Evelyn Haas, a prominent philanthropist and widow of Levi Strauss & Co. CEO Walter Haas Jr., has died. She was 92.Haas' death Wednesday was announced by her char...

CBS News chief Sean McManus said Wednesday that it's unfair to criticize Katie Couric's multimillion-dollar salary at a time news division jobs are being cut and that he ex...

Today's Highlight in History:On Feb. 4, 1783, Britain's King George III proclaimed a formal cessation of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War....

A northeastern Pennsylvania woman who marketed "gothic kittens" with ear and neck piercings over the Internet has been convicted of animal cruelty.A Luzerne County j...

A man opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon inside an Illinois farm supply store Wednesday, sending customers and employees bolting for exits and seeking cover before he ...

Motivational speaker James Arthur Ray was arrested Wednesday afternoon on three counts of manslaughter for deaths that happened after a sweat lodge ceremony he led in north...

Republican Scott Brown may be taking over Democrat Edward Kennedy's Senate seat, but not his desk.An aide says Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is claiming the mahogany...

The federal challenge to California's same-sex marriage ban is attracting nationwide attention in the form of "friend of the court" briefs.Groups and individuals sup...

The mayor of Los Angeles has signed an ordinance that will close hundreds of medical marijuana shops and banish the rest to industrial areas.Mayor Antonio Villaraigo...

A woman hid from her boyfriend and family members that she was carrying triplets, then bled to death while delivering the full-term but stillborn babies in her home, offici...

Authorities say a man convicted of killing his grandmother, uncle and a family friend at a Phoenix apartment complex in 2004 has been sentenced to death.Prosecutors ...

Police say a man who opened fire in a western Illinois farm supply store didn't hold hostages before killing himself, but some employees and customers were afraid to leave ...

A judge in Las Vegas has found Michael Jackson's former doctor in default on a nearly $132,000 debt related to office medical equipment and services.Dr. Conrad Murra...

It was the day the families of this rural farm community had long awaited.After nearly two years of pleading for someone to listen to their concerns about an abnorma...

A Butte restaurant was burglarized three times in four days, but the last time, the would-be thieves left empty handed. The first break-in and burglary of Casagranda's rest...

The seventh suspect charged in the alleged gang rape of a teenage girl outside of a California high school's homecoming dance has pleaded not guilty.John Crane Jr. e...

A Wyoming man accused of supplying the heroin and cocaine that killed a young professional bull rider failed to return from a furlough a judge granted him this week to atte...

Tests have shown that the same strain of salmonella that sickened more than 200 people in at least 42 states has been found in black pepper, but it's not clear if it's the ...

A couple was startled when a block of ice that apparently fell from an airplane tore a hole in the roof of their garage and shook their house in a Las Vegas suburb.P...

The Pentagon's move to consider letting gays serve openly is generating lively debate on social media sites and among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who've returned to th...

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is pushing for a vote by all state senators on a proposal to allow domestic partnerships.Richardson said Wednesday he doesn't want th...

Cowboys are the latest victims of Oklahoma's budget woes.For the first time in nearly 70 years, Oklahoma's annual prison rodeo has been canceled — hurting business...

The attorney representing a 27-year-old man charged with setting a fire that killed five people in New York City says he acted heroically during the blaze by helping a 2-ye...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says Florida is "for the old people" and that no one wants to take a vacation in Iowa.The Republican governor on Tuesday told a...

A speeding car crashed through the entrance of a casino and into a bank of slot machines Wednesday in the southern Nevada resort town of Laughlin, killing two patrons and i...

The U.S. military is sending a soldier accused of making a threatening rap song to Kuwait for a court-martial.Specialist Marc A. Hall was being held at Fort Stewart ...

In the three weeks since a catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti, the American public has donated more than $644 million for relief efforts — yet already there's concern that...

A child welfare caseworker visited the home of two young brothers the day before police say their mother stabbed them to death, officials said Wednesday.There was no...

The government presented enough evidence to convict a federal drug agent accused of helping frame 17 people, even without considering the testimony of a corrupt informant, ...

Authorities said a man opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon in a farm supply store on Wednesday, and that he kept hostages as police surrounded the building.There...

A woman who battled the IRS over a tax deduction for the costs of her sex-change operation says she feels like she won a victory for all transgender people.Rhiannon ...

Lawmakers in Washington state have approved several bills sparked in part by the killings last year of six police officers.Among the measures passed by the state Hou...

Scientists have detected glimmers of awareness in some vegetative brain-injury patients and have even communicated with one of them — findings that push the boundaries of...

A Penn State University internal inquiry dismissed three allegations of research improprieties against a leading climate scientist but recommended further investigation int...

Four Philadelphia social workers charged with fraud in a case linked to the starvation death of a disabled teenager defended their work as their trial opened Wednesday, say...

A man armed with a semiautomatic weapon opened fire in a western Illinois farm supply store Wednesday, then holed himself inside as police arrived, authorities and witnesse...

The tower that will be known as 1 World Trade Center has reached the equivalent of the 20th floor.The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Wednesday that t...

A black chicken who spent two months dodging cars, coyotes and captors at a busy Glendale intersection is a sitting duck no more. Berna Arnold and her 8-year-old son said t...

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:Jan. 31The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer on President Obama's State of the Uni...

A friend of Drew Peterson's ex-wife testified Wednesday that she was so afraid of her ex-husband that she installed a deadbolt lock on her bedroom door and slept with a kni...

The donated cantaloupe that arrived at the Chelan County Regional Justice Center looked more like a pumpkin. Jail Administrator Phil Stanley said there was a noticeable cut...

Lawyers for a federal drug agent accused of helping frame 17 people belittled the government's case, saying it is based on "inexplicable" and "inconceivable" testimony....

Workers involved in building and operating New York University's Middle East campus in Abu Dhabi must have protections in areas such as how often they are paid and how many...

The attorney of a jails chaplain charged with trying to smuggle three razor blades and a pair of scissors into a lockup said Wednesday there's "absolutely no reason to beli...

A Jefferson County jury has awarded a former stripper $100,000 in a lawsuit in which she claimed the club that employed her failed to stop her from driving home after her o...

An American Airlines flight from Dallas to Seattle was diverted to Oklahoma City and landed without trouble Wednesday after passengers and crew heard "kind of a bang" and t...

A man charged with killing a Border Patrol agent by running him over with a drug-loaded Hummer escaped to Mexico three months earlier in a Border Patrol vehicle, prosecutor...

Authorities say a gunman is still inside a farm supply store in western Illinois where a shooting occurred, but there are no immediate reports of injuries.Reporters ...

A Tennessee sheriff's deputy arrested on a drunken driving charge wound up in a dog house before he was taken to the big house. The Kingsport Times-News reported the detail...

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper based in South Florida has been arrested on charges of official misconduct, after authorities said he wrote hundreds of fake citations to d...

The tipoff was the sunglasses. A New Yorker faces a $135 traffic fine for using a mannequin as her plus-one in the high-occupancy lane of the Long Island Expressway. An ale...

As family and hundreds of Arizona police officers mourned an Arizona officer who was gunned down during a traffic stop, a court document released Wednesday paints the suspe...

President Barack Obama's aunt, a Kenya native who once cared for his siblings, defied a deportation order in 2004 and became a political liability for her famous nephew, is...

Before she started receiving dialysis treatments at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital, Bineet Kaur was so sick from kidney failure she could hardly walk. The memories of th...

South Carolina's first lady says her wedding was a "leap of faith" because Gov. Mark Sanford, who famously cheated on her with a woman he described as his soul mate, did no...

Buffeted by priest sex abuse lawsuits, Vermont's Catholic church says it will sell its headquarters building and a children's camp to raise money for settlements to alleged...

A judge in Washington has dismissed a lawsuit by members of the nation's oldest black sorority, who sought to remove their president over alleged financial misdeeds....

Amid a hail of gunfire, the Gulf Cartel and its enforcers moved huge bundles of cocaine, marijuana and cash while working their way through a list of men drug bosses wanted...

The largest state Baptist group in the nation wants Christ's message of hope heard in every home in Texas — about 9 million of them — by Easter.That's a challeng...

Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese is planning to sell its Burlington headquarters and a Lake Champlain children's camp to help settle lawsuits by victims of priest sexual ab...

A speeding vehicle crashed through the entrance of a hotel Wednesday in the southern Nevada resort town of Laughlin, killing two patrons and injuring at least eight others ...

A U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist was convicted Wednesday of charges that she tried to kill Americans while detained in Afghanistan in 2008, shouting with raised arm as ju...

A preliminary hearing for a San Francisco man accused of fighting with the crew of a US Airways flight that had to be diverted to Pittsburgh remains in custody so his preli...

Leader of fatal Arizona sweat lodge ceremony arrested on 3 manslaughter charges....

Penn State University says it will proceed with an investigation into a leading climate scientist after an internal inquiry into alleged research misconduct stemming from l...

Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman has collected nearly $2.2 million from donors outside California in her quest to become governor, leaning on an elite roster of exec...

A company accused of refusing to hire banquet servers who are not Chinese has settled two lawsuits filed in Los Angeles by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission....

Police say two casino patrons are dead and six people are hurt after a vehicle crashed through the entrance of a hotel in the southern Nevada resort town of Laughlin.Border fence plagued by glitches, long delays, Jacques Billeaud

An ambitious, $6.7 billion government project to secure nearly the entire Mexican border with a "virtual fence" of cameras, ground sensors and radar is in jeopardy after a ...

The prosecutor in the Cleveland trial of a federal drug agent accused of helping frame 17 people says there's enough evidence to convict even without considering the testim...

A national Muslim group and an atheist organization are condemning comments by Mayor R. Rex Parris that the city is "growing a Christian community."Parris made the r...

Prosecutors in southeastern Colorado said they won't pursue charges against an ex-convict accused of making a threat against an Amtrak train because further investigation r...

A pastor who says he gave 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries permission to move a busload of Haitian children to the Dominican Republic says the group acted "with a good heart."<...

2010 Cadillac SRX FWD Premium CollectionBASE PRICE: $33,330.AS TESTED: $46,015.TYPE: Front-engine, front-wheel drive, five-passenger, luxury, crossover...

Cadillac's smaller sport utility vehicle, the SRX, is finally downsized enough to warrant the "smaller" label, and for 2010 seats just five people. The SRX's V-8 and rear-w...

A Connecticut woman managed to hide from her boyfriend and family members that she was carrying triplets, then bled to death while delivering the full-term but stillborn ba...

Baltimore's scandal-plagued mayor says her administration has much to be proud of.Mayor Sheila Dixon gave a farewell address at Wednesday's Board of Public Works mee...

Prosecutors dropped federal charges Wednesday against one of two men accused in the 1975 slaying of a fellow American Indian Movement activist on a South Dakota reservation...

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by members of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries that claimed an Arkansas state agency infringed upon their religious rights when it ...

Don't ask, don't tell? Ask those who've fought in Iraq or Afghanistan about the Pentagon's move to consider letting gays serve openly, and it's clear that the ranks are sti...

A man whose conviction on terrorism charges in Detroit was thrown out cannot sue the prosecutor for misconduct.A federal appeals court reversed a lower court Wednesd...

A teen accused of raping a woman along a street in Ohio in broad daylight told detectives a day later that he walked up behind her, grabbed her neck and raped her.Th...

Authorities say a former public defender printed $1 million in bogus payroll checks so he could gamble at casinos from Florida to California, sometimes using Web site logos...

A western Pennsylvania defense attorney wants his client's drug conviction dismissed because one of the jurors wasn't a U.S. citizen, which is a requirement of jurors.<...

A San Francisco man claims he was high on a double dose of medical marijuana cookies when he screamed, dropped his pants and attacked crew members on a cross-country flight...

A 26-year-old Connecticut woman and her triplets died after she gave birth at home, and it was not immediately clear why the woman didn't go to a hospital.Police Det...

A 22-year-old woman stabbed her two young sons to death, then calmly held her wrists out to police officers who arrived at her home and said "I killed my babies," authoriti...

A Texas lawmaker has pleaded guilty to participating in a bribery scheme and will resign.The U.S. Attorney's Office in Dallas announced Wednesday that State Rep. Ter...

NASA is predicting good weather for this weekend's space shuttle launch.Endeavour is scheduled to blast off Sunday morning on the last major construction mission at ...

The economy's service sector grew in January for the first time since September while the pace of job losses moderated, a private trade group said Wednesday.The Inst...

The woman accused of placing foreign exchange students in filthy homes in northeastern Pennsylvania has agreed to plead guilty to a federal mail fraud charge.Accordi...

South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford says the final blow to her marriage came when racy e-mails between Gov. Mark Sanford and his mistress were published.She tell...

The mother of a 6-year-old Colorado boy whose mouth was taped shut by a school secretary is suing the school system.An elementary school secretary, Jennifer Carter, ...

A Scottsdale woman who wanted to adopt an Arizona baby missing for more than a month has been released from a Phoenix jail.Tammi Smith was interviewed at Tempe polic...

A Burger King spokeswoman says the fast-food chain is investigating allegations that a white employee in a northwestern Pennsylvania restaurant spat on a black man's food.<...

Police say a San Antonio woman whose two young sons were found dead in their home told officers "I just killed my babies."Police Chief William McManus says the broth...

Michael Jackson's family believes involuntary manslaughter charges against the pop singer's physician would be "just a slap on the wrist," attorney Brian Oxman said Wednesd...

In a Feb. 1 story about South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford's new book, The Associated Press erroneously reported the night her interview with Barbara Walters is to air...

Cleveland fire investigators say they've ruled out an accident as the cause of a fire and explosion that decimated one house and damaged dozens of others.However, au...

The federal government has agreed to pay a $52 million settlement so it will not have to complete the so-called "road-to-nowhere" through North Carolina's mountain wilderne...

A Wisconsin woman who tied up a cheating lover and glued his penis to his stomach said Tuesday that she didn't mean to hurt him and only overreacted because he had tried to...

Mardi Gras falls on a Sunday this year.The city of the Saints is filling up with ex-New Orleanians and others ahead of the Super Bowl, many looking to cast off a leg...

Michael Jackson's physician has been strategizing with his team of defense attorneys and is ready to surrender to authorities if prosecutors file charges, the doctor's atto...

Wet weather was expected to continue in the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday, while another low pressure system was forecast to move into the Southwest from Mexico.A l...

The long legal battle of an al-Qaida-trained terrorist convicted in an attempted bombing on the millennium has taken another turn after an appeals court threw out his sente...

A massive new federal study documents an unprecedented and dramatic decrease in incidents of serious child abuse, especially sexual abuse. Experts hailed the findings as pr...

Punxsutawney Phil might be an expert at shadow spotting, but texting? Not so much.About two hours after the famous groundhog "saw" his shadow and predicted six more ...

When a gang member was released from jail soon after his arrest for selling methamphetamine, friends and associates assumed he had cut a deal with authorities and become a ...

Opening statements were slated Wednesday in the trial of four former social workers in a case linked to the starvation death of a disabled teenager, who weighed just 42 pou...

An Oregon couple who practice faith healing testified they did everything they could for their 16-year-old son before he died, but a jury decided it was not enough, especia...

President Barack Obama's decision to scrap NASA's back-to-the-moon program in favor of private spacecraft created an outrage in places like Huntsville, where jobs depend on...

President Barack Obama is known for having a way with words, but some lawmakers from Nevada wish he would pipe down about trips to Sin City. After sparking a firestorm of c...

Just over a week ago, a friend of a missing Florida lottery winner approached an acquaintance with a chilling request, according to detectives: Dig up the body of the dead ...

An out-of-this world rock has become the center of a down-to-earth dispute over who its rightful owner should be.The tennis ball-sized meteorite plummeted through th...

Finally, there's some good news for the nation's milk producers.For most dairy farmers, the price they received for milk last year was less than what it cost to prod...

A southwestern Connecticut woman and her newborn triplets have been found dead at home after she gave birth there.The Connecticut Post newspaper reports the woman's ...

Charitable contributions to colleges and universities plummeted an average 11.9 percent nationwide in 2009, the steepest drop in at least three decades, according to a new ...

A Southern California man posed as a U.S. marshal to kidnap a distant cousin's wife and falsely deport her to the Philippines, police said Tuesday.Police arrested Gr...