8 people missing in Colo. wildfire
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- Firefighters encountered a tangle of rattlesnakes, downed power lines and combustible propane tanks Wednesday as authorities looked for eight people missing in a wildfire that has destroyed dozens of homes....
Remnants of Hermine flood Texas, buffet Oklahoma
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- The remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine caused widespread flooding in northern Texas and began buffeting southern Oklahoma on Wednesday, killing at least two people and submerging low-lying pockets of Arlington under several feet of water....
House to vote again on bill to aid 9/11 responders
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House is expected to reconsider a bill this month to provide up to $7.4 billion to workers sickened during cleanup of World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11 attacks, lawmakers from New York said Wednesday....
Accused Army hospital gunman to have mental exam
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) -- A federal judge Wednesday ordered a mental evaluation for an ex-soldier accused of taking hostages at gunpoint at a Georgia military hospital while he demanded psychological treatment....
Chicago mayor race wide open as Daley steps aside
CHICAGO (AP) -- Months of political jockeying began in earnest Wednesday as speculation grew about who would try to succeed Mayor Richard M. Daley as leader of the nation's third-largest city, including one-time aide and current White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel....
Fla. pastor on fringe of US Christian life
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Florida pastor who plans to burn the Quran on the anniversary of 9/11 is rooted in Pentecostal tradition that believes Christians are engaged in a modern-day spiritual battle with evil....
Fla. minister determined to hold 9/11 Quran burn
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- The leader of a small Florida church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy said Wednesday he was determined to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, despite pressure from the White House, religious leaders and others to call it off....
Schwarzenegger continues to reject Prop 8 appeal
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California's governor does not have the legal duty to appeal the recent ruling that overturned the state's same-sex marriage ban, a lawyer for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday....
Ariz. education chief: Feds looking at bias claims
PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona's education chief says the federal government has launched an investigation into whether the state discriminates against teachers who are nonnative English speakers....
Official: 2nd killed in flooding swamping Texas
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- Authorities say flooding from the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine has killed a second person who was swept away from his pickup truck....
Report: Castro says Cuban model doesn't work
HAVANA (AP) -- Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that Cuba's communist economic model doesn't work, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has conspicuously steered clear of local issues since stepping down four years ago....
Obama tells Ohio audience of own family struggles
CLEVELAND (AP) -- President Barack Obama is getting a little personal about the sluggish economy, telling a Cleveland audience about his own family's struggles and hardships....
Australia, N.Zealand top charity index; US 5th
NEW YORK (AP) -- Australia and New Zealand shared first place, and the United States tied for fifth, in a first-of-its kind survey ranking 153 nations on the willingness of their citizens to donate time and money to charity....
Family of slain grad student considers suing Yale
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- A lawyer for relatives of a slain Yale University graduate student says they are considering suing the school over its hiring of the suspect and the way Yale officials looked into her disappearance....
Giddyup! NYC auction to trot out carousel horses
NEW YORK (AP) -- Intricately hand-carved carousel horses, tigers and bears and exquisitely rendered circus posters evoking a bygone era of the fairground as a Disney-esque attraction are going on the auction block....
Obama jousts directly with House minority leader
CLEVELAND (AP) -- President Barack Obama has leveled an unusually direct attack against House Minority Leader John Boehner in the Republican's home state of Ohio....
Gibbs: Emanuel will take time weighing mayoral run
CLEVELAND (AP) -- White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday he has "no doubt" that chief of staff Rahm Emanuel will be weighing his future options now that the race for Chicago mayor is wide open....
LA police quell 2nd protest over fatal shooting
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Demonstrators pelted police for a second night in a poor immigrant neighborhood following the fatal shooting of a Guatemalan day laborer who allegedly threatened people with a knife and then turned the weapon on a responding officer....
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- A Christian minister still plans to burn Qurans on Sept. 11 despite international outcry....
Biologist: Asian carp testing may be misleading
CHICAGO (AP) -- An Italian biologist says a genetic test for the presence of Asian carp in Chicago-area waterways could give misleading results....
Judge keeps Okla. man's stay of execution in place
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A federal judge has declined to lift a stay of execution for an Oklahoma man whose lethal injection was put on hold because the state ran out of one of the drugs used in the procedure....
Accused Somali pirate pleads guilty in DC
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An accused Somali pirate has pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy from a November 2008 attack in the Gulf of Aden on a Danish ship carrying cargo from a U.S. company....
Laura Bush promotes women's literacy
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Former First Lady Laura Bush says that teaching more women around the world to read and write can dramatically improve their lives and those of their children....
Old Farmer's Almanac: Global cooling to continue
DUBLIN, N.H. (AP) -- Most of the country will see a colder-than-usual winter while summer and spring will be relatively cool and dry, according to the time-honored, complex calculations of the "Old Farmer's Almanac."...
FBI investigating bomb hoax on LA-bound plane
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The FBI on Wednesday was trying to determine whether a passenger staged a bomb hoax that prompted a search of a Thai Airways jetliner at Los Angeles International Airport....
Toyota's largest sedan is a comfy cruiser
Toyota's largest sedan sold in America, the Avalon, shows up on some interesting lists. It's one of the 10 "most comfortable cars" in a Kelley Blue Book ranking. At Automotive.com, the Avalon is among the top 10 "cars for seniors," and it's one of the 10 "least expensive to insure" at Insweb.com....
RI officer gets 40 years for rape at substation
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- A police officer in Rhode Island who raped a woman in an empty police substation has been sentenced to 40 years in prison....
AP Interview: Canada may determine crossing's fate
HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- If Canada makes good on its promise to shutter a little-used border post between Montana and Saskatchewan, there may be no choice but to close the U.S. side, even in the middle of an $8.5 million stimulus-funded upgrade, Sen. Jon Tester said Wednesday....
PETA says video shows cat, dog abuse at NC lab
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- An animal-welfare group believes workers at a North Carolina research lab abused dogs, cats and rabbits, and the activists released what they said was undercover video of caretakers handling the animals violently....
Correction: Obit-Loh story
NEW YORK (AP) -- In an Aug. 30 obituary for retired Associated Press reporter Jules Loh, The Associated Press misspelled the last name of his sister. She is Anne "Nan" Bousquet, not Bosquet....
NY man, 90, sentenced in wife's battering death
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- A 90-year-old western New York man has been sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison for battering his wife of nearly 68 years to death with a hammer....
CHP: Murder suspect killed friend during pursuit
RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) -- The California Highway Patrol says a murder suspect who led police on a high-speed chase last week strangled his girlfriend during the pursuit....
Ohio officials: We can't take man's exotic animals
COLUMBIA STATION, Ohio (AP) -- Officials in the Cleveland suburb where a captive bear killed a man say they can't force the bear's owner to give up his exotic animals....
Swastikas scrawled in California neighborhood
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) -- Racist graffiti and swastikas scrawled on garage doors and cars in a Southern California neighborhood are being investigated as a hate crime....
Former NM gov is little known but has big ideas
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) -- Despite two terms as governor of New Mexico and recent visits to 26 states, most Americans have never heard of Gary Johnson....
Accused gunman in hospital standoff due in court
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) -- A former Army soldier accused of taking workers hostage at a Georgia military hospital is scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court in Savannah....
The nation's weather
Tropical Depression Hermine was expected to slowly weaken as it moved farther inland....
Florida pastor has legal right to burn Qurans
MIAMI (AP) -- Florida pastor Terry Jones will undoubtedly offend and infuriate many people around the world if he follows through on a plan to burn Muslim Qurans at his church this weekend....
Imam: NYC Islamic center to include other faiths
NEW YORK (AP) -- The group of Muslims planning to build a 13-story Islamic center and mosque near ground zero appears plagued by divisions that raise questions about the future of the project, with one major investor saying he is prepared to sell some or all of the site if the price is right....
Longtime friend testifies in Islamic charity trial
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- A longtime friend of a man accused of using an Islamic charity to smuggle money to Muslim fighters in Chechnya has testified that defendant Pete Seda wanted to promote peace and help orphans....
WTC steel column installed at ground zero
NEW YORK (AP) -- Officials hoisted a 70-foot piece of World Trade Center steel at ground zero Tuesday and vowed to open the Sept. 11 memorial by next year, although they acknowledged that the ongoing construction at the site would limit where and how the public could visit....
Missile launcher tape at NY synagogue-bomb trial
NEW YORK (AP) -- A videotape shows the alleged mastermind of a plot to bomb New York synagogues and shoot down military planes practicing with a shoulder missile launcher and praying two weeks before the planned attack....
Sect leader Jeffs fights extradition to Texas
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs on Tuesday refused to sign a waiver that would have allowed his extradition to Texas, where he faces bigamy, aggravated sexual assault and assault charges over alleged incidents with underage girls at a church ranch....
UN reports over 500 rapes in eastern Congo
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United Nations reported Tuesday that more than 500 systematic rapes were committed by armed combatants in eastern Congo since late July - more than double the number previously reported - and accepted partial responsibility for not protecting citizens....
Clinton calls plan to burn Quran 'disgraceful act'
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday called a Florida church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks a "disrespectful, disgraceful act."...
Amid deadly attacks, Wyo. landfill draws grizzlies
CLARK, Wyo. (AP) -- From a grizzly bear's perspective, the small landfill in this tiny northwest Wyoming community might smell like a buffet dinner, with dead livestock and meat processing waste dumped in a pit not far from the other trash....
San Francisco reconsidering gun ban in transit ads
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The image of a woman brandishing a gun is gracing more than a dozen San Francisco bus stop shelters after the city suspended a policy banning firearms in advertisements on public transportation....
Holdout unions at Philly newspapers to vote
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Creditors poised to take over Philadelphia's two major newspapers are inching closer to a sale with members of one holdout union voting to approve a contract offer and two others set to vote Sunday....
Obama to address anti-poverty summit and UN
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- U.S. President Barack Obama will travel to New York in late September to address a summit to spur the achievement of U.N. goals to combat poverty and the annual ministerial meeting of the General Assembly....
Calif. skyscraper climber cited for misdemeanors
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A man known as "Spider Dan" who scaled a 58-story San Francisco skyscraper has been cited for public nuisance and trespassing....
3 airline workers charged in cocaine smuggling
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Federal authorities in New Jersey have seized approximately 125 kilograms of cocaine and arrested three current and former airline employees they say conspired to smuggle the drugs into the United States through Newark Liberty International Airport....
NYC mayor defends Fla. pastor right to burn Quran
NEW YORK (AP) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Tuesday that a Florida minister's plan to burn the Muslim holy book on Sept. 11 is "distasteful," but that the minister has a right to do it....
Police: Md. shooting suspect surrenders in Pa.
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) -- Police say a Maryland man accused of firing a high-powered rifle at his ex-girlfriend in a suburban Washington, D.C., apartment complex garage has surrendered to authorities in Pennsylvania....
Police: 81-year-old set off device that killed him
DECATUR, Ala. (AP) -- Police say an 81-year old man died in an explosion he set off intentionally in his third-floor room at an Alabama home for senior citizens....
AP sources: Former FBI man implicated in CIA abuse
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former CIA officer accused of revving an electric drill near the head of an imprisoned terror suspect has returned to U.S. intelligence as a contractor, training CIA operatives after leaving the agency, The Associated Press has learned....
Authorities: Ohio man ignored maggots on sick wife
CINCINNATI (AP) -- A grand jury has indicted an Ohio man in the death of his ailing wife, who was found with rotting bedsores on her body and maggots that apparently had been on her before she died....
Group: Iraqi reporter's killing highlights dangers
NEW YORK (AP) -- The killing of an Iraqi journalist, shot dead by unidentified gunmen Tuesday, highlights the dangers facing reporters in a conflict that has claimed more media workers' lives than any since World War II, a watchdog group said....
Kansas man charged with murdering burned teen
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) -- A 36-year-old factory worker who spent much of his adult life in prison was charged Tuesday with sexually assaulting and murdering a 14-year-old girl whose badly burned body was found behind gravel piles at the asphalt plant where he worked....
Pharmacy heists are up amid popularity of Rx drugs
GLENPOOL, Okla. (AP) -- Less than a couple months after Nick Curtin opened a pharmacy in suburban Tulsa in 2008, the store was burglarized twice in one week. And just last year a masked man robbed him at gunpoint, making off with 1,800 pills....
Police: Calif. drunk driver hits 9, drags toddler
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- Police in California say a drunken driver hit nine people with his SUV and critically injured a 2-year-old girl who was dragged more than 50 feet along a Santa Ana street....
Ill. prosecutors to seek death in frozen baby case
ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) -- Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a woman charged with the murder of a newborn girl whose frozen body was found in a plastic bag on a dead-end road in northern Illinois....
Baby dies as vehicle plunges into S. Calif. river
APPLE VALLEY, Calif. (AP) -- The California Highway Patrol says a 1-year-old boy has drowned after his drunken father drove an off-road vehicle into a river in the San Bernardino County desert....
Runaway Ohio convert gains legal US residency
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A lawyer for a Christian convert who ran away from her parents says the now-18-year-old woman has gained permanent U.S. residency after living in Ohio as an illegal immigrant....
Yellow jackets sting Mass. woman 500-plus times
ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) -- Fire officials say a Massachusetts woman who fell onto a yellow jackets' nest in her yard was stung more than 500 times....
Holloway lawyer dismisses Van der Sloot claims
NEW YORK (AP) -- The lawyer for the mother of an Alabama teen who disappeared in Aruba has dismissed claims by the Dutchman suspected in the case that he extorted money from the parents to get back at them....
Florida inmate loses appeal for victim's truck
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A Florida appellate court has ruled against a death row inmate who was convicted of killing a couple and then petitioned to keep a vintage pickup that belonged to one of the victims....
Boston Dawna, the Batman of Venice Beach, retires
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Hipsters, hustlers, celebrities, thieves, dope peddlers and just about everyone else in gritty, quirky Venice Beach know Boston Dawna. You can't miss the one-woman crime fighter....
Montana plane crash revives 'lap child' debate
HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Federal transportation safety officials are using the crash of an overloaded plane in Montana to revive a debate about whether infants and toddlers should be allowed to travel on the laps of adults....
NY firefighter, manhole worker die; fumes cited
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) -- A New York firefighter who climbed down into a manhole to try to rescue a worker apparently overcome by fumes has died along with the man he tried to save....
Appeals court panel denies stay for Wash. inmate
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a Washington state death row inmate's request for an emergency stay of his execution....
Plane crash on NV street kills 1, injures 3
HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) -- A small plane crashed and burst into flames on a street in a southern Nevada residential neighborhood Monday, killing one person and badly injuring three others, authorities said....
Floating cooler saves man after boat capsizes
PRESQUE ISLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- The U.S. Coast Guard says a floating cooler helped save a man whose boat capsized in Lake Huron in northern Michigan....
Little Rock 9 member Jefferson Thomas dies in Ohio
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Jefferson Thomas was fast and athletic and often played pickup basketball with white students while growing up in Little Rock in the 1950s....
4 killed in SW La.; cops look for dark SUV
LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) -- Southwestern Louisiana authorities are investigating the killings of four people whose bodies were found in a mobile home....
Big Island fire leaves family of 7 without home
PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) -- A Big Island family of seven is without a home after a fire engulfed their single-story house in the Nawawale subdivision of Pahoa....
UNICEF refocuses on poorest of poor children
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. children's agency says it has failed to reach millions of the world's neediest boys and girls in slums and remote countryside and is shifting to a strategy of getting critical health care services to the poorest of the poor....
High waves knock man off pier into Lake Michigan
LUDINGTON, Mich. (AP) -- Police in Michigan have dive teams searching for a man they believe drowned in Lake Michigan after high waves knocked him off a pier in Ludington....
Coyote killed; may have attacked 2 in NYC suburb
RYE BROOK, N.Y. (AP) -- Police have killed a coyote believed to the same animal that attacked a teen and a toddler in two separate incidents within about an hour in a New York City suburb....
Tenn teacher accused of holding teens at gunpoint
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- Police have accused a high school teacher of holding teenagers at gunpoint after he found them ghost-hunting in a Tennessee graveyard....
St. Lucia soccer team honors slain scorer in NY
NEW YORK (AP) -- Members of a St. Lucian soccer team played in remembrance of a slain teammate as they took the field for a final match in a New York City tournament....
Olympia, 2-war naval veteran, battles for survival
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The USS Olympia, a one-of-a-kind steel cruiser that returned home to a hero's welcome after a history-changing victory in the Spanish-American War, is a proud veteran fighting what may be its final battle....
Evangelist preaches against Islam near 9/11 site
NEW YORK (AP) -- An Internet evangelist from Florida has begun holding services near ground zero to preach against Islam as debate continues over plans for a nearby Muslim community center....
6 small earthquakes shake parts of Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- For the second time in less than a week, six small earthquakes have been recorded in a single day in central Oklahoma....
Backyard volunteers helping track firefly numbers
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The yellow-green streaks of fireflies that bring a magical air to summer nights, inspire camp songs and often end up in jars in children's bedrooms may be flickering out in the nation's backyards as suburban sprawl encroaches on their habitats....
Greenest state behind the waste-to-energy race
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Government officials from around the world used to come to this port city to catch a glimpse of the future: Two-story piles of trash would disappear into a furnace and eventually be transformed into electricity to power thousands of homes....
