Virgin Mary could watch over her life savings while she was out of town,...

An arrest affidavit says a Milford police officer charged with manslaughter for a car crash that killed two teenagers was driving 94 miles per hour and was not on an emerge...

Police in Minnesota have arrested two people in connection with assaults that were videotaped and briefly posted on YouTube.St. Paul police Sgt. Paul Schnell said We...

A police officer in a small Arkansas town used a stun gun on an unruly 10-year-old girl after he said her mother gave him permission to do so. Now the town's mayor is calli...

NBC newsman Brian Williams received the first Walter Cronkite Award for his work in journalism Wednesday since the veteran anchorman's death this summer.Williams was...

Call it udder shock. A South Carolina woman who heard a giant splash in her backyard discovered a 650-pound cow had fallen into her swimming pool. WSPA-TV reports that the ...

A group of black Connecticut firefighters hopes to block promotions for white firefighters who won a discrimination case before the U.S. Supreme Court.The black New ...

Three Marines and a Navy man convicted of aiding the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi man have been ordered removed from the military, the Navy said Wednesday.Navy ...

The company that owns the Maersk Alabama, a freighter targeted by pirates twice in seven months, did not heed a request to rename, repaint or reroute the ship after the fir...

"We know you did it."That's what investigators told Terry Oleson, convinced he was the person who killed four prostitutes and left them face-down in a drainage ditch...

Judge: Army Corps' failure to maintain navigation channel led to massive flooding by Katrina....

A one-time aide who helped bring about the downfall of former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has been sentenced to 45 days on an unrelated theft-in-office charge and other...

Four Camp Pendleton Marines convicted of aiding the kidnapping and killing of an Iraqi man in 2006 have been ordered removed from the military.Navy Secretary Ray Mab...

A former Cleveland bus driver who was on her cell phone when her bus struck and killed a man in a crosswalk has been found guilty of vehicular homicide.However, a ju...

An undercover officer posing as a prostitute in Alabama tried more than once to run off a 13-year-old boy who asked her for sex, but police say the teen insisted and had to...

A basketball-sized chunk of ice crashed through the roof of a family's Colorado home after apparently falling from an airplane passing overhead. Danelle Hagan and her 9-yea...

The charges shook the foundation of the city's construction industry: Prosecutors said concrete strength tests had been faked for ground zero's centerpiece tower, the new Y...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates gathered with mourners in a tiny northeast Tennessee community Wednesday to bury Army Spc. Fred Greene, one of 13 people killed in the massac...

A Missouri grand jury has indicted a 15-year-old on a charge of first-degree murder in the slaying of her 9-year-old neighbor.Alyssa Bustamante is accused of killing...

The crew of a U.S. submarine made dozens of errors before the vessel collided with an American warship in the Persian Gulf, an accident that exposed lax leaders who tolerat...

A CT scan — a kind of super X-ray — provides a faster, cheaper way to diagnose a heart attack when someone goes to the emergency room with chest pains, a new study sugg...

First Lady Michelle Obama received a few gardening tips from students Wednesday as she toured a Virginia elementary school's vegetable garden.Mrs. Obama and Agricult...

Operators of a Catholic shrine in Maryland thought they had been blessed with a big donation this month when a worker found $40,000 worth of rare coins on the grounds. But ...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won't say what his plans are when his term expires next year, but he won't be running for another office."I have never labeled ...

Officials in Virginia say a college student was shot to death while collecting frogs for biology class by a hunter who mistook her and her classmates for deer.A Ferr...

A man who took hostages at one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's New Hampshire presidential campaign offices in 2007 has been released from state prison.Leeland Eisenberg ...

Fallout continues from the summer controversy over the University of Notre Dame awarding an honorary degree to President Barack Obama, who supports abortion rights.T...

The rights of a Guantanamo detainee facing trial in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa were not violated when the military took away his uniformed lawyers, a jud...

A Miami man convicted of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices has been sentenced to six years in federal prison.U.S. District Judge Joan Le...

The Arkansas Court of Appeals has ruled that state child welfare officials properly seized children from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries after a police raid.The ...

2010 BMW 650i ConvertibleBASE PRICE: $85,300.AS TESTED: $86,875.TYPE: Front-engine, rear-wheel drive, 2+2-passenger, luxury, subcompact convertible.2010 BMW 650i convertible is a grand tourer, Ann M. Job

The model year on the BMW 650i is 2010, but this lengthy, smooth-riding, luxury coupe and convertible feel a bit like yesteryear.Theres the old BMW styling, with a b...

The families of three American hikers detained in Iran have filed a petition with the Iranian mission to the United Nations.The petition has 2,500 signatures and was...

Space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday for a weeklong stay, delivering a load of spare parts needed to keep the outpost running for ...

Authorities investigating six family members accused in a series of sexual assaults involving young relatives dating back to the 1980s seized booklets and magazines depicti...

Terverius Black believes in hip-hop gospel so much he sold his first home to get the money needed to start his Christian-themed entertainment company.It was a risky ...

A South Florida lawyer suspected of operating a $1 billion Ponzi scheme is asking for his own disbarment.A Florida Bar committee has approved the disbarment request ...

Hundreds of Sarah Palin fans lined up Wednesday at a Michigan book store to get the chance to meet the former Alaska governor as she kicked off a national tour for her book...

A police officer testified Wednesday that a 15-year-old girl told investigators she killed a 9-year-old neighbor because she wanted to know what it felt like to kill someon...

Karl Rove's memoir has a title, "Courage and Consequence," and a release date — March 9, 2010.Rove, the mastermind of George W. Bush's two successful presidential ...

Space shuttle Atlantis closed in on the International Space Station on Wednesday for a high-flying linkup and supply drop.Astronaut Nicole Stott, a space station res...

South Carolina's State Ethics Commission has begun hearing details on a three-month investigation to decide if there's evidence that Gov. Mark Sanford broke state ethics la...

Police say a man who drove his car into a New Jersey cyclist had been sending a text message about a drug deal.Authorities say 42-year-old Lisa Granert of Cherry Hil...

Investigators probing the kidnapping and death of a 5-year-old North Carolina girl say they can't file more charges until they decide where the crimes occurred.Fayet...

Former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard said he will continue to hold weekly prayer meetings at his home, three years after he was ousted from the church he founded amid a sca...

U.S. military investigators who examined a collision earlier this year between two Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf say the accident was preventable and that some submarine...

Ozark Police Chief Jim Noggle says one of his officers used a Taser on a 10-year-old girl who was combative when the officer tried to get the girl into a patrol car to be t...

Police say a suburban Philadelphia woman lying in bed was struck by a bullet that came through a wall, killing her.Investigators recovered a dozen shell casings from...

Investigators piecing together why and where a 5-year-old North Carolina girl was killed plan to add new charges on top of counts including kidnapping and selling the girl ...

South Carolina's State Ethics Commission is set to decide whether a three-month investigation provides enough evidence that Gov. Mark Sanford broke state laws.The cl...

A tortoise's zookeepers in Cleveland are the ones feeling slow because after more than 50 years, they've discovered "Mary" is actually a male. Officials at the Cleveland Me...

A suburban Philadelphia swim club accused of discrimination last summer after revoking the memberships of mostly black and Hispanic children has filed for bankruptcy.Fort Carson honors 15 troops killed in Afghanistan

Fifteen soldiers from Fort Carson who were killed in Afghanistan last month will be remembered in two memorial services at the post.Army Secretary John McHugh will a...

A somber candlelight vigil marked by both silence and song commemorated the 10th anniversary early Wednesday of a bonfire collapse that killed 12 people at Texas A&M Un...

James ArmstrongBIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Birmingham barber and civil rights foot soldier James Armstrong has died. He was 86.Armstrong died Wednesday. The Bir...

Lying in bed one night in 2007, Peter Criss felt something strange: a small lump on his left breast."I thought, `It's a nodule, I'm a guy, I don't think it's anythin...

Wet weather was forecast for the Eastern U.S. on Wednesday as a low pressure system hovered over the region.The system sitting over the Mid-Mississippi River Valley ...

Not far from the pulsating music and dancing of the high school homecoming, young men were drinking in a dimly-lit courtyard out of sight of chaperones.A friend invi...

Faced with high health insurance costs, a North Carolina brokerage passed the buck on to its employees, a Texas public relations firm switched from group insurance to stipe...

An apology and a guilty plea to federal charges will likely bring the woman who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart the very thing she says she wants — forgiveness from Smart and h...

Malaria. Tuberculosis. Alzheimer's disease. AIDS. Pandemic flu. Genital herpes. Urinary tract infections. Grass allergies. Traveler's diarrhea. You name it, the pharmaceuti...

It was a desperate, ultimately futile battle — machine against nature — and Ocean City kept it up long after the outcome had been decided.As wave after wave pumm...

Space shuttle Atlantis is closing in on the International Space Station.Atlantis will do a pirouette for the station cameras late Wednesday morning, for a final chec...

Two Southern California cities have voted to ban the declawing of cats, joining San Francisco and Santa Monica which recently outlawed the practice.The Beverly Hills...

The National Urban League is teaming with a small-business financial specialist to offer loans to companies unable to get approved by banks.On Deck Capital will prov...