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Thousands of bridges around the U.S. may be one freak accident or mistake away from collapse, even if the spans are deemed structurally sound. The crossings are kept standing by engineering design, not supported with brute strength or redundant protections like their more modern counterparts. Bridge regulators call the more risky spans "fracture critical," meaning that if a single, vital component of the bridge is compromised, it can crumple. Those vulnerable crossing carry millions of drivers...

The collapse of an Interstate highway bridge in northern Washington state is a wake-up call for the entire nation, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board says. Investigators need to find out what happened at the I-5 span 60 miles north of Seattle and if it could be repeated at similar bridges around the country, Debbie Hersman said Saturday. "This is a really significant event and we need to learn from it, not just in Washington but around the country," Hersman said...

Two women died after being swept away by floodwaters after weekend rains deluged numerous roads in San Antonio, forcing more than 235 rescues by emergency workers who aided stranded motorists and homeowners at times using inflatable boats. At least one teenage boy also was reported missing after Saturday's torrential rains, carried away while trying to cross the swollen Cibolo Creek in the San Antonio suburb of Schertz, authorities said. At the height of Saturday's torrential downpours, San Antonio...

Divers equipped with sonar and rescue workers canvassing the woods will resume their search Sunday for the missing pilot of a volunteer Angel Flight that crashed in upstate New York, killing two people, a town official said. The search for the third person aboard the twin-engine plane that crashed Friday evening in Ephratah, about an hour west of Albany, ended unsuccessfully on Saturday. Crews will resume the search Sunday, Town of Ephratah County Board Supervisor Todd Bradt said. Bradt said...

Lizzi Marriott left a message saying she'd be home by midnight. Five weeks into her first semester at the University of New Hampshire, the sophomore planned to attend a Tuesday night lab class that would end at 9 p.m. She wouldn't have to hurry _ she was staying with her aunt and uncle only about a half-hour drive from the campus where she'd transferred to study marine biology. At 8:55 p.m., the 19-year-old sent a text saying she was going to visit a new friend, a co-worker at a department...

A federal judge in the trial of reputed gangster James "Whitey" Bulger has denied a request by his lawyers to order prosecutors to name a confidential informant they hope can help undermine the credibility of two key government witnesses. Bulger's lawyers wanted U.S. District Judge Denise Casper to order prosecutors to turn over the name of the informant mentioned in an FBI report from 2000. They say the informant gave information about former Bulger associates Kevin Weeks and John Martorano that...

The search for the pilot of a volunteer Angel Flight that crashed in upstate New York, killing at least two people, ended unsuccessfully Saturday, a town official said. Town of Ephratah County Board Supervisor Todd Bradt said rescue workers will resume their efforts Sunday to find the third person who was aboard the twin-engine plane that crashed Friday evening in Ephratah, about an hour west of Albany. He said divers would go back into a large pond where much of the small plane has been submerged,...

Torrential rains swamped San Antonio with flash floods on Saturday, leaving at least two people dead as emergency workers rushed to rescue more than 200 residents stranded in cars and homes. "It was pretty crazy," said Gera Hinojosa, a valet parking cars downtown after the storm. "It was pretty unexpected. We hardly got any warning about it." For two women, the storm turned fatal. One became trapped in her car and climbed to the roof before being swept away in floodwaters, said San Antonio Fire...

An Oregon teenager intended to blow up his school in a plot "forged and inspired by the model of the Columbine shootings" and he will be charged with attempted aggravated murder, a prosecutor said late Saturday. Grant Acord, 17, will be charged as an adult and also faces six counts of manufacturing and possessing a destructive device after investigators found six bombs in a secret compartment in his bedroom, said Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson. Acord was taken to a juvenile jail...

A former Penn State assistant football coach who was a key witness in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case is disputing the university's assertion that he was fired as part of a routine changing of the guard under a new head football coach. Former assistant coach Mike McQueary has filed a whistleblower and defamation lawsuit against Penn State alleging that statements made in 2011 by then-university president Graham Spanier after charges were filed in the Sandusky case made McQueary look untruthful....

After surviving a deadly B-52 bomber crash and a night on a frozen mountainside, Gerald Adler, injured and frostbitten, could recall only the red handlebar mustache of his rescuer. For the first time in 50 years, the retired Air Force captain came face-to-face with the mustachioed medic, Eugene Slabinski, who dropped from a helicopter to rescue him and the only other survivor after a night in 5 feet of snow in the wilderness of northern Maine. The two gripped each other in a bear hug Saturday....

Bayern Munich defeated German rival Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in the Champions League final Saturday night, ending four years of frustration for Bayern in Europe's biggest soccer tournament. Arjen Robben ran onto Franck Ribery's backheeled flick in the penalty area and put the ball past goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller in the 89th minute to send Bayern to its first Champions League victory since 2001. Bayern had lost two of the last three finals, including a penalty-kicks defeat to Chelsea last year in...

A highway overpass in southeast Missouri collapsed early Saturday when rail cars slammed into one of the bridge's pillars after a cargo train collision, authorities said. Seven people were injured, though none seriously. The bridge collapsed after a Union Pacific train hit the side of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train at a rail intersection. Derailed rail cars then hit columns supporting the Highway M overpass, causing it to buckle and partially collapse. The National Transportation Safety...

One was an animal lover. Another loved the spotlight. Another was nicknamed "The Wall" because of the force he brought to the soccer field. When a top-of-the-scale EF5 tornado ripped through Moore, Okla., it took with it 24 lives. Seven of them were children at Plaza Towers Elementary school; two were only babies. These are the victims' stories. ___ Gina Stromski, 51 Stromski was the kind of person who was generous to people almost to a fault. She loved her late husband, her pets and Oklahoma...

The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday the bridge collapse in Washington state is a wake-up call for the nation. "This is a really significant event and we need to learn from it, not just in Washington but around the country," Debbie Hersman said after taking a boat ride on the Skagit River below the dramatic scene where a truck bumped against the steel framework, collapsing the bridge and sending two vehicles and three people falling into the chilly...

Saws and sledgehammers joined beer and barbecues _ under covered porches _ as a fixture of the first Memorial Day weekend at the Jersey shore since Superstorm Sandy roared through. Seven months after the devastating storm pummeled large swaths of the shore, the tourists made their way back, though many substituted porch parties for a day at the beach on Saturday due to rain that has lingered since Thursday. Though most shore towns have mounted Herculean efforts to rebuild boardwalks and restore...

Seven tornadoes have swept through their town since they were born, but as new graduates donned caps and gowns to say goodbye to their high schools Saturday, they vowed they wouldn't say goodbye to Moore. "I wouldn't want to be in any other place. It's our roots. Tornadoes are a part of life here," said 18-year-old Brooke Potter, whose current college aspirations take her to two neighboring towns. Saturday's graduations for Westmoore, Southmoore and Moore high schools are another step toward...

Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords urged a group of newly minted college graduates on Saturday to change the world _ starting tomorrow. The former Arizona congresswoman and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, addressed graduates at Bard College. Giffords was among 13 people wounded in a January 2011 shooting outside a Tucson, Ariz., supermarket that left six others dead. The Democrat resigned from Congress a year later. Kelly spoke first, with Giffords offering a brief address and receiving...

A woman has been killed in flooding in the San Antonio area. San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Christian Bove says the woman was trapped in her car, got on the roof and was swept away in floodwaters. He says her body was later found against a fence. Bove says rescue workers are searching for a second person who's missing after being trapped in another car. Bove says about 130 people have been rescued from their homes and cars in the San Antonio area. He says water is up to 4 feet high in...

Authorities on Saturday searched amid rainy and windy conditions for an Iowa teenager who was abducted Monday. It was the sixth day searchers scoured various areas in central Iowa for 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard, who was kidnapped along with a 12-year-old friend from a school bus stop. Police have said Michael Klunder, 42, abducted the girls in Dayton, a small town about 60 miles north of Des Moines, after asking if they wanted to make money mowing lawns. Investigators said he took them to a...

Thousands of bridges around the U.S. may be one freak accident or mistake away from collapse, even if the spans are deemed structurally sound. The crossings are kept standing by engineering design, not supported with brute strength or redundant protections like their more modern counterparts. Bridge regulators call the more risky spans "fracture critical," meaning that if a single, vital component of the bridge is compromised, it can crumple. Those vulnerable crossing carry millions of drivers...

Sara Jane Olson, the Minnesota woman who served seven years in prison for her involvement in high-profile 1970s radicalism, is edging back into public life _ this time voluntarily _ as she and a friend petition the Obama administration to reduce disparities in prison sentences for crack and powder cocaine. Olson returned to Minnesota after her 2009 parole from a California prison, and lives with her husband in the same St. Paul home where she was arrested in 1999. Once known as Kathleen Soliah,...

One patient with a history of substance abuse and suicidal thoughts was left alone in a waiting room inside the Atlanta VA Medical Center, where he obtained drugs from a hospital visitor and later died of an overdose. Another patient wandered the 26-acre campus for hours, picking up his prescriptions from an outpatient pharmacy and injecting himself with testosterone before returning voluntarily to his room. The cases at the Atlanta VA Medical Center are the latest in a string of problems at...

For nearly nine months, the people of this small West Virginia town saw the face of missing 16-year-old honors student Skylar Neese everywhere _ beaming at them from fliers on utility poles, in gas stations, even at the local tattoo parlor. She had been missing since she slipped out of her bedroom window one night last summer, but some in this town of fewer than 2,000 people never believed she had run away. Police chased numerous leads with no luck. The break finally came when one of Neese's...

In a story May 24 about North Dakota flooding, The Associated Press, relying on information from North Dakota's state engineer, erroneously reported that construction work at the Renwick Dam lowered the top of the dam by three feet. Construction left some parts of the dam at the same height and the other parts of the dam were raised by 3.4 feet. A corrected version of the story is below: Evacuated residents of ND city returning home Evacuated residents of flood-threatened northeastern North...

Newport's Cliff Walk, which runs between the Atlantic Ocean and some of the city's most stunning Gilded Age mansions, sustained what has been estimated at up to $8 million in damage during Superstorm Sandy. Some walkways were washed away or caved in. In other areas, huge boulders were moved by the violent surf. Seven months after the storm, about two-thirds of the 3.5-mile trail remains closed and will be off limits during the height of the tourist season while the state works to repair the...

It once was an accepted tactic as old as policing itself and, according to the New York Police Department, a key to the city's dramatic drop in crime: patrol officers stopping young men on the street to see if they're up to no good. But thanks to rising concerns about racial profiling, a lawsuit and a 10-week trial with testimony ending May 20, the tool the NYPD calls stop, question and frisk has been scrutinized like never before. A judge could rule to change the way the department makes the...

They say you should never make a big decision when you're emotional. But what if there's barely a moment to think and a life-or-death choice looming? In those last horrifying minutes before the EF5 tornado struck, there was no time for reflection or regret. Just questions needing answers, right now. Does a pregnant woman go to find her daughter, or protect the life growing inside her? Does a husband risk his life to go back for the family pets? Do you listen to a spouse on the other end of...

A former Texas prosecutor and one-time candidate for Congress was convicted Friday of accepting bribes in exchange for court favors, including an $80,000 payment in a scheme that allowed a convicted murder to escape. Jurors convicted former Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos on racketeering, bribery and extortion charges. They acquitted him on two extortion charges. Villalobos is the highest-profile target to stand trial in an FBI investigation into legal corruption in Cameron...

They were 12 ordinary citizens who didn't oppose the death penalty. But unlike spectators outside the courthouse who followed the case like a daytime soap opera and jumped to demand Jodi Arias' execution, the jurors faced a decision that was wrenching and real, with implications that could haunt them forever. In an interview Friday, jury foreman William Zervakos provided a glimpse into the private deliberations, describing four women and eight men who struggled with the question: How heinous...

A federal judge has ruled that the office of America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff systematically singled out Latinos in its trademark immigration patrols, marking the first finding by a court that the agency racially profiles people. The decision by U.S. District Judge Murray Snow in Phoenix backs up years of allegations from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's critics who say his officers violate the constitutional rights of Latinos in relying on race in their immigration enforcement....

"Obama said that there would be more limits on targeted killings, a step in the right direction. But a mere promise that the U.S. will work within established guidelines that remain secret provides little confidence that the U.S. is complying with international law." _ Kenneth Roth, executive director at Human Rights Watch, on the president's new policy guidelines that he says will restrict how and when the U.S. can launch targeted drone strikes. ___ "For too long the sheriff has been victimizing...

A small airplane operating as a volunteer Angel Flight crashed in upstate New York on Friday evening, killing at least two people, authorities said. Fulton County Sheriff Thomas Lorey said the flight's two passengers were found dead and investigators are searching for the pilot, who is missing. Officials did not immediately identify the passengers or pilot. The Piper PA 34 airplane originated in Massachusetts and crashed about a half-mile west of Caroga, N.Y., just after 5 p.m. Friday, Federal...

A former Texas prosecutor and one-time candidate for Congress was convicted Friday of accepting bribes in exchange for court favors, including an $80,000 payment in a scheme that allowed a convicted murder to escape. Jurors convicted former Cameron County District Attorney Armanda Villalobos on racketeering, bribery and extortion charges. They acquitted him on two extortion charges. Villalobos is the highest-profile target to stand trial in an FBI investigation into legal corruption in Cameron...

The trucker was hauling drilling equipment when his load bumped against the steel framework over an Interstate 5 bridge. He looked in his rearview mirror and watched in horror as the span collapsed into the water behind him. Two vehicles fell into the icy Skagit River. Amazingly, nobody was killed. The three people who fell into the water escaped with only minor injuries. Officials are trying to find out whether the spectacular collapse of a bridge on one of the West's most important...

A federal judge ruled Friday that the office of America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff systematically singled out Latinos in its trademark immigration patrols, marking the first finding by a court that the agency racially profiles people. The decision by U.S. District Judge Murray Snow in Phoenix backs up years of allegations from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's critics who say his officers violate the constitutional rights of Latinos in relying on race in their immigration enforcement....

Haynes Johnson, a pioneering Washington journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the civil rights movement and migrated from newspapers to television, books and teaching, died Friday. He was 81. The Washington Post reported he died at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md. In a statement to the Post newsroom, Managing Editor Kevin Merida said Johnson died of a heart attack. Johnson was awarded a Pulitzer in 1966 for national reporting on the civil rights struggle in Selma, Ala., while...

After their 2-year-old son died of untreated pneumonia in 2009, faith-healing advocates Herbert and Catherine Schaible promised a judge they would not let another sick child go without medical care. But now they've lost an 8-month-old to what a prosecutor called "eerily similar" circumstances. And instead of another involuntary manslaughter charge, they're now charged with third-degree murder. "We believe in divine healing, that Jesus shed blood for our healing and that he died on the cross...

Playful sea lions and trusty penguins are welcoming visitors back to the New York Aquarium for the first time since the Coney Island marine haven was damaged by Superstorm Sandy. The Wildlife Conservation Society's shorefront aquarium will partially reopen on Saturday. Visitors will be able to peer down into pools containing walruses, harbor seals and other mammals. Sea lions will perform in the renovated aquatheater. And there are large tanks containing fish and other sea life, native to everywhere...

The people of the Oklahoma town where a deadly tornado struck could use just about everything _ cleaning supplies, food, water, shelter. Thirteen-year-old Halle Carr thought residents of her hometown could also use a hug after the twister Monday that killed 24 people in Moore. Halle has been standing on a corner with a white sign that reads: "Need a hug? I am here!" And people are taking her up on the offer. On Friday, people in work trucks, cars and vans loaded with belongings rolled down their...

Three men accused of fatally stabbing five people at a Denver bar that authorities say was set on fire to cover up the killings have pleaded not guilty. Dexter Lewis and brothers Joseph and Lynell Hill each face multiple counts, including first-degree murder, felony murder, robbery and arson stemming from the attack last October. They pleaded not guilty Friday. Prosecutors have until July 26 to decide whether to seek the death penalty. Investigators allege the men went to Fero's Bar & Grill...

The engineer of the commuter train that derailed last week in Connecticut observed an "unusual condition" on the track before the wreck, federal officials said Friday without explaining what the condition was, though they did say repair work was done last month in the area of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board has previously ruled out foul play but it has not yet determined a cause of the May 17 crash that injured more than 70 people and disrupted service for days on the railroad...

Haynes Johnson, a pioneering Washington journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the civil rights movements and migrated from newspapers to television, books and teaching, died Friday. He was 81. The Washington Post reported he died at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md. In a statement to the Post newsroom, Managing Editor Kevin Merida said Johnson died of a heart attack. Johnson was awarded a Pulitzer in 1966 for national reporting on the civil rights struggle in Selma, Ala.,...

A man who wears thong underwear and a cape while riding his scooter through Wisconsin's capital city may be a strange sight. But police say he isn't breaking any laws. Earlier this month, staff at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Madison called authorities after the man rode by in his unmentionables while students were walking to a bus. Police spokesman Joel DeSpain tells the Wisconsin State Journal ( http://bit.ly/12BOaeP ) that a sergeant had a chat with the person police call Thong Cape...

A baby gorilla has been born to first-time parents at an Ohio zoo. The healthy 5-pound male gorilla arrived Thursday at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, joining 16 other gorillas there. It's the first offspring for mother Kambera (kam-BEHR'-uh), who has displayed a lack of maternal skills. Animal care experts are raising the baby in an environment that provides around-the-clock neonatal care. They stay close to the mother, with the hope of reuniting the pair. The father is Oliver, who is deaf...

Key figures in a lawsuit that alleges that an Arizona sheriff's office has racially profiled Latinos in its immigration patrols. A judge ruled Friday that Arpaio's office systematically racially profiles Latinos: ARPAIO: Sheriff Joe Arpaio has aggressively pursued local immigration enforcement. The sheriff has been accused of launching some immigration patrols based on letters from people who complained about people with dark skin congregating in a given area or speaking Spanish but never reporting...

A high school student whose class project included a soldier memorial display with a replica AK-47 was carrying it to his mom in the parking lot Friday around the time another student and a teacher said they saw someone outside with what looked like a rifle, police said. Their report of a possible gunman near campus drew armed officers and worried parents to Thornton High School, as several students hunkered down in classrooms and closets. Other students left the school in single file, holding...

They were 12 ordinary citizens who didn't oppose the death penalty. But unlike spectators outside the courthouse who followed the case like a daytime soap opera and jumped to demand Jodi Arias' execution, the jurors faced a decision that was wrenching and real, with implications that could haunt them forever. In an interview Friday, jury foreman William Zervakos provided a glimpse into the private deliberations, describing four women and eight men who struggled with the question: How heinous...

The ex-girlfriend of a man suspected of kidnapping two Iowa girls this week worried that he would harm her and her family before his impending release from prison in 2011, citing prior sexual and physical abuse and threats, according to court records released Friday. The woman once lived with Michael J. Klunder, who police believe abducted 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard and her 12-year-old friend Monday as they walked home from school. Klunder committed suicide after the younger girl escaped, but...

Teachers and students at Plaza Towers Elementary School hunkered down against the storm just as they had been taught in countless tornado drills, their principal said Friday, recounting how she walked the halls until the twister was on the doorstep, then announced on the intercom, "It's here." In a pause-filled recollection that left many weeping, Amy Simpson said at a news conference that her teachers emerged battered after doing what they could to save every child in the Oklahoma school....

Authorities are scaling back their search for a missing Iowa teenager abducted from a rural school bus stop this week. The state Department of Public Safety says trained law enforcement will narrow their search around Dayton on Saturday for 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard. Authorities say they're focusing on terrain that's difficult to navigate and requires specialized skills and equipment, so citizen volunteers are not needed. Residents are encouraged to check their rural properties for anything...

A 34-year-old man accused of killing five members of a central Illinois family with a tire iron took the witness stand Friday, wiping away tears as he painted a horrifying picture of the murder scene. Christopher Harris also insisted it wasn't him, but one of the children, who slaughtered the family at their home on a night four years ago in the tiny farming community of Beason. Harris is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Rick Gee, 46, and Ruth Gee, 39, and three of their children;...

Gun owners could carry concealed weapons in Illinois, the last state in the nation to prohibit it, under legislation that swept through the House Friday with the backing of the powerful Democratic speaker from Chicago, a city torn by violence despite what critics claim are the nation's toughest firearms restrictions. The historic 85-30 vote would allow the carrying of concealed guns, a legislative task compelled by a federal appeals court ruling and precipitated by House Speaker Michael Madigan's...

Eighteen people were taken to the hospital Friday, at least two in serious condition, after they were hurt in a crash between a hotel shuttle bus and a tractor-trailer near Atlanta's airport, officials said. At about 10 a.m. College Park police received calls about the crash on the road that loops around the world's busiest airport. It appeared the shuttle struck the side of a tractor-trailer that was attempting a U-turn on the divided road, Sgt. Keith Stanley said. The front of the bus was badly...

Bryce Kenning saw the void before him in an explosion of dust, and there was nothing he could do. "It was like time was frozen _ like a roller coaster where you're not attached to the tracks," he said Friday. "It's something you never think you will ever experience in a lifetime _ driving off a straight cliff." Kenning, of Mount Vernon, was headed north to a pick-up hockey game in Bellingham on Thursday evening when the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River crumpled and fell. The 20-year-old...

A regional garbage collection agency has tossed out plans to build a mega-landfill for Los Angeles' trash less than two miles from Joshua Tree National Park in the remote Southern California desert. Increased recycling and new waste treatment technologies have reduced the need to open the 4,000-acre landfill on former mining land in Eagle Mountain, David Rothbart, a supervising engineer with the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, said Friday. It had been opposed in court for more than...

A Utah Army veteran was found hanging dead Friday in his jail cell as he awaited trial on charges of killing a police officer and wounding five others during a raid that netted 13 pot plants and sparked a fierce debate about what happened that night. With a trial no longer a possibility, authorities strongly refuted the previous claims of Matthew David Stewart that he didn't know who was breaking into his home. Stewart's father, Michael Stewart, has insisted his son was only defending himself...

In the wind-swept prairie called Tornado Alley, the scene is eerily familiar: Homes smashed to splinters. Trees and telephone poles snapped like twigs. Piles of bricks, overturned cars and dazed survivors sifting through rubble in search of a precious photo or heirloom. A town in ruins. On Monday, it was Moore, Okla. Two years ago, it was Joplin, Mo. There's a pattern to the aftermath of these deadly disasters: Clean-up. A steely determination. Vows to rebuild. And urgent questions about what...

Sabrina Mitchell is used to looking for silver linings. As a 5-year-old, she searched for them after the May 3, 1999, tornado destroyed her family's home in Moore. She's trying to find them again now, after Monday's tornado destroyed the family's home, which had been built on the same spot. The EF5 twister killed 24 people, injured at least 377 and left behind a bleak landscape of empty lots wiped clean of the structures atop. When Mitchell's home was destroyed in 1999, the storm swept the property...

The Boy Scouts of America will get no reprieve from controversy after a contentious vote to accept openly gay boys as Scouts. Dismayed conservatives are already looking at alternative youth groups as they predict a mass exodus from the BSA. Gay-rights supporters vowed Friday to maintain pressure on the Scouts to end the still-in-place ban on gay adults serving as leaders. "They're not on our good list yet," said Paul Guequierre of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights group. He said...

A southwestern Illinois judge already under scrutiny after a colleague died of a cocaine overdose at his family's hunting lodge was charged Friday with possession of heroin and guns. Wearing cutoff shorts and a T-shirt with the slogan "Bad is my middle name," St. Clair County Circuit Judge Michael Cook pleaded not guilty to federal counts of possessing heroin and having a firearm while being an illegal user of controlled substances. The criminal complaint alleges those offenses took place Thursday,...

A former police officer, accused of killing two people during a robbery at an east Tennessee pharmacy, gunned down his victims after they complied with his demands for painkillers, a prosecutor said Friday. The victims had just given Jason Bryan Holt several bottles of oxycodone when he began the killing at the Down Home Pharmacy in the community of Bean Station, said Grainger County District Attorney Jimmy Dunn. "There was no confrontation," Dunn said. "He just shot them." Holt, a 37-year-old...

Without even thinking, Joe Ortner rattles off a list of items on his family's dairy farm that could kill you: 1,000 gallons of diesel, 500 gallons of gas, cleaning chemicals in the milking parlor, oil and lubricant for repair work and a 6-foot-deep manure pond in which you could drown. He pauses and adds three bulls to the list. Agriculture remains one of the nation's most dangerous professions; accidents on farms kill hundreds and injure thousands each year. While the deadly blast at a Texas...

The lawyer for a Maine man charged with killing a 15-year-old girl wants a judge to keep affidavits and search warrants with details about the case under seal. Stephen Smith, lawyer for Kyle Dube (DOO'-bee), filed the motion Friday, a day after news organizations challenged a judge's decision to impound a state police affidavit. The document explains why the Orono (OHR'-uh-noh) man was charged this week in the death of Nichole Cable. Smith says he'd like to keep the items sealed until jury selection...

As authorities suggested residents of a northeastern North Dakota city flee their homes earlier this week in case a rain-swollen dam burst, Daryl Thompson hurriedly prepared meals at his Main Street cafe for the emergency workers who would stay behind. "It was scary," Thompson said. "But we fed the volunteer firemen before we left." The city of Cavalier, about 80 miles north of Grand Forks, mostly cleared out Tuesday after five days of steady rain raised the level of the lake behind Renwick...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ Syria said it targeted an Israeli vehicle that crossed a ceasefire line into its territory earlier this week because it was heading toward a village with a large rebel presence. In a letter to the U.N. Security Council circulated Friday, Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said his country exercised its right to self-defense and would respond immediately to any other violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Syria accused Israel of violating the U.N. Charter...

Craft breweries from around the country are toasting the troops with a beer aged with a unique ingredient that symbolizes America's pastime _ baseball bats. Nine different brewers collaborated to create Homefront IPA, all using the same recipe, complete with orange peel and unfinished maple Louisville Sluggers. Toward the end of the fermentation process the beer soaks in a tank with the maple bats. All proceeds from the beer, which is being released for Memorial Day, will be donated to Operation...

During a hurricane, storm surge is one of the greatest threats to life and land, yet many people don't understand the dire warnings from forecasters to get out of its way. So this season, they hope to offer easy-to-understand, color-coded maps and change the way they talk to the public. Simply put, storm surge is the abnormal rise of sea water. Predicting it is far more complicated, and so is explaining it, as forecasters at the National Hurricane Center discovered, again, during a review of Superstorm...

In a story May 22, The Associated Press reported 72 percent of Harvard University's student body voted in favor of the school's endowment divesting from fossil fuel companies. The story should have made clear that the vote was held only among undergraduates and that of the ballots cast, 72 percent were in favor of divestment.

This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, May 26: Fighting for control of the lower Mississippi River. Union forces acted this week in 1863 in a coordinated onslaught against Confederates holding Port Hudson, La., bidding to dislodge them while Ulysses S. Grant ratcheted up his offensive against the heavily fortified city of Vicksburg, further up the Mississippi River. The Union on May 27, 1863, unleashed assaults on Confederate fortifications at Port Hudson, only to be pushed back. Federal...

A federal judge has rescheduled a probable cause hearing for surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR' tsahr-NEYE'-ehv). U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler on Thursday scheduled the hearing for July 10. Bowler earlier this week granted a joint request from prosecutors and defense attorneys to postpone the hearing originally scheduled for May 30 until July 2. The lawyers say they need more time to obtain and review evidence. The bombings near the finish line of...

After living nearly 20 years in their one-story brick home, Sherry and Larry Wells finally won the lottery _ for a state rebate on a home storm shelter, that is. A contractor finished installing the concrete bunker beneath the slab of their garage in early May. About three weeks later, the shelter saved their lives when a tornado that killed 24 people tore through their neighborhood. Should residential storm shelters be mandatory in the midst of Tornado Alley? Absolutely, says Sherry Wells,...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1. WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO GO DOWN WITH THE I-5 BRIDGE IN WASHINGTON STATE All Dan Sligh saw was a "big puff of dust" and then the water as a section over the Skagit River collapsed. "I hit the brakes and we went off .. you hold on as tight as you can." 2. WHAT OBAMA SAYS ABOUT HIS COUNTERTERRORISM POLICY President Barack Obama defends the use of drones and hints at giving law enforcement more...

A 15-year-old boy is in custody after authorities investigating the stabbing deaths of his younger adopted brothers found him miles away with traces of blood on him, officials said. He was arrested Thursday in the deaths of the boys, ages 4 and 10, at the family home in a Utah subdivision of new houses and tidy lawns, police said. "He spoke bluntly with our investigators," said Davis County Sheriff Todd Richardson. County Attorney Troy Rawlings said he wasn't prepared to file charges. He was...

An elementary school principal has inspired the University of Wisconsin-Madison to create a new wheelchair lift that could help make more places wheelchair accessible. The invention process began three years ago when the principal at Emerson Elementary School in Madison, Karen Kepler, told a school donor her biggest wish was for her building to become accessible to everyone. All four entrances had stairs. The donor went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for help. Engineering professor...

"We have a ton of people now. It's just like buying a refrigerator or a stove for your house. You put in a storm shelter." _ Moore, Okla. community development director Elizabeth Jones. ___ "I was thinking that today could be my last day as a Boy Scout. Obviously, for gay Scouts like me, this vote is life-changing." _ Pascal Tessier, a 16-year-old Boy Scout from Maryland, reacts to Boy Scouts of America's decision to accept openly gay youth as scouts. ___ "He was a hero to us. He will always...

One loved unicorns. Another, nicknamed "ladybug," sang country songs. Another dreamed of one day owning a pontoon boat. When a top-of-the-scale EF5 tornado ripped through Moore, Okla., it took with it 24 lives. Seven of them were children at Plaza Towers Elementary school; two were only babies. These are the victims' stories. ___ JaNae Hornsby, 9 One of seven children killed inside the Plaza Towers Elementary School, JaNae loved to draw and sing. She loved being the center of attention, her...

An Interstate 5 bridge over a river north of Seattle collapsed Thursday evening, dumping several vehicles into the water as authorities investigated the cause of the collapse that cut off the state's main north-south thruway and sent three people to the hospital. Authorities said no one was killed and the extent of the injuries of the three people rescued from the water remained unclear, said Marcus Deyerin, a spokesman for the Northwest Washington Incident Management Team. A search of the...

A magnitude 5.7 earthquake hit Northern California Thursday night that was felt nearly 150 miles away, but there were no early reports of damage. The temblor struck at 8:47 p.m. and was centered near Greenville, about 25 miles southwest of Susanville in far northeastern California, said Rafael Abreu, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Center in Golden, Colo. Abreu said there were no reports of damage in the early field reports. KCRA-TV in Sacramento reported...

Jurors who spent five months determining Jodi Arias' fate couldn't decide whether she should get life in prison or die for murdering her boyfriend, sending prosecutors back to the drawing board to rehash the shocking case of sex, lies and violence to another 12 people. Judge Sherry Stephens gave a heavy sigh as she announced a mistrial in the penalty phase of the case Thursday and scheduled a July 18 retrial. "This was not your typical trial," she told jurors. "You were asked to perform some...

At one bar, a mixture that included rubbing alcohol and caramel coloring was sold as scotch. In another, premium liquor bottles were refilled with water _ and apparently not even clean water at that. State officials provided those new details Thursday on raids they conducted a day earlier as part of a yearlong investigation dubbed Operation Swill. Twenty-nine New Jersey bars and restaurants, including 13 TGI Fridays, were accused of substituting cheap booze _ or worse _ for the good stuff while...

An East Tennessee pharmacy owner and a customer have been killed during a robbery that left a pharmacy tech and another employee wounded. District Attorney Jimmy Dunn said a former police officer in Bean Station was taken into custody shortly after the shooting and robbery Thursday at the Down Home Pharmacy. Dunn said the former officer, 37-year-old Jason B. Holt, took "a large quantity of pills" during the late-morning robbery. The Knoxville News Sentinel ( http://bit.ly/10TXMDs ) reports...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday: 1. HOW OBAMA IS DEFENDING DRONE STRIKES The attacks are legal, effective and necessary as threats evolve, he says in a speech outlining America's post-war counterterror policies. 2. BOY SCOUTS END BAN ON GAY YOUTHS The decision is unlikely to end a bitter debate over the Scouts' membership policies. 3. IRS OFFICIAL PLACED ON LEAVE Lois Lerner is removed from her high-level post a day after...

A businessman was snatched from a New York City street in broad daylight, then held captive for more than a month in a warehouse where he was bound and burned with acid as he was held for a $3 million ransom his family back in Ecuador did not have, authorities said. Pedro Portugal, 52, was found this week by detectives who had been monitoring phone calls, noticed pizza deliveries to a deserted area in Queens and zeroed in on the warehouse, police said. Three men were arrested and charged with...

Queen Elizabeth's youngest son, Prince Edward, has visited Tennessee to promote one of the British royal family's charities, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. The prince presided over an awards ceremony Thursday at the governor's mansion for the first batch of young Tennesseans to participate in the leadership and character program. He quipped that the participants were "how should I put this _ guinea pigs," and then said, "So you're leading the way here." About 80 youths received the award by participating...

Police at the University of Rhode Island could soon be carrying firearms following a vote Thursday by state education officials to end Rhode Island's distinction as the only state to prohibit police on public campuses from carrying guns. The Rhode Island Board of Education voted 8-1 to allow leaders at the state's three institutions of higher education to decide for themselves whether to arm campus police. URI President David Dooley favors the idea. The Community College of Rhode Island does...

Maine's governor, who has gained attention in the past for telling the NAACP to "kiss my butt" and comparing the Internal Revenue Service to the Gestapo, has moved out of his office at the State House and says he'll work out of the governor's mansion because of a dispute over a television screen. Republican Gov. Paul LePage has temporarily moved his working space, and Democratic legislative leaders said Thursday he's threatened to move out for good by July 1. The squabble stems from LePage's...

The state's highest court on Thursday dismissed Ralph Nader's lawsuit against Democrats he had accused of trying to keep him off ballots in Maine and other states during his failed presidential run in 2004. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a judge's dismissal of several counts and ordered that the remaining counts of his lawsuit against the Maine Democratic Party also be dismissed. Nader, the consumer advocate who ran in 2004 as an independent, had claimed that the...

St. Paul authorities shut down a popular fossil-hunting area in a riverside park Thursday, one day after two children were killed and two others injured by a landslide. Mayor Chris Coleman announced the indefinite closure after searchers late Thursday morning recovered the body of a boy who had been missing since rain-saturated soil gave way the afternoon before. The boy, who family members identified as 10-year-old Mohamed Fofana, was on a field trip to Lilydale Regional Park with other fourth-graders...

The Jodi Arias murder trial has drawn international attention for its graphic tales of sex and lies. The following is a timeline of some of the key events in the case: _ September 2006: Arias and Travis Alexander meet at a Las Vegas work convention and quickly enter into a stormy long-distance relationship. Arias, an aspiring saleswoman and photographer, lives in California and visits Alexander in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. Alexander is a Mormon and works as a salesman and motivational speaker....

The jury in Jodi Arias' murder trial has failed to reach a verdict against the woman they convicted of murdering Travis Alexander. The next steps: NEW JURY: The judge scheduled a retrial on the penalty phase for July 18. A new jury must be seated to decide the punishment. If the second panel deadlocks, the judge will then sentence Arias to spend her entire life in prison or be eligible for release after 25 years. The judge cannot sentence Arias to death. NO DEATH: The prosecutor could decide...

A man wanted for 13 years on attempted murder charges in Los Angeles was captured in Colorado after someone called police to report he was urinating on a wall outside a KFC restaurant. Miguel Sanchez, 59, initially gave officers a false name when he was arrested Wednesday, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department. After he was fingerprinted, police discovered his identity and that he had a $2 million warrant in California. "Kentucky Fried Chicken called and said he was peeing on the...

One loved the spotlight. Another was nicknamed "The Wall" because of the force he brought to the soccer field. When a top-of-the-scale EF5 tornado ripped through Moore, Okla., it took with it 24 lives. Seven of them were children at Plaza Towers Elementary school; two were only babies. These are the victims' stories. ___ JaNae Hornsby, 9 One of seven children killed inside the Plaza Towers Elementary School, JaNae loved to draw and sing. She loved being the center of attention, her father...

A massive tornado was carving its way through town. There was no time to hesitate. LaTisha Garcia had to get to her children. And so she raced against the storm. She had 30 miles to cover from her job in Edmond to Plaza Towers Elementary School, where her 8-year-old daughter Jazmin Rodriguez is a third grader. She lost. The tornado got there first, and the destruction kept her from driving the final few hundred yards. And so she got out of her car and ran, arriving to find little left of the...

U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Doug Burns was on a night reconnaissance mission searching for enemy trucks when he was shot down by anti-aircraft fire and taken prisoner during the Vietnam War. Burns broke three vertebrae when he ejected into a flooded rice paddy and spent the first weeks of his captivity strapped to a concrete pallet and then months at a time in solitary confinement. His wife and three children didn't know for years if he was alive _ and when he arrived home six and a half years later,...

Data released Thursday by the defense from slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin's cellphone includes texts with a friend about fighting, smoking pot and being forced to move out of his mother's house because of trouble at school, as well as photos of a gun and what looks to be a potted marijuana plant. A hearing next week will decide if the information can be used at the trial for George Zimmerman, who is charged with fatally shooting the unarmed 17-year-old last year during a confrontation at...

An eastern Pennsylvania woman who fatally stabbed her fiance on their wedding day _ and then apparently could not comprehend that he had died _ was convicted of first-degree murder on Thursday. Jurors found Na Cola Franklin, 32, guilty after deliberating about three hours in Lehigh County Court. She could get life in prison when she is sentenced July 16. Her attorney said an appeal is likely. Prosecutors say Franklin and 36-year-old Billy Brewster got into the deadly argument on Aug. 11 around...

A federal judge has refused to let the city of New Orleans out of a potentially expensive agreement to reform its troubled police department. U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan issued her ruling Thursday. City officials said they planned to appeal the ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. City officials reached the agreement last year with the Justice Department calling for sweeping changes in police practices and policies. But Mayor Mitch Landrieu later tried to put the brakes on the...

The pilots involved in a deadly 2011 midair collision in Alaska apparently were communicating on different radio frequencies before the crash, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board, a finding that local aviators say underscores the danger of the mishmash of communication channels and federal guidelines in the area. The surviving pilot Kevin Earp, of Eagle River, told investigators he did not hear the other pilot on a frequency commonly used in that area, according to...