ALL RECENT AP STORIES

Planning will move ahead this summer on a proposed south-central Alaska dam that, if built, would be one of the largest dams constructed in the United States in decades. Federal regulators have given the Alaska Energy Authority approval for the remainder of its study plans for the proposed Susitna-Watana hydro project, KSKA reported ( http://bit.ly/17URqDN ). The Alaska Energy Authority is a public corporation created by the state to build, buy, finance and operate power projects in Alaska....

Californians can expect a dangerous summer wildfire season due to a dry winter that has left the normally green hills of spring parched and tinder-dry, authorities warned. State fire crews have responded to more than 680 wildfires since the beginning of the year _ some 200 more than average for the period. They included several 300- and 400-acre blazes around the state. Local fire crews also have been busy. Last weekend, a fire in the foothills above Monrovia, northeast of Los Angeles, prompted...

The Security Council unanimously approved a new U.N. peacekeeping force for Mali on Thursday to help restore democracy and stabilize the northern half of the country, which was controlled by Islamist jihadists until a France-led military operation ousted them three months ago. The resolution authorizes the deployment of a U.N. force comprising 11,200 military personnel and 1,440 international police with a mandate to help restore peace, especially in northern cities. The U.N. peacekeepers are...

As spring rains soaked the central United States and helped conquer the historic drought, a new problem has sprouted: The fields have turned to mud. The weekly drought monitor report, released Thursday by National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb., showed the heavy rains that also caused some flooding in the last week brought drought relief to the upper Midwest, western Corn Belt and central portions of the Plains. Farmers may be thankful the land is no longer parched, but it's too wet...

A body pulled from waters off a Providence park was that of a 22-year-old Brown University student missing since last month, the Rhode Island medical examiner's office said Thursday. Sunil Tripathi was identified through a forensic dental exam, but a cause of death has not been determined, said Dara Chadwick, a spokeswoman for the state health department. The announcement put an end to the mystery of Tripathi's disappearance, which became doubly painful for his family when amateur online sleuths...

A school close to London's busy Heathrow Airport has found a novel way to protect its young students from the relentless roar of planes taking off and landing nearby. The school has installed a series of sound-cancelling adobe domes outdoors so that its students, ages 3 to 7, can enjoy playtime and lessons outside without fearing damage to their ears. The domes, constructed from coiled bags of earth, were originally designed for earthquake and emergency zones, but they've proved popular among...

Police have arrested at least three people during a protest march in Dallas near the dedication site of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. The three people were placed in patrol cars Thursday as about 200 people marched and chanted near the campus of Southern Methodist University. Police Lt. A.W. Williams says the three were charged with being a pedestrian in a roadway, a misdemeanor. They were taken to the Dallas County jail. Demonstrations were restricted to a zone cordoned off by barricades...

George W. Bush jokes there was a time in his life that he "wasn't likely to be found in a library, much less found one." He delivered several jokes Thursday during his speech at the dedication ceremony for his library and museum at the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas. Bush said America must work to "expand the reach of freedom." Tears welled in his eyes as he concluded, saying the nation's best days are ahead. He joined President Barack Obama and the three other living presidents...

Former President George W. Bush has spoken with pride about becoming a grandpa and his delight at getting acquainted with his newborn granddaughter. New mom Jenna Bush Hager (HAY'-gur) was smiling as tears ran down her face Thursday during the Dallas dedication ceremony for her father's presidential center. She was seated in the audience with her husband, Henry Hager, as Bush described spending time with his first grandchild. Margaret Laura "Mila" (MEE'-luh) Hager was born April 13 in New York...

Here's your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see. This week's collection includes a moment of silence in Boston, a protest against the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi, a North Korean army colonel standing near the demilitarized zone, "Poetic Cosmos of the Breath" by Argentine artist Tomas Saraceno and a frightening scene from the garment...

Former President Bill Clinton jokes that he's become so close to the Bushes that he's become "the black sheep son." Clinton was reunited with his predecessor and successor once again Thursday during the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. During a speech at the dedication on the campus of Southern Methodist University, Clinton said Bush had a beautiful library and that his institute's work was inspiring. Clinton also noted that Bush had beaten him to becoming a grandfather...

George H.W. Bush has received a standing ovation as he honored his son at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. The former president was seated Thursday in Dallas next to his son as he smiled and congratulated the 43rd president. The elder Bush suffers from a form of Parkinson's disease that has forced him in recent years to use a motorized scooter or wheelchair to get around. He has been hospitalized recently for bronchitis. George H.W. Bush spoke for just a brief minute...

Pieces of what appeared to be human skull and teeth have been discovered at a South Florida airport inside a passenger's carry-on bag. The Broward Sheriff's Office said the items were found Wednesday afternoon at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport when a piece of sealed pottery broke open. The pottery also contained rocks and dirt. A second sealed pot remained intact. The pots were being carried by two women who were planning to fly to Baltimore. Deputies say the women told them...

Former first lady Laura Bush says the George W. Bush Presidential Center is meant as much for U.S. military personnel and others as it is for her husband. In remarks Thursday morning to some 10,000 people who gathered for the dedication of the center, Bush said the presidency is represented by the important roles played by tens of thousands of military personnel. She also thanked many in the Bush administration who worked behind the scenes to forward U.S. policy. She talked of moments that defined...

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has welcomed world and national leaders to the dedication ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Rice introduced several former and current world leaders Thursday, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar She also noted the Texas Gov. Rick Perry was there, along New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. House Speaker John Boehner also attended. Speeches by the five living presidents were scheduled...

Some San Francisco firefighters are raking in six-figure overtime paychecks because of staffing shortages that have department managers scheduling numerous extra shifts, a newspaper reported. A lieutenant at Station 39 on Portola Avenue collected $221,000 in overtime last year, raising his total salary to $363,000, according to the San Francisco Chronicle ( http://bit.ly/11GsApt ). A paramedic-firefighter at Station 51 in the Presidio made $191,000 in overtime, taking his pay to $337,204, while...

Rain that moved across the Midwest in the past week helped ease drought conditions for some farmers, but not everyone, according to the latest drought monitor report released Thursday. The report from the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln said the rain that caused flooding in some areas of the Midwest helped decrease the drought area from the upper Midwest into the western corn belt and central portions of the Rockies and Great Plains. But rain also brought...

The Associated Press and National Geographic have each won three awards for international coverage from the Overseas Press Club. The AP's Alberto Arce (AHR'-thay) won for best reporting on Latin America at the awards ceremony Wednesday in New York. AP photographer Bernat Armangue (behr-NAHT' AHR'-mahng) was honored for images of the conflict in Gaza. The AP's Oded Balilty (oh-DEHD' bah-LIHL'-tee) won the feature photography award for pictures of an ultra-Orthodox wedding. National Geographic...

Mornings are the hardest for Adrianne Haslet because the 32-year-old professional ballroom dancer forgets at first that her left foot is gone. Beth Roche wakes up knowing she can't feel sorry for herself, that she has to focus on rehabbing her ravaged left leg. But despite life-changing injuries, both women have vowed that the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and left them among the ranks of more than 260 injured will not define their lives. Parts of them may be broken, but...

Among the 10,000 people expected to be in attendance as the George W. Bush Presidential Library is dedicated in Dallas are heads of state and former members of the Bush administration. Ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Don Evans, the former commerce secretary, are expected to speak at Thursday morning's ceremony at Southern Methodist University. Organizers also say former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak (lee myuhng bahk) and former Spanish...

A man who helped end forced busing for integration in the Los Angeles Unified School District has died. Tom Bartman was 67. His wife, Eleanor, tells the Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/10efSv2 ) that Bartman died of cancer on Monday at his Beverly Hills home. The nation's second-largest school district began court-ordered busing in 1978. The compulsory program affected about 58,000 students. Bartman was an attorney for the anti-busing group Bustop when he was elected to the school board in...

For the second time in less than a week, a Mississippi River bridge has been struck by a barge. The latest incident on the flooded river happened Thursday morning when a barge struck the bridge at Caruthersville, Mo. The bridge carries Interstate 155 traffic between southern Missouri and Tennessee. Nichole Lawrence of the Tennessee Department of Transportation says one barge struck the bridge, forcing a temporary closure. An inspection showed no damage, and the bridge reopened within two hours....

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1. REVELATIONS ABOUT QUESTIONING OF BOSTON BOMB SUSPECT U.S. officials say Dzokhar Tsarnaev stopped talking after he was read his Miranda rights, and after admitting his role in the marathon attacks. 2. BANGLADESH BUILDING ORDERED CLOSED A DAY BEFORE COLLAPSE Factories flouted the mandate _ despite deep cracks visible in the walls _ before the building tumbled down, killing more than 200...

Six men who set off on a backcountry tour in mountains west of Denver had avalanche gear, had scanned an avalanche forecast, and were hiking toward a safer area to snowboard when they felt a collapse and heard a "whumpf." Within seconds, the six were swept into a gully, and all but one was completely buried in last weekend's avalanche that was roughly 800 feet wide, 600 feet long and as deep as 12 feet, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center's final report on the accident....

A Philadelphia jury won't hear from an abortion provider before they weigh charges that he killed a woman and four viable babies. Dr. Kermit Gosnell decided Wednesday not to testify or call witnesses at his capital murder trial. The jury is set to hear closing arguments on Monday. Gosnell, 72, is charged with killing babies after they were born alive at his West Philadelphia clinic, which allegedly catered to poor, desperate women and teens with late-term pregnancies. The trial judge this week...

Confidence in the U.S. job market has rebounded to roughly a normal level from its record low after the Great Recession, a trend that could help boost the economy. Americans increasingly feel they could find a new job if necessary, according to the results of the 2012 General Social Survey, a long-standing poll of public opinion. And fear of being laid off dropped last year from its 2010 peak to roughly its average for the 35 years the question has been asked. The percentage of Americans who...

For 40 years, Shirley Moss has lived in the same home in a tiny southeast Missouri town, but as the sandbags piled up yet again, she didn't hesitate when asked if she would take a government buyout. "In a New York minute," Moss said from her double-wide mobile home in Dutchtown, which sits in a Mississippi River bottom. "I'm 75 years old _ I can't fight this." Flooding has become a fact of life for many quiet towns like Dutchtown, where 100 or so residents live unprotected against the worst the...

The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings acknowledged to the FBI his role in the attacks but did so before he was advised of his constitutional right to keep quiet and seek a lawyer, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Once Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was read his rights on Monday, he immediately stopped talking, according to four officials of both political parties who were briefed on the interrogation but insisted on anonymity because the briefing was private. After roughly 16 hours of questioning,...

Multiple explosions aboard two fuel barges near Mobile, Ala., led to a major fire Wednesday night that left three people injured, but fire and rescue officials said they planned to let the fire burn into the night because it was too unstable. Firefighters from Mobile and the U.S. Coast Guard responded at about 8:30 p.m. CDT to a pair of explosions involving the natural gas barges in an area of the Mobile River east of downtown, authorities said. As they were responding, a third explosion occurred...

The Security Council is expected to approve a new U.N. peacekeeping force for Mali to help restore democracy and stabilize the northern half of the country, which was controlled by Islamist jihadists until a France-led military operation ousted them three months ago. The council is expected to vote Thursday morning on a resolution that would authorize a U.N. force comprising 11,200 military personnel and 1,440 international police. The U.N. peacekeepers would take over from a 6,000-member African-led...

A fugitive charged with abducting and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old Los Angeles girl was returned to the U.S. Wednesday after being arrested in a Mexican village where he'd checked himself into a rehabilitation facility under a fake name, authorities said. Tobias Summers, 30, was brought to Los Angeles to face 37 felony charges, including numerous sexual assault counts, FBI Special Agent in Charge Tim Delaney told a press conference. Summers was a fugitive for nearly a month. Police Chief...

The nephew of a small-town Illinois mayor shot and killed five people, including two boys, before leading police on a chase that ended in an exchange of gunfire that left him dead, authorities said Wednesday. Illinois State Police said they believe Rick O. Smith, 43, entered a Manchester home through the back door and shot the victims at close range with a shotgun, leaving two women, one man and the boys dead. Two people were found in a bedroom, two in a second bedroom and the man in the hallway....

The Astoria Police Department's concrete pig is back in the pink and ready for another 20 years of duty. The Daily Astorian reports ( http://bit.ly/ZPr4hW ) the pig was dropped off at the station in 1993 by someone who didn't stay to explain the gift. Unoffended, the police promptly adopted the animal and left it in place. But two decades took a toll, washing off the pink paint, pitting the surface, loosening the ears. Michael Peden, the 16-year-old grandson of a department administrator,...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Thursday: 1. WHAT THE BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT ADMITTED BEFORE HIS ARREST The younger Tsarnaev acknowledged his role in the attacks, but before his Miranda rights were read, two officials tell the AP. 2. WORRIES OF BANGLADESH WORKERS WENT UNHEEDED Workers say they were assured the building was safe the day it collapsed _ even though cracks in the walls were so large they attracted the local media....

Ticket scalping is nothing new in the sports and music world, but for a murder trial? Dozens of people flock to court each day for a chance to score one of a handful of seats open to the public in Jodi Arias' ongoing murder trial in Arizona. The seats are provided on a first-come, first-serve basis, and nearly four months into the trial, the crowds are growing. This week, one trial regular sold her spot to another person for $200 _ and both got reprimands from the court on Tuesday. Desiree Lee,...

Firefighters racing to stamp out a mobile home fire Wednesday met with flames shooting from windows as a woman and others looking on pleaded for them to save four young children inside, witnesses told investigators. All four children, including twin girls, perished. It took firefighters less than 10 minutes to put out the fire once they arrived and after entering the charred, single-wide home, they found the bodies of the twin 1-year-old girls and their brothers ages 3 and 4, authorities said....

A judge is defending her decisions in the trial of the first Catholic Church official in the United States to be charged and convicted in the cover-up of the priest abuse scandal. Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina concluded in a recent opinion that Monsignor William Lynn lied to perpetuate a church cover-up of child sexual abuse. "The defendant learned that his predecessors handled clergy sex abuse in a way that prioritized shielding the church from scandal and ... perpetuated...

Beverly Hills police are seeking the driver of a white BMW who rammed a man on a bicycle who had punched him during an apparent road-rage exchange. Lt. Lincoln Hoshino says surveillance video shows the luxury vehicle's driver intentionally running into the bicyclist, pinning him to a metal trash bin. Investigators believe the April 3 incident started with a road-rage confrontation during evening rush hour, when the bicyclist punched the driver in the face. Police say the driver threatened to...

A Democratic political strategist who helped raise money for John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign and served as finance director for North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan's winning campaign that same year has died after being stabbed in her Raleigh home. Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue (shuh-GREW') said Wednesday that 31-year-old Jonathan Broyhill has been arrested. He had been charged with attempted murder prior to the death of 29-year-old Jameson Kirk Hahn at a local hospital on Wednesday....

Rhode Island is on a path to becoming the 10th state to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry after a landmark vote in the state's Senate on Wednesday. The Senate passed gay marriage legislation by a comfortable 26-12 margin, following a House vote of approval in January. The bill must now return to the House for a largely procedural vote, likely next week, but the celebration began Wednesday. Hundreds of people filled the Statehouse with cheers following the vote. "I grew up in Rhode Island...

Rob Rogers said Wednesday's memorial service for slain Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier captured and celebrated his stepbrother's life of service _ in law enforcement and toward others. There were sirens, bagpipes, American flags and hundreds and hundreds of fellow officers. "He would love this. He was born to be a police officer and lived out his dream," Rogers said. Vice President Joe Biden joined thousands of students, faculty and staff, and law enforcement...

Two fired Houston police officers accused of beating a black teenage burglary suspect during an arrest that was caught on video were each sentenced Wednesday to two years of probation as part of plea agreements. Ex-officers Phil Bryan, 47, and Raad Hassan, 43, each entered pleas of no contest to a misdemeanor charge of official oppression. The two men had been set to go to trial on Monday. If convicted at trial, each ex-officer had faced up to a year in jail. State District Judge Ruben Guerrero...

Slowly retreating floodwaters gave Midwesterners some hope Wednesday that the worst was over, but many worried that the earthen and days-old sandbag levees along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers could still fail. Fast-moving currents were testing makeshift protections around Dutchtown, Mo., where the Mississippi was expected to rise well above flood stage later this week and potentially send water into the scattered homes and businesses that comprise the tiny, unprotected river town....

A New York businessman was sentenced Wednesday to three life terms in prison following his conviction on murder and conspiracy charges in the deaths of three men, including the brother-in-law of "Twisted Sister" lead singer Dee Snider. Christian Tarrantino, 46, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, insisted he was innocent of the crimes before being sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert. His attorney has said he will appeal the convictions. Federal prosecutors said Tarantino,...

The Department of Defense must disclose the names of individuals who studied and taught during the past eight years at a Georgia school that trains foreign military and police officers, a federal judge in California has ruled. U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland rejected the federal government's argument that identifying trainees and teachers at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation would violate their privacy and potentially compromise their safety, saying such...

Capital One Financial Corp. is paying $3.5 million to settle federal civil charges of underreporting as much as $123 million in losses on auto loans in the months preceding the financial crisis. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday that Capital One understated its auto loan losses in financial reports for the second and third quarters of 2007, when they came in higher than the bank expected. Capital One, based in McLean, Va., and best known for its heavily advertised credit cards,...

The nation's drug czar said Wednesday the legalization of marijuana in Washington state and Colorado won't change his office's mission of fighting the country's drug problem by focusing on addiction treatment that will be available under the federal health overhaul. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the National Drug Control Policy, released President Barack Obama's 2013 strategy for fighting drug addiction Wednesday at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. The strategy includes a greater...

Filling and laying sandbags has become a civic rite of spring in Fargo, where the swollen Red River has caused major flooding in three of the past four years. With the region finally thawing out from another unusually snowy winter and the river again rising, local leaders are using this year's communitywide campaign to build support for a 36-mile canal that would steer the floodwater around Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., and fix the area's nagging problem once and for all. But the plan,...

A fast-moving line of intense thunderstorms has flooded streets, damaged houses and business and knocked out power to more than 30,000 people in southeast Louisiana. No injuries were reported. The New Orleans suburb if Kenner reported that a possible tornado damaged roofs and buildings and left numerous utility poles leaning. A building under construction was heavily damaged. The utility corporation Entergy reported more than 32,000 customers without power around midday. Jefferson Parish had...

The FBI has released a new photograph of a former D.C. elementary school teacher who was arrested in Nicaragua over the weekend on child pornography charges. The FBI hopes that the photograph of Eric Justin Toth will encourage any other potential abuse victims to come forward. The new picture being distributed Wednesday shows Toth with much longer hair than in the posters previously made public by the FBI. Because it's the most recent pictures of him, authorities are hoping that by distributing...

A Philadelphia abortion provider won't testify or call witnesses at his capital murder trial, leaving jurors to weigh five weeks of prosecution evidence. Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, is charged with killing four babies allegedly born alive at a clinic that authorities have described as filthy. He is also charged in the 2009 overdose death of a 41-year-old refugee who died just months after coming to the U.S. Gosnell's defense rested Wednesday without calling a witness. The jury is expected to hear...

Many of the relatives of Californians killed in the Sept. 11 attacks say they never knew that millions of dollars were raised in their name for college scholarships. Now lawmakers want to give them another chance to apply for money that an Associated Press investigation and subsequent audit found was poorly administered. The state collected more than $15 million from selling 9/11 memorial license plates after the terrorist attacks, but only a sliver of it went to scholarships, partly because a...

An Illinois state senator accused of trying to board a Washington, D.C.-bound flight with a gun pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor Wednesday and was sentenced to community service. A judge sentenced Donne Trotter to 60 hours of community service and a year of court supervision for the one count of reckless conduct. The Chicago Democrat also was ordered to pay $190 in fines and costs. As part of the plea deal, Cook County prosecutors dropped the felony charge of seeking to board an aircraft with...

The lawyers defending Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are dealing with federal budget cuts that will force them to take three unpaid weeks off even as they prepare to defend one of the most complicated criminal cases in the nation. The office of federal defender Miriam Conrad in Boston was appointed to represent Tsarnaev, who is charged with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill in the April 15 bombings. Her office must complete 15 days of furloughs between April and the...

Officials in Fargo, N.D., say they may scale back flood protection efforts as the National Weather Service has lowered the Red River crest prediction. The National Weather Service's updated forecast showed Wednesday that the river is likely to crest late next week between 38 and 40 feet, down a couple of feet from earlier predictions. Forecasters say an ideal melt cycle and lack of significant precipitation lead to the improved forecast. The river overflows its banks at 18 feet, but most structures...

A University of California, Berkeley, law student accused of beheading an exotic bird at a Las Vegas Strip resort is headed to trial on felony charges that could get him up to eight years in prison and jeopardize his legal career, authorities said Wednesday. Justin Alexander Teixeira, 25, of Placerville, Calif., appeared in Las Vegas Justice Court and waived an evidence hearing on animal killing and animal torture charges in the Oct. 12 death of a helmeted guineafowl named Turk at the Flamingo...

Seattle police are investigating reports that a fake nurse tried to obtain narcotic pain medication from patients' rooms at Swedish Medical Center. Detective Jeff Kappel says hospital staff report that one patient saw the woman in his room manipulating a machine that allowed him to administer pain medication. The man's real nurse found that the line from his machine to his body had been cut. Kappel says the stranger also walked into another patient's room. After she left, a relative noticed that...

In a quest to save money, political leaders in Washington state are exploring a proposal that would shift some government workers out of their current health plans and onto the insurance exchange developed under President Barack Obama's health care law. Lawmakers believe the change, which could affect thousands of part-time state employees and education workers, would save the state $120 million over the next two years. It would consequently push more health care costs onto the federal government...

A federal appeals court that had blocked the scheduled February execution of a Georgia man whose lawyers say is mentally disabled has lifted its stay, clearing the way for a new execution date. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in an opinion published Monday that inmate Warren Lee Hill cannot submit his case to a federal court for reconsideration for procedural reasons, including the fact that his claim of mental disability was presented in an earlier petition...

Los Angeles has the worst traffic in the nation and it's gotten worse as the economy improves, according to a report released Wednesday. Because of congestion, the average motorist in the Los Angeles metropolitan area spent an extra 59 hours in traffic during 2012, according to a national scorecard from traffic information firm INRIX. That was nine hours more than drivers in Honolulu. San Francisco was in third place for congestion, followed by Austin, Texas; New York and Bridgeport, Conn....

The Rhode Island medical examiner's office is trying to determine whether a body found in Providence is that of a missing Brown University student. City police say members of Brown's crew team found the body Tuesday afternoon in waters off a city park. Authorities say the man appeared to be in his 20s. Cmdr. Thomas Oates says there are indications it could be 22-year-old Sunil Tripathi, who disappeared in March. He declined to elaborate. Relatives of Tripathi, who's from Bryn Mawr, Pa., have...

Jill Biden has visited the finish line memorial for Boston Marathon victims and left behind a pair of sneakers. Joe Biden spoke earlier at a Cambridge memorial service for slain MIT police officer Sean Collier. Authorities say he was gunned down by the bombing suspects three days after the blasts. The vice president's wife, who is a runner, brought a pair of her own running shoes and a bouquet of flowers to leave at the memorial near the finish line. She paused and stood quietly for a few moments....

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says there is no evidence that the Boston Marathon bombing suspects were targeting New York. But he says one may have been planning to party in the city after the attack. Kelly said Wednesday that 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-KHAHR' tsahr-NEYE'-ehv) traveled to New York at least once last fall. There is a photo of the suspect in Times Square but no evidence that he was looking at possible targets. Kelly says he was told Tsarnaev may have been...

A Transportation Security Administration agent is being credited with helping save the life of a passenger at Newark Liberty International Airport. The TSA says security inspector Robert Kennish of Metuchen, N.J., performed CPR on an elderly woman after she collapsed Tuesday night on a passenger ramp and stopped breathing. Flight attendants from the Virgin America aircraft and two passengers _ an ophthalmologist and a nurse _ also came to the woman's aid. The TSA says the doctor administered...

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Texas has been handed over to U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Bush and his wife, Laura, attended Wednesday's ceremony in Dallas the day before the official dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. The George W. Bush Foundation raised the money to build the center. The foundation donated the library and museum portion of the center to the National Archives, which provides access to presidential records, documents,...

The father of a 10-year-old Arizona girl who authorities say died after another relative padlocked her in a footlocker pleaded guilty Wednesday to an attempted child abuse charge. David Martin Deal, 53, isn't charged in the July 2011 death of his daughter Ame Deal. He admitted in court Wednesday to putting her into the plastic box and throwing the box into a pool about a year before her death. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Susanna Pineda asked Deal whether the allegations against him were...

A Northern California grocery store owner is trying to profit from a suspected thief's botched burglary attempt that was caught on video and went viral. Footage shows the man breaking the Redding store's window last month and tripping twice as he ran away. Now store owner Kent Pfrimmer has turned it into a television commercial for his business, Kent's Meats and Groceries. The Record Searchlight of Redding reports ( http://bit.ly/11CzlcU ) that the ad for the store's pastrami features footage...

The suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings killed in a shootout with police received welfare benefits from the state up until last year, when he became ineligible based on family income. A spokesman for the state Office of Health and Human Services confirmed a Boston Herald report Wednesday that 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his wife and their toddler daughter had received benefits. A lawyer for his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaeva, has said that she worked 70 to 80 hours per week as a home...

In southern New Mexico, the mighty Rio Grande has gone dry _ reduced to a sandy wash winding from this chile farming community to the nation's leading pecan-producing county. Only puddles remain, leaving gangs of carp to huddle together in a desperate effort to avoid the fate of thousands of freshwater clams, their shells empty and broken on the river bottom. Across the state's eastern plains, wells stand empty and ranchers are selling their cattle. In the north, urbanites face watering restrictions...

Residents have rejected a budget that included money for extra school security in the wake of the December school shootings, with town leaders suggesting the spending and required tax increases were a hard sell. Voters on Tuesday turned down the $72 million school budget by 482 votes and rejected the $39 million town government budget by 62 votes. Nearly 4,500 residents voted on the plans, which would have represented an increase of more than 5 percent next fiscal year. First Selectwoman Patricia...

A Mexican woman known as a drug cartel queen has pleaded guilty in Miami to charges arising from a major cocaine trafficking case. Court records show Sandra Avila Beltran pleaded guilty Tuesday to being an accessory after the fact in an organization that included Juan Diego Espinosa Ramirez. He was her boyfriend at the time. Espinosa was a former liaison between Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and Colombia's Norte Valle cartel. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to cocaine trafficking charges. A statement signed...

2013 Chevrolet Volt BASE PRICE: $39,145. PRICE AS TESTED: $43,375. TYPE: Front engine, front-wheel-drive, four-passenger, all-electric and all-gasoline-powered, four-door hatchback. ENGINE: 1.4-liter, double overhead cam four cylinder, 111-kilowatt drive motor and 16-kilowatt lithium ion battery pack. MILEAGE: Equivalent to 98 mpg (city), 37 mpg (highway). ELECTRIC RANGE: Between 25 and 50 miles from full battery charge after 4 hours at 240 volts. TOP SPEED: 100 mph. LENGTH: 177.1 inches....

The 2013 Chevrolet Volt has a lot going for it. It can travel up to 50 miles on all-electric power and has a backup gasoline engine for longer trips, is a recommended buy of Consumer Reports magazine and adds new features, including a new Hold mode that lets drivers set the Volt for gasoline-engine operation only, thereby saving the electric range for later in the trip, if needed. For the first time since the Volt's introduction as a 2011 model, the black-colored roof and liftgate are gone. Buyers...

Two teenagers who escaped from a juvenile rehabilitation camp will be tried as adults in the fatal beating and stabbing of an elderly Michigan couple in a botched robbery at a vacation cabin in southwest Missouri, a judge said Tuesday. Anthony Zarro, 17, and Christopher Allen, 16, are charged with two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of armed criminal action, one count of felony robbery and one count of felony burglary in the January killing of Margaret and Paul Brian Brooks, aged 69...

The body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev (TA'-mehr-luhn tsahr-NEYE'-ehv) is still being held by the Massachusetts medical examiner. Tsarnaev died Friday after a gun battle with police. Authorities have said his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-KHAHR'), ran over him as he fled. Dzhokhar was later apprehended in Watertown and has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction. He could face the death penalty. A spokesman for the Massachusetts Office of the...

Neil Sauter (SAW'-ter) walks 9 feet off the ground. But he's more concerned with distance than height these days. Sauter plans to trek 400 miles across his home state during the next month as part of an effort to raise money for the United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan nonprofit. The 29-year-old Deerfield resident has mild cerebral palsy. His "Walk for No Limits" kicked off April 12 in Ann Arbor. His journey is scheduled to end May 19, not far from his southern Michigan home. Five years ago,...

The land of scrapple and chipped ham is starting to get a taste for jambalaya and boudin. Thanks to an influx of Southerners filling jobs in north-central Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry, a region not often placed on many culinary maps is finding itself flush with the foodways found below the Mason-Dixon line, arguably the source of some of the nation's richest culinary traditions. Suddenly, convenience stores stock sweet tea, barbecue is a hot seller, and the almost Norman Rockwell-quaint...

A massive, partly fossilized egg laid by a now-extinct elephant bird has sold for more than double its estimate at a London auction. Christie's auction house said Wednesday that the foot-long, nearly nine-inches in diameter egg fetched 66,675 pounds ($101,813). It had been valued at 20,000 to 30,000 pounds pre-sale, and was sold to an anonymous buyer over the telephone after about 10 minutes of competitive bidding. Elephant birds were wiped out several hundred years ago. The oversized ovum, laid...

The area near the Boston Marathon finish line is reopening to the general public. Traffic was allowed to flow all the way down Boylston Street on Wednesday morning for the first time since two explosions on April 15 killed three spectators and sent more than 260 to the hospital. Delivery trucks made their way down the street under a heavy police presence. Workers at some businesses and hotels in the area were allowed to return to their jobs on Tuesday to prepare for reopening. Some stores directly...

Jane Fonda is planning to shed a few tears on Saturday. That's when the 75-year-old Oscar winner will place her hand and footprints next to her father's in the concrete shrine to celebrity outside Hollywood's Chinese Theatre. Then she'll present a special screening of the film she made with her dad, 1981's "On Golden Pond." The cement and cinematic tribute is part of the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival, which is honoring Jane Fonda. "I am very, very excited," Fonda said in an interview this week....

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday: 1. NEW HUNT FOR CULPRIT IN RICIN CASE Officials searched another man's house after officials dropped charges of sending poison-filled letters to the president against Paul Kevin Curtis. 2. TRACKING WHO KNEW WHAT ABOUT BOMBING SUSPECTS Senators questioned which agencies knew of a trip to Russia by Tamerlan Tsarnaev and whether information was shared. 3. BANGLADESH BUILDING COLLAPSE KILLS...

Organizers are reviewing a Tough Mudder endurance event held in West Virginia following the death of a competitor. Police say 28-year-old Avishek Sengupta of Ellicott City, Md., was found last Saturday in water at the "Walk the Plank" obstacle of a Tough Mudder event near Glengary. He died the next day at a northern Virginia hospital. A medical examiner said Sengupta drowned. Tough Mudder spokeswoman Ashley Pinakiewicz tells Martinsburg, W.Va., newspaper The Journal ( http://bit.ly/12H5TUo )...

Newtown residents have rejected a budget that included money for extra school security in the wake of the December school shootings. Voters turned down the $72 million school budget by 482 votes and rejected the $39 million town government budget by 62 votes Tuesday. Nearly 4,500 residents voted on the plans, which would have increased spending by 4.7 percent next fiscal year. Officials put an extra $1 million in the school and town budgets to hire extra police officers and unarmed security guards...

"I thought they said rice and I said I don't even eat rice. I respect President Obama. I love my country and would never do anything to pose a threat to him or any other U.S. official." _ Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, after charges that he sent ricin-laced letters to the White House and a U.S. senator were dropped. ___ "Somehow, he just took his brain." _ Tamerlan Tsarnaev's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, who claims his nephew fell under the influence of a Muslim convert named Misha who steered the suspected...

If Rhode Island joins the rest of New England in allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed, it will be because a formidable opponent, Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, moved out of the way. The state's first female Senate leader, Paiva Weed has long been the most visible obstacle to gay marriage in Rhode Island. Those behind an aggressive campaign to pass marriage legislation this year worried she would let the bill languish in committee or kick the question to the voters as a ballot referendum....

Charges of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and others were dropped Tuesday against an Elvis impersonator from Mississippi who has said since his arrest last week that he had nothing to do with the case. Meanwhile, in Tupelo, numerous law enforcement officers, including some in hazmat suits, converged on the home of another Mississippi man, Everett Dutschke. At around 11 p.m. CDT, they concluded a 10-hour search of the man's property and nearby ditches and culverts. Investigators...

More rain on Tuesday was the last thing flood fighters across the Midwest wanted to see, adding more water to swollen rivers now expected to remain high into next month. Floodwaters were rising to record levels along the Illinois River in central Illinois. In Missouri, six small levees north of St. Louis were overtopped by the surging Mississippi River, though mostly farmland was affected. The Mississippi and Illinois rivers have crested in some places, but that doesn't mean the danger...

Dartmouth College is canceling classes for a day after students who staged a protest decrying homophobia, sexual assault and racism on campus were threatened online. Hundreds of high school seniors deciding whether to attend the Ivy League college in Hanover, N.H., were watching a student performance Friday when about 15 students burst in chanting "Dartmouth has a problem!" That led to online threats being made against the protesters and their perceived supporters. College administrators sent...

A Texas father accused of slowly starving his 10-year-old son to death, slipping his body into a sleeping bag and dumping it in a rural area where it went undiscovered for a year was sentenced late Tuesday to life in prison. A Dallas County jury took less than an hour to convict Aaron Ramsey earlier Tuesday of severely injuring a child in the death of his son, Johnathan. Jurors later decided that the 35-year-old Dallas man should receive a life sentence. Prosecutors said the father locked his...

A Samurai sword-wielding Mormon bishop helped a neighbor woman escape a Tuesday morning attack by a man who had been stalking her. Kent Hendrix woke up Tuesday to his teenage son pounding on his bedroom door and telling him somebody was being mugged in front of their house. The 47-year-old father of six rushed out the door and grabbed the weapon closest to him _ a 29-inch high carbon steel Samurai sword. He came upon what he describes as a melee between a woman and a man. His son stayed inside...

The city of Los Angeles reached a $4.2 million settlement with a mother and daughter who were injured when police mistakenly opened fire on them while they were delivering newspapers during the manhunt for disgruntled ex-cop Christopher Dorner, officials said Tuesday. The money will be split evenly, with $2.1 million going to each woman, said Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the city attorney's office. The agreement must still be approved by the Los Angeles City Council. Margie Carranza and her...

A 15-year-old boy was shot and killed in a backyard about four blocks from President Barack Obama's Chicago home, police said Tuesday. Cornelius German of Chicago was found unresponsive around 9:40 p.m. Monday. He had been shot in the back and was pronounced dead at the scene on the city's South Side, police told The Associated Press. No arrests had been made as of late Tuesday afternoon, they said. The teen's death comes about three months after the fatal shooting of another 15-year-old, Hadiya...

Funerals were held Tuesday for the 8-year-old boy killed in the Boston Marathon bombing and the college police officer authorities say was shot by the bombing suspects. A private funeral Mass was held in the morning for young Martin Richard, followed by his burial, a family statement said. Only immediate family members attended. A funeral also was held for Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier, fatally shot three days after the bombing. "The outpouring of love and...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday: 1. WHO INFLUENCED MARATHON BOMBING SUSPECTS An uncle says Tamerlan Tsarnaev fell under the sway of a Muslim convert who steered his nephew toward a strict strain of Islam. 2. CLEARED RICIN SUSPECT: `I LOVE MY COUNTRY' Charges were dropped against an Elvis impersonator in sending poison-filled letters to Obama and others. 3. READING THE TEA LEAVES OF APPLE'S $100B CASH DISTRIBUTION It...

Police in Maryland said Tuesday that a 27-year-old man accused in the fatal shooting of his stepfather, a District of Columbia police detective, has surrendered to authorities. Prince George's County police said Tuesday evening that Antwan James surrendered and was being held at police headquarters. He is accused of killing 46-year-old D.C. police Detective Joseph Newell on Monday night following a dispute over yard work at their home in Upper Marlboro, Md. Authorities say the entire incident...

There are photos of the suspect at the bomb scene, video footage of him dropping a knapsack at the site of one of the blasts, and perhaps most incriminating could be the written words of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev himself during questioning in a Boston hospital. A case with evidence like this may be the toughest challenge a lawyer can face: defending someone accused of an act of terror so horrific a nation cries out for swift, severe punishment. Attorneys who handle terrorism and other notorious cases...

You can learn a lot from a zombie. At least that's what a University of Michigan professor hopes her 31 graduate students took away from Tuesday's bizarre, albeit bloody, "zombie apocalypse." The classroom exercise was designed to get School of Public Health students thinking about what the appropriate response should be during a disaster. Four times as many students who typically attend Epidemiology 651, "Epidemiology and Public Health Management of Disasters," were on hand Tuesday to welcome...

The enclosures at a Central California wild animal park where a lion killed an intern were working properly at the time of her death, federal officials said. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that the agency's investigation on the day after the mauling in March found no violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act at Project Survival's Cat Haven. USDA investigators looked at whether proper enclosures were in place, and whether they were in good working order, among...

A federal appeals court has ordered a new trial in a lawsuit filed by the family of a Texas soldier who was killed and others who were injured during a live-fire training exercise in Hawaii. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling overturned a jury verdict that found the manufacturer of mortar cartridges not liable for causing the 2006 explosion that killed Staff Sgt. Oscar Rodriguez. The 27-year-old from Beeville, Texas, was hit by shrapnel at the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island....

An ex-girlfriend of the man Jodi Arias says she killed in self-defense testified Tuesday that with her, the victim was never physically or verbally abusive. Deanna Reid said she dated Travis Alexander for several months before she went to Costa Rica in 2000 to serve a Mormon mission. The couple broke up while she was away. They rekindled their relationship in 2002, but Reid said they broke up again about three years later because Alexander wasn't ready for marriage, while she wanted to settle...