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A national atheist group said Monday that it will donate its literature for use in cabins and lodges in Georgia's state parks after the governor's recent decision to allow Bibles there. David Silverman, president of the Cranford, N.J.-based American Atheists organization, said his group is just waiting for an answer from the state on what the best procedure is to donate several books, including one titled "Why I Am An Atheist." "We expect fair treatment, we anticipate fair treatment and we look...

It was a bigger-than-average tree rescue for firefighters in Colorado Springs. They had to use a ladder truck to reach a black bear after it fell asleep in a tall pine tree after being tranquilized Sunday. The bear weighed between 150 and 200 pounds. State wildlife division spokesman Michael Seraphin says a wildlife officer and firefighters put a harness around it. Then they lowered the bear to the ground as it dangled from the ladder. Tranquilized bears usually fall out of trees and are caught...

Gov. Jerry Brown said Monday that he does not know if the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will open over Labor Day weekend because of safety concerns. It's the first time the governor acknowledged serious worries about the structural integrity of the $6.4 billion infrastructure project to build a new eastern span of the bridge. Brown had dismissed concerns about broken bolts earlier this month. Now, the governor said the state is reviewing construction documents going back as far as the administration...

Federal regulators have indefinitely delayed a decision on the proposed restart of the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant in California, raising new questions Monday about whether the twin reactors will produce electricity again. The seaside plant between San Diego and Los Angeles has been dark since January 2012, after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of unusual damage to hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water. Operator Southern California Edison wants permission to...

Illinois State Police say five people were killed and six others injured when a van in which they were riding left a southern Illinois freeway and overturned several times. State police spokesman Mark Zimmerman says the five died at the scene of the accident shortly before 10 a.m. Monday on Interstate 70 near Vandalia, about 70 miles east of St. Louis. The other six occupants of the 15-passenger van were transported to hospitals. Their medical statuses were not immediately known. It's not yet...

In a story May 19 about a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer shot in a showdown with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, The Associated Press incorrectly spelled the officer's last name. He is Officer Richard Donohue, not Donahue. A corrected version of the story is below: Officer shot in Marathon showdown wants to work A bullet in his body, officer who survived Boston bombing suspect showdown aims to work again By BRIDGET MURPHY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) _ With a bullet...

A surprise shell has caused a big stir at a popular Athens beach. Greek authorities evacuated the seafront Monday after a swimmer found a corroded artillery shell just 10 yards from dry land, fished it out and presented it to a lifeguard. A coast guard statement said army explosives experts were rushed to Vouliagmeni beach and safely disposed of the munition. The 30-centimeter (12-inch) round dated to World War II, when much of the coastline around Athens was heavily fortified. Athenians have...

A proposed state ballot measure in California would require doctors to be randomly subjected to drug and alcohol testing. The San Francisco Chronicle reports ( http://bit.ly/10PKfJP ) the "Pee in the Cup" initiative is being pushed by Bob Pack, a technology mogul and former executive at AOL Inc. and NetZero Inc. His young son and daughter were killed a decade ago by a driver under the influence of alcohol and prescription pills. Pack's campaign already is armed with $2 million in funding and...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1. GOP LOOKS TO CAPITALIZE ON OBAMA WOES Many Republicans would like to deny the president a victory in immigration reform, which is being considered by the Senate today. 2. FIERCE FIGHTING ON BORDER AS KERRY PRESSES FOR PEACE IN SYRIA Twenty-three fighters from the militant Hezbollah group were killed in a fight for a strategic town near Lebanon on the day Kerry is flying to the Middle...

"Tomorrow's commute will be extremely challenging. Residents should plan for a week's worth of disruptions."_ Conn. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, saying the aftermath of Friday's commuter train collision will cause traffic problems in his state. ___ "The big question is, how do you know, when someone's pointing a gun at you, whether you should keep talking to them, or shoot? That's what makes the job of an officer amazingly difficult." _ Michele Galietta, a professor of psychology at the John Jay College...

Two commuter trains collided just outside Bridgeport, Conn., on Friday evening, damaging the tracks and snarling travel in the Northeast. Here's a look at what commuters can expect Monday, as the work week gets under way, and beyond: METRO-NORTH RAILROAD SERVICE PROBLEMS: Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says roads could be a mess for a week as Metro-North Railroad crews repair tracks, overhead wires and other equipment. Reduced service will operate between South Norwalk and New York's Grand...

Selling an island where scientists have experimented with infectious animal diseases since the dawn of the Cold War was going to be difficult enough. But it now appears any prospective buyer won't be able to do much with Plum Island anyway. As the federal government proceeds with plans to sell the island 100 miles east of New York City to defray the cost of moving animal disease research to a new billion-dollar laboratory in Kansas, Long Island officials are taking steps to prevent resorts or...

A Phoenix police officer and firefighter both died Sunday after suffering critical injuries in separate accidents on the job, officials said. Police said Officer Daryl Raetz, 29, was conducting a DUI stop on a vehicle in west Phoenix when another vehicle struck him at about 3:30 a.m. and then fled the scene. Raetz, an Iraq war veteran who became a Phoenix police officer six years ago, was taken to a hospital where he later died. A day earlier, 23-year-old Phoenix Firefighter Bradley Harper was...

Tornadoes ravaged portions of central Oklahoma on Sunday, reducing portions of a mobile home park to rubble and killing a 79-year-old man whose body was found out in the open. "You can see where there's absolutely nothing, then there are places where you have mobile home frames on top of each other, debris piled up," Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth said after surviving damage in the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park. "It looks like there's been heavy equipment in there on a demolition...

The police officer who accidentally killed a Long Island college student along with an armed intruder faced perhaps the most harrowing decision in law enforcement: choosing the split-second moment when the risk is so high that you must pull the trigger. That's the moment authorities say a Nassau County police officer experienced early Friday morning when a masked man holding 21-year-old Andrea Rebello in a headlock pointed a loaded handgun at him. "The big question is, how do you know, when someone's...

The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 11 cents over the past two weeks. The Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday says the price of a gallon of regular is $3.66. Midgrade costs an average of $3.84 a gallon, and premium is $3.98. Diesel held steady at $3.93 gallon. Of the cities surveyed in the Lower 48 states, Tucson, Ariz., has the nation's lowest average price for gas at $3.18. Minneapolis has the highest at $4.27. In California, the lowest average price was $3.94...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Monday: 1. OBAMA OFFERS STARK VIEW, AND ENCOURAGING WORDS, FOR BLACK GRADS As an African-American man, he tells Morehouse's Class of `13, `I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed. I might not have been able to support a family. And that motivates me.' 2. SEVERE STORMS HIT PLAINS, UPPER MIDWEST A tornado causes major damage at trailer park near Oklahoma City; a spotter says earth...

A Phoenix police officer and firefighter both died Sunday after suffering critical injuries in separate accidents on the job, officials said. Police said Officer Daryl Raetz, 29, was conducting a DUI stop on a vehicle in west Phoenix when another vehicle struck him at about 3:30 a.m. and then fled the scene. Raetz, an Iraq war veteran who became a Phoenix police officer six years ago, was taken to a hospital where he later died. A day earlier, 23-year-old Phoenix Firefighter Bradley Harper was...

Two FBI special agents on the agency's elite Hostage Rescue Team have been killed in a training accident in Virginia, officials said Sunday. The accident happened off the coast of Virginia Beach on Friday, the FBI's national press office announced in a statement Sunday. No other details were given and the cause is under investigation. The special agents were identified as Christopher Lorek, 41, and Stephen Shaw, 40. Lorek joined the FBI in 1996 and is survived by a wife and two daughters, 11...

Traffic in southwest Connecticut could be a mess for as much as a week until service is restored to the commuter rail line affected by a derailment that injured scores of passengers, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy warned Sunday. Malloy used dire language to describe traffic troubles for the work week ahead in an area that even in normal times is a pain for motorists. And the governor warned that the weather will not cooperate as rainy weather forecast will make driving a bit more treacherous....

In a commencement address at Atlanta's historically black Morehouse College, President Obama said graduates should "find time to defend the powerless." The president said his own success was due to "the special obligation I felt, as a black man like you, to help those who need it most, people who didn't have the opportunities that I had _ because there but for the grace of God, go I. I might have been in their shoes. I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed." In New Jersey,...

Two commuter trains collided just outside Bridgeport, Conn., on Friday evening, damaging the tracks and snarling travel in the Northeast. Here's a look at what commuters can expect Monday, as the work week gets underway, and beyond: METRO-NORTH RAILROAD SERVICE PROBLEMS: Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says roads could be a mess for a week as Metro-North Railroad crews repair tracks, overhead wires and other equipment. Reduced service will operate between South Norwalk and New York's Grand...

Authorities believe the driver who plowed into dozens of hikers marching in a Virginia mountain town parade suffered from a medical condition and did not cause the crash intentionally, an emergency official said Sunday. Officials did not have a formal confirmation or any specifics on the condition, but based on the accounts of authorities and witnesses on the scene, they are confident the issue was medical, said Pokey Harris, Washington County's director of emergency management. "There is no...

With a bullet still in his body, the police officer who survived a showdown with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects said Sunday he's determined to return to duty. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Officer Richard Donahue has been recovering alongside victims injured in the April 15 attack by the marathon's finish line since his transfer to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston on Friday. The 33-year-old uses crutches to get around now, and is coping with nerve damage that makes...

The federal judge presiding over civil rights challenges to the stop-and-frisk practices of the New York Police Department has no doubt where she stands with the government. "I know I'm not their favorite judge," U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin said during an Associated Press interview Friday. It was another moment of candor for a judge known for her call-it-as-she-sees-it manner and willingness to confront government lawyers in a courthouse where many judges _ former federal prosecutors...

The judge ascended the bench. He looked down at cafeteria-style tables marked "Prosecuting Attorney" and "Defense Attorney." To his left, two men sat in a box marked "Jury." The witness stand was marked "Witness." "Sustained," proclaimed the judge, who wore a striped polo shirt, a thick goatee and a shock of greasy hair. He gave the gavel a sharp bang and waved it around, bringing the court to something resembling order, at least by the standards of a mock trial involving people who have been...

The Coast Guard will kick off hearings Monday on how a Royal Dutch Shell PLC drill barge used for Arctic Ocean exploratory drilling ended up aground off a remote Alaska island. The Kulluk was under tow and bound from the Aleutian Islands' Dutch Harbor to a Seattle shipyard when it ran into rough Gulf of Alaska water. It broke from its towing vessel, and after four days of futile attempted hookups, ran aground New Year's Eve in shallow water off Sitkalidak Island, near Kodiak Island. Damage to...

A lottery official says 1 winning ticket has been sold in Florida for a record Powerball jackpot of more than $590 million. Terry Rich, a lottery official in Iowa, confirmed the ticket matching all six numbers was sold in Florida. Rich told The Associated Press by telephone that details were expected to be announced later by Florida lottery officials about the actual ticket sold. Powerball.com said the winner sold in Florida means the current estimated jackpot resets at $40 million or $25.1 million...

Lottery officials say the winning numbers in a near-historic Powerball jackpot have been drawn. They are: 10, 13, 14, 22, 52 and Powerball 11. Officials say the latest Powerball jackpot figure results are still pending. They had estimated it at $600 million. With four of every five possible combinations of Powerball numbers in play, someone is almost sure to win the game's highest jackpot. The problem, of course, is those same odds just about guarantee the lucky person won't be you. The chances...

One of two wildfires burning in the hills and mountains around Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles was fully contained Saturday and authorities were getting an upper hand on the second one. The 712-acre fire was contained late Saturday after breaking out Friday and briefly threatening an elementary school and about 20 homes, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said. When a wildfire is contained, it means firefighters have corralled it to keep it from advancing, but flames can continue...

Authorities in hazardous materials suits searched a downtown Spokane apartment Saturday, investigating the recent discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin. Few details have been released in the case, and no arrests have been made. Federal investigators have been searching for the person who sent the letters, which were postmarked Tuesday in Spokane. The letters were addressed to the downtown post office and the adjacent federal building, but authorities have not released...

A former Philadelphia police officer once hailed as a hero and given a seat next to the first lady at a speech by President Obama has been arrested and charged with rape and other crimes. Authorities allege that former officer Richard DeCoatsworth left a party with two females early Thursday and took them to another location, where they allege that he produced a handgun and "forced the two females to engage in the use of narcotics and sexual acts." A police spokeswoman said the two called police...

A simple test could have alerted officials that the drinking water at Camp Lejeune was contaminated, long before authorities determined that as many as a million Marines and their families were exposed to a witch's brew of cancer-causing chemicals. But no one responsible for the lab at the base can recall that the procedure _ mandated by the Navy _ was ever conducted. The U.S. Marine Corps maintains that the carbon chloroform extract (CCE) test would not have uncovered the carcinogens that fouled...

The commuter train derailment and collision that left dozens injured outside New York City was not the result of foul play, officials said Saturday, but a fractured section of rail is being studied to determine if it is connected to the accident. National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said Saturday the broken rail is of substantial interest to investigators and a portion of the track will be sent to a lab for analysis. Weener said it's not clear if the accident caused...

Sunbathers flocking to Southern California beaches are used to feeding the meter or paying a parking attendant. Not so along the less developed north coast where it's customary to ditch cars on the shoulder of Highway 1 to surf, swim or picnic. That sandy line that long defined the state's disparate beach culture may soon fade. In search of new revenue, the state parks system is eyeing parking fees for parts of the Northern California shoreline where none existed or considering hiking rates to...

Inmates at jails in Indianapolis, Baltimore, St. Louis and Philadelphia face the nation's highest levels of sexual abuse at the hands of guards, according to a new federal report based on surveys of inmates at U.S. jails and prisons. The report by the U.S. Department of Justice found that the Marion County Jail's inmate-intake center in Indianapolis had a 7.7 percent rate of staff sexual misconduct involving inmates _ the nation's highest for jails _ and well above the average 1.8 percent sex...

An airline official says a US Airways Express flight with 34 people aboard was forced to make a belly landing at Newark International Airport after experiencing landing gear trouble. No injuries were reported. US Airways spokesman Davien Anderson says a turboprop plane that left Philadelphia shortly before 11 p.m. Friday landed safely at Newark with its landing gear retracted at about 1 a.m. Saturday. Anderson says the flight, being operated by Piedmont Airlines, was carrying 31 passengers and...

Boston's police department and mayor's office will conduct twin reviews of the response to last month's bombing of the Boston Marathon, police commissioner Ed Davis said Saturday. Davis said the aim of the reviews is to learn from the experience and prepare for the future. "We are very anxious to get those reviews under way and learn lessons from anything that might pop up as an issue of concern," Davis said. "I expect that this whole year will be a time of review and reflection on what happened."...

Alaska's remote Pavlof Volcano has been shooting lava hundreds of feet into the air, but its ash plume is thinning and is no longer making it dangerous for airplanes to fly nearby. Geologist Chris Waythomas of the Alaska Volcano Observatory says a narrow ash plume extends a couple hundred miles southeast from the volcano, which is 625 miles southwest of Anchorage. The eruption that began Monday seemed to be slowing on Saturday, but Waythomas says that could change at any time. He says seismic...

Jennifer Phillippi's grandparents started producing lumber in this corner of Oregon timber country in 1922, when a man could set up a mill, log the trees within range of a team of horses and move the mill to a new stand when those trees ran out. In those days the forests were full, timber and work both plentiful. But now what was the last sawmill standing in Josephine County has hit the end of the line after yet another timber family had to give up hope that the lands surrounding them could provide...

Funeral services have been held for the New Jersey woman and boy whose bodies were found in their home after a 37-hour hostage standoff last weekend. The Times of Trenton ( http://bit.ly/113Q2dJ ) reports Carmenlita Stevens' four surviving children were among those attending Saturday's service for the 44-year-old woman and her 12-year-old son, Quavon Foster. Stevens' boyfriend had held three of the surviving children hostage during the standoff. Authorities have said Stevens and Foster died from...

When President Barack Obama addresses graduates at Morehouse College on Sunday, he'll also be speaking to the broader community of historically black colleges and universities _ a proud corner of higher education that has struggled more than most during the last few years of economic distress. The so-called HBCUs educate a hugely disproportionate share of low-income students, and both students and schools have been hit hard by a double punch. First, unemployment for blacks remains nearly double...

For more than 100 years, the Anna Louise Inn in downtown Cincinnati has been a safe, serene place that thousands of struggling women came to know as home. But after losing a two-year fight with a Fortune 500 company determined to buy their beautiful, 104-year-old property and turn it into a boutique hotel _ even though it wasn't for sale _ the women of the Anna Louise Inn have to leave the neighborhood. While most of the 60 women living there are relieved that the fight with Western &...

A New York assemblyman accused of sexually harassing young female staffers for years says he will resign before he's expelled from the Legislature. Assemblyman Vito Lopez informed leaders on Saturday he will resign effective Monday morning. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had planned a rare expulsion proceeding against Lopez beginning Monday. Lopez was once a powerful Brooklyn Democratic leader and has been in the Assembly's Democratic majority since 1984. Two reports released last week detailed...

Ron Poirier couldn't escape the feeling that his cancer was somehow a punishment. As a young Marine electronics technician at Camp Lejeune in the mid-1970s, the Massachusetts man figured he'd dumped hundreds of gallons of toxic solvents onto the ground. It would be decades before he realized that he had unknowingly contributed to the worst drinking water contamination in the country's history _ and, perhaps, to his own premature death. "It's just a terrible thing," the 58-year-old veteran told...

Authorities say a 6-year-old boy died after he was kicked in the throat by a pony on a south-central Pennsylvania farm. Police in Lancaster County tell the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era ( http://bit.ly/19HVGaI ) that the boy was playing with other children in a New Holland pasture on Thursday morning. Lt. Jonathan Heisse says the boy approached a pony from behind and the animal became startled and kicked the child in the throat, leaving him unable to breathe. Emergency responders...

As she flipped through the cemetery register, Mary Blakely's eyes filled with tears. On line after line, the entry read simply "Baby Boy" or "Baby Girl," followed by a surname and a burial date. Like Blakely, many of those buried in this lonely section of Onslow Memorial Park known as "Babyland" were the children of Marines stationed down the road at Camp Lejeune. How many of these fellow "Devil Dog pups," she wondered, died because they or their pregnant mothers had swallowed or bathed in the...

Purple wildflowers sprout in abundance around the bright-yellow pipe, one of several jutting from the sandy soil in this unassuming patch of grass and mud. A dirty hose runs from the pipe to an idling truck and into a large tank labeled, "NON-POTABLE WATER." This is the former Hadnot Point fuel farm, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune's main fuel depot until it was ordered closed in the 1980s. At one point, a layer of gasoline 15 feet thick floated atop the groundwater here, and this "fluid vapor...

Officials in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's office say the governor will meet with representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board and Connecticut's two U.S. senators at the site of a Metro-North Railroad crash that injured 70 people. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and other Connecticut officials will also participate in the tour, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. EDT Saturday near Bridgeport. The delegation will update journalists with the latest details of the crash after surveying the...

The Powerball jackpot for Saturday night's drawing has climbed to $600 million, the largest in that game's history and closing in on the largest lottery jackpot of all time. Here's a look at the top 10 world record lottery jackpots. 1. $656.0 million, Mega Millions, March 30, 2012 (3 tickets from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland) 2. Estimated $600 million, Powerball, (drawing scheduled for Saturday, May 18; jackpot could grow) 3. $587.5 million, Powerball, Nov. 28, 2012 (2 tickets from Arizona...

O.J. Simpson's former lawyer defended himself point-by-point Friday against allegations he botched the former football star's armed-robbery trial, after giving damaging testimony that Simpson actually knew his buddies had guns when they went to a hotel room together to reclaim some sports memorabilia. Miami-based attorney Yale Galanter quickly found himself under withering cross-examination from a Simpson lawyer intent on proving that Galanter's word couldn't be trusted _ that he knew ahead...

"Listening to the nightly news, this appears to be just the latest example of a culture of cover-ups and political intimidation in this administration. It seems like the truth is hidden from the American people just long enough to make it through an election." _ Republican Dave Camp, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, speaking about the IRS scandal and two other issues plaguing the White House. ___ "If this hearing becomes essentially a bootstrap to continue the campaign of 2012 and to...

As firefighters took on a stubborn 3-day-old wildfire Friday in rough terrain north of Los Angeles, a second and more serious blaze broke out 30 miles away near Interstate 5, quickly surging to more than 500 acres, briefly threatening an elementary school and leading to the precautionary evacuation of nearly 20 homes. The new fire burned very close to I-5 during some of the busiest hours of the week for the heavily traveled route in and out of Los Angeles. The freeway has seen wildfire...

Two cups of coffee ended life on the run for an Internet sensation known as Kai the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker. An employee at a Starbucks in Philadelphia is credited with recognizing 24-year-old Caleb "Kai" McGillvary, whose fledgling celebrity took a turn toward notoriety when authorities announced this week that he was wanted in the beating death of a New Jersey lawyer three times his age. The unlikely pair met amid the neon lights of New York City's Times Square over the weekend and headed...

Two commuter trains serving New York City collided in Connecticut during Friday's evening rush hour, sending 60 people to the hospital, including five with critical injuries, Gov. Dannel Malloy said. About 700 people were on board the Metro-North trains when one heading east from New York City's Grand Central Station to New Haven derailed about 6:10 p.m. just outside Bridgeport, MTA and Bridgeport officials said. The train was hit by a train heading west from New Haven to Grand Central on an...

North Korea is still trying to import and export nuclear and ballistic missile-related items but financial and trade sanctions are slowing progress on development of their prohibited weapons, U.N. experts say in a new report. Key parts of the expert panel's report, obtained Friday by the Associated Press, provide further information on North Korea's attempts to evade four rounds of increasingly tough U.N. sanctions aimed at reining in its development of nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles...

A possible tornado has knocked down trees, flipped Dumpsters and damaged the roof of a nearby WalMart in a north Alabama city. A forecaster at the National Weather Service in Huntsville said the suspected tornado started about a mile south-southeast of Athens and moved in a line toward southwest Ardmore. It struck at about 2 p.m. Friday. Athens Police Chief Floyd Johnson said that he saw the backside of a wall cloud that had a tail. Police followed as it moved up Route 31 to Interstate 65. He...

Residents whose homes were torn apart or blown away by a North Texas deadly tornado can soon return to retrieve what belongings may be left and start cleaning up, authorities said Friday. In Granbury, the area hardest hit by Wednesday night's exceptionally strong tornado, workers are trying to restore water service, raise electrical lines and clear debris piles filled with insulation, roof tiles, pieces of carpet, a shoe, a teddy bear, a woman's purse. Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds said...

An Arkansas law banning most abortions 12 weeks into a woman's pregnancy won't take effect while a legal challenge is pending, a federal judge ruled Friday. U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright granted a request for a preliminary injunction against the ban, which was set to take effect in August. The state's Republican-led Legislature overrode a veto from Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe to enact the law in March. Weeks later, attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and the...

The killings of an elderly couple shot dead in their northern Nevada home ahead of Mother's Day apparently went unnoticed until days later, after the 25-year-old suspect had also killed a newspaper deliveryman and another couple nearby, charging documents allege. Jeremiah Bean was arraigned Thursday on 19 counts, including first-degree murder, arson and burglary. He was assigned a public defender and is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Tuesday. The victims were discovered Monday in and around...

The five West Coast states affected by debris from the 2011 tsunami in Japan are about to receive an initial $250,000 each from a $5 million gift from Japan for cleanup. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is distributing the money to Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington and will allocate the remainder as additional needs arise. It's unclear how far the money will stretch for what some state officials and beach-cleaning groups expect to be a yearslong problem. Alaska...

Finals week was dangerous for Thomas Saenz. The Navy lieutenant needed armed guards and an armored car to get to an exam site, in Kabul, Afghanistan. A deadly bomb attack also caused him to his miss classes _ transmitted live via the Internet _ but he persevered and earned a master's degree in engineering from the University of Southern California while commanding a top security team. His class graduated on Friday, as he joins a growing number of service members earning college degrees while...

A Montana judge said he fears he's done a "soul-wrenching injustice" to a man he freed from prison after more than 27 years, only to see him ordered back behind bars by a higher court. Retired state District Judge E. Wayne Phillips told The Associated Press Friday he was troubled he "got it wrong" when he granted a retrial for Barry Beach in the 1979 killing of Beach's teenage classmate on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. That 2011 ruling gave Beach 525 days out of prison _ before the Montana...

After paying an $11 million advance to a struggling Atlantic City casino it intended to buy, the parent company of the world's largest online poker website was left with nothing for its troubles Friday when a judge ruled the casino had the right to scrap the deal. Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten said The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel could terminate the contract it signed with The Rational Group, the British parent company of PokerStars, when the company failed to get New Jersey's preliminary...

A historic Milwaukee bowling alley and bar almost went without the appropriate support after a city inspector decided dozens of bras hanging from its ceiling were a fire hazard. Holler House owner Marcy Skowronski said she and some of her friends started the tradition 45 years ago, when they had a few drinks and threw their bras onto skis hanging from the bar's ceiling. They've amassed dozens of all sizes and colors over the years, even replacing old bras with new ones at the bar's 100th anniversary...

Melissa Torrez didn't even think when teenagers in her apartment complex said a man had just grabbed her 4-year-old girl and drove away. She jumped in her car and began chasing the brown Buick through traffic, zigzagging on Interstate 40 at high speeds and staying with the car even as it bluffed trying to exit in an attempt to lose her. Many called Torrez a hero after her story came out Wednesday. But Torrez said Friday that she was just a mother following her instincts. "My mind went black....

The wife of the Mormon church's president shied away from the spotlight, but her lifelong work behind the scenes left a lasting impression on those who knew her. Frances B. Monson, 85, died early Friday at a hospital in Salt Lake City surrounded by her family, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said. Her daughter, Ann Dibb, said her mom was a supportive wife, a proud mother and one heck of a fixer-upper around the house. "My mother was just a woman who went about doing good without...

A college student in suburban Atlanta is accused of faking his own kidnapping to avoid telling his parents he was failing a class. John's Creek city spokesman Doug Nurse says 19-year-old Aftab Aslam bought a cellphone and texted his parents a story about being kidnapped April 27. Nurse says Aslam camped for about a week in an undeveloped area in Forsyth County, but the weather turned cold and rainy and he went home. Nurse says Aslam left home because he didn't want to tell his parents he was...

Hundreds gathered Friday to remember the late grandson of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X as mourners said Malcolm Shabazz was well on his way to cementing his own legacy. More than 200 people attended a traditional Islamic service in Oakland for the 28-year-old Shabazz, who authorities say was beaten to death last week over a $1,200 bar bill in Mexico City. The service, which lasted more than two hours, featured plenty of prayer, songs, spoken word and tears. Many among the procession of...

A man accused of imprisoning three women in his Cleveland home for a decade spends most of his time in jail resting or asleep, with breaks for pacing, showers and cell cleaning. New jail logs released Friday also document defendant Ariel Castro thanking a guard for bringing him breakfast and wishing him a good day. Castro, 52, remains on suicide watch with his activities documented in writing every 10 minutes at the Cuyahoga County jail. He faces preliminary charges of rape and kidnapping following...

He was a Russian-speaking truck driver who came to Idaho nearly four years ago to join hundreds of other Uzbekistan refugees for whom the state has become a sanctuary from violence in their home country. But federal officials say in an indictment that Fazliddin Kurbanov also was teaching people to build bombs that would target public transportation. It's unclear whether those alleged targets were domestic or abroad _ or how far Kurbanov would have gone. Prosecutors said Friday...

A Hofstra University junior sharing an off-campus house with her twin sister and several other college students was shot and killed during an early morning break-in Friday that also left the armed intruder dead, police said. The shooting at a private house only steps from the Long Island campus cast a pall over the university community gearing up for commencement ceremonies this weekend. Hofstra's president said in a statement that the ceremonies would go on as scheduled. It wasn't clear who...

The longtime girlfriend of reputed gangster James "Whitey" Bulger lost her bid to reduce the eight-year prison sentence she received for helping Bulger during his 16 years as a fugitive. A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Friday that it found no basis to change the sentence that Catherine Greig received after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harbor a fugitive, identity fraud and conspiracy to commit identity fraud. The panel included retired U.S. Supreme Court...

A former Mississippi police chief already charged with demanding money or property in exchange for dropping criminal charges against people has been indicted on nine new federal counts. The new indictment against ex-Mendenhall Police Chief Donald "Bruce" Barlow says he sometimes made people sign over their vehicles in exchange for him dropping charges and also demanded cash payments, in one case $4,500. Barlow was first indicted Feb. 5 on eight counts including conspiracy, extortion, soliciting...

Prosecutors plan to retry a Central Texas man whose 25-year-old conviction for setting a fire that killed his two young stepsons was set aside due to issues raised later with the science used to find him guilty. Ed Graf's murder conviction was set aside in March by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. His case is one of several flagged by a state panel that's examining possible problems with arson investigations in criminal cases. McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna said Friday that...

The attorneys for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cannot take their own periodic photos of him, a judge ruled Friday, denying the request pertaining to "his evolving mental and physical state" and whether his statements to authorities after his arrest were made voluntarily. U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler found Tsarnaev's lawyers could not take their own photos, saying the Fort Devens prison where Tsarnaev is housed has a policy against visitors bringing cameras. The motion...

A woman who thought her family was being stalked by "demonic presences" killed her two children in a southern Indiana creek before she also drowned, police said Friday. Police had released little information after body of Jaime Clutter, 35, was found in March, along with the bodies of her 10-year-old son, Brandon, and 6-month-old daughter, Katelyn. The naked bodies were recovered in a park less than a mile from where the family lived in New Albany, a city along the Ohio River just west of Louisville,...

When Marine Sgt. Ross Gundlach served as a dog handler in Afghanistan, he told the yellow lab who was his constant companion that he'd look her up when he returned home. "I promised her if we made it out of alive, I'd do whatever it took to find her," Gundlach said. On Friday, he made good on that vow with help from some sentimental state officials in Iowa who know how to pull off a surprise. Since leaving active duty to take classes at the University of Wisconsin this summer, Gundlach,...

Carol Connell remembers well the gift she gave Sara Ylen, a friend seemingly forced to bear too much misery. Ylen, a Michigan mother of two young boys, said she was battling cancer just a few years after a man was convicted of her rape. "It was a little box, a very ornate box, to hold a prayer. She needed God to look over her," Connell said, recalling the 2008 lunch when she gave Ylen the jewelry. "Sara was visibly touched." Connell now can't help but wonder whether Ylen was showing gratitude...

A federal judge in an order Friday agreed to postpone the trial of a former BP engineer charged with deleting text messages about the company's response to its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The judge also had some stern words for attorneys on both sides. Kurt Mix's trial was scheduled to start June 10, but U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. agreed to reschedule it for Dec. 2 to give Mix's attorneys more time to review millions of government documents related to the case. Mix, a resident...

In workplaces across the nation, Americans are inviting their colleagues to chip in $2 for a Powerball ticket and a shared daydream. The office lottery pool is a way to improve your odds and have a little fun with co-workers. And besides, who wants to be the only person at work the next day when everyone quits? With $600 million on the line, this is the time to play. It's the largest-ever Powerball jackpot and the second-largest world jackpot of all time. And it could get even bigger before Saturday's...

In a story May 16 about a shutdown at the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant, The Associated Press reported erroneously that the reactor vessel contains superheated steam. The vessel covers the nuclear core, which produces heat. The heat is converted to steam later in the process to produce electricity. A corrected version of the story is below: NC nuclear plant shut down after crack discovered NC nuclear plant shut down after crack discovered; officials say no safety threat By EMERY P. DALESIO...

A 17-year-old who told authorities last week where they could find the bodies of two teenage brothers has been charged in their deaths, and prosecutors want to try him as an adult. The aggravated murder charges announced Friday against Michael Fay came just over a week after he and the teens were named in an Amber Alert issued after the slain brothers' mother discovered a gun and blood inside a trailer home where the three boys lived with their mothers. The mother frantically called 911 on May...

Patty Wagstaff is a Hollywood stunt pilot, three-time U.S. aerobatic champion, inductee to the National Aviation Hall of Fame and favorite on the air show circuit. One of her tricked-out planes is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. But this weekend, she's grounded. Federal budget cuts that eliminated military flying acts triggered the cancellation of dozens of air shows, meaning lost income for performers, air show announcers, concessionaires, vendors and others who...

A former girlfriend of a man accused in the beating deaths of five people in central Illinois says he had a blister on one hand but otherwise acted normally the day after the killings. Kristy Moore testified Friday that Christopher Harris said the blister came from trimming trees. Harris is charged with beating his former in-laws to death with a tire iron in September 2009. Rick and Ruth Gee and three of their children were found dead in their home in Beason, 160 miles southwest of Chicago....

As a shrewd businesswoman with keen insight and endless aspirations, Ophelia DeVore worked for much of the 20th century to smash stereotypes and empower black women by teaching them poise, confidence and the courage to get ahead in a world deeply etched by racial discrimination. DeVore's eclectic career spanned more than six decades, beginning as a model at 16 and continuing into her 90s today as the owner of a newspaper in Georgia. Along the way, she opened one of the first modeling agencies...

A former U.S. Postal Service official has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for accepting at least $40,000 in bribes to help a Maryland company receive $6 million in contracts. Forty-eight-year-old Gene Quarles of Spotsylvania pleaded guilty earlier this year in federal court in Alexandria to bribery of a public official. Prosecutors had sought a two-year sentence. Court documents say the purchasing specialist regularly received payments between 2010 and 2012 from the owners of AH Computer...

Military officials say a Humvee carrying six Navy SEALs and two other sailors overturned during a training exercise at Fort Knox in Kentucky, killing one of the SEALs and injuring the others on board. Lt. David Lloyd, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Group Two in Virginia Beach, Va., says the Humvee was part of a convoy on the post when it overturned Wednesday night. What caused it to flip remains under investigation. The Navy says the SEAL who died was Special Warfare Operator Third...

Powerball officials say the jackpot has climbed to an estimated $600 million, making it the largest prize in the game's history and the world's second largest lottery prize. Lottery officials say the prize is growing quickly Friday because so many people have been purchasing the $2 tickets. The jackpot has grown by an estimated $236 million since the last drawing on Wednesday. The last jackpot was won on March 30, so it's been growing for about six weeks. The next drawing is Saturday night....

Democratic New York City Assemblyman Vito Lopez says he will resign amid a sexual harassment scandal and run for New York City council. Lopez says he'll step down June 20. Lopez has been under growing pressure after it was revealed the state secretly paid women $103,000 to settle sexual harassment claims against the one-time Brooklyn power broker. Two blistering reports this week, from a special prosecutor and the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics, painted an ugly picture of unwanted...

An Oregon funeral home in Eugene offers natural burials where the ride to the person's final resting place is on the back of a three-wheeled bicycle. Sunset Hills Cemetery and Funeral Home director Wade Lind says he got the idea from bikers and designed the pedal-powered hearse himself. It has an electric motor to give him a little help hauling the casket. KVAL reports ( http://bit.ly/10VwlL1 ) Lind has bicycled five bodies so far and there's a waiting list for the service. The ride and a bamboo...

Authorities say the gun used in a 37-hour standoff between New Jersey police and a man holding three children and two dead bodies was fake. State Police Lt. Stephen Jones says hostage-taker Gerald Tyrone Murphy had a replica semi-automatic handgun. Jones says that doesn't change the way officers responded. Jones says Murphy also was holding a large kitchen knife and other knives were found. Police were called to the Trenton home May 10 after a relative of a victim reported not hearing from her...

At 14, Tyler Cohen had never been out of the country or traveled without his Long Island family when he found himself in Costa Rica on a monthlong service trip for teens. There, he worked on a coffee plantation, made signs for a rainforest restoration project, built bunk beds for shantytown kids and helped fix up an orphanage, where a wily 5-year-old named Fernando snatched the white baseball cap off his head and ran away one afternoon. "He thought he was so cool when he put it on. I told him...

An official says a charity set up to help the three women freed from a decade of captivity in a Cleveland house has raised more than $480,000 so far. Lynne Woodman of KeyBank tells The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer ( http://bit.ly/10V7Mh8 ) that there have been more than 5,100 donations to what has been named the Cleveland Courage Fund. She says donations have come all 50 states and several foreign countries. The money will go into four trust funds established for the victims. Amanda Berry, Gina...

This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, May 19: Union assaults on Vicksburg, Miss. This week 150 years ago in the Civil War, Ulysses Grant hurled his Union forces at heavily fortified Vicksburg, Miss., in hopes of a swift conquest of the Mississippi River city. Union artillery began the assault early on May 19, 1863 before troopers stormed through a series of Confederate obstacles of downed trees and other obstructions toward the Confederate lines. But Southern fighters responded with...

1. HOUSE TO GRILL OUSTED IRS CHIEF Steven Miller will have to answer to a Republican-run committee today about why conservative groups were targeted by the agency. 2. HOW A LOOPHOLE LET SOME TERRORISTS FLY A government watchdog says some in the witness protection program weren't on no-fly lists. 3. WHY A WEAK YEN MAY MEAN NEW CARS IN U.S. DRIVEWAYS Prices will drop for Japanese products such as Toyota automobiles and Sony electronics, which is good news for American and European consumers....

Steven Alexander stood before the jury, looked up at a family picture and grimaced and cried as he ticked off the list of problems that have befallen him in the five years since his brother was murdered: ulcers, depression, a separation from his wife, nightmares. The dreams consist of someone coming at him with a knife then going after his wife and daughter. Other times, he has nightmares about his brother, "curled up in a shower, thrown in there, left to rot for days, all alone." He feels like...

"It is time we take on the fight against sexual assault and sexual harassment as our primary mission." _ Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, saying trust between soldiers and their leaders has been violated by a recent string of misconduct cases. ___ "The American people deserve to have the utmost confidence and trust in their government, and as we work to get to the bottom of what happened and restore confidence in the IRS, Danny has the experience and management ability necessary to...

The man convicted in a murder trial that hinged on a paralyzed victim blinking his eyes to identify his shooter plans to appeal, a defense attorney said after the verdict. A jury on Thursday found Ricardo Woods guilty of murder and felonious assault for the death of David Chandler, who was shot Oct. 28, 2010, while sitting in a car in Cincinnati. Woods, 35, had no obvious reaction as the verdict was read on the third day of jury deliberations but later said "I'm innocent" as he was led to jail....

Anchorage police say a young man who didn't want to return to jail ran out onto the uncertain ice of an Alaska lake to escape officers armed with an arrest warrant. Police spokeswoman Dani Myren says officers were sufficiently concerned about the thickness of the ice covering Cheney lake that none of them wanted to venture onto it. So a standoff ensued. KTUU-TV reports ( http://is.gd/4WCBub ) that police negotiators and Fire Department dive teams were staging on the lakeshore when the young...