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Ford's newest C-Max is the ultimate plug-in gasoline-electric hatchback for fuel- and environmentally conscious drivers yearning for something new. Introduced for 2013, the C-Max Energi is an electric plug-in, tall, five-seat car that has a four-cylinder, gasoline engine as a backup. A driver can typically travel for up to 21 miles on all-electric power before the gas engine seamlessly takes over. Or, the driver can push a button to select gas-engine propulsion only _ say, if he or she is headed...

A state transportation official says a planned repair for seismic safety rods that snapped on the new span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge could cost between $5 million to $10 million. California Transportation Commission Executive Director Andre Boutros released the estimate at a meeting of the Bay Area Toll Authority on Wednesday morning. He said officials are still hopeful they can open the bridge on schedule on Labor Day. The repair officials plan to go ahead with for the 32 rods...

In a normal school setting, Tony Colton and Ashley Krueger probably wouldn't cross paths. He's 13. She's 18. He's short and outgoing. She's about 6 feet tall and serious. He's in middle school, she's thinking about college. But where they met _ All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg _ nothing is normal. Here, in the halls adorned with whimsical paintings and cheery colors and masked nurses, they both faced a deadly cancer diagnosis. "We make each other laugh, which is important," said Ashley....

If Libya can conduct fair trials of the top henchmen of the overthrown Gadhafi regime, it could be "Libya's Nuremberg moment," the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Wednesday. Fatou Bensounda told the Security Council that her office is still investigating allegations of serious crimes committed by former Gadhafi officials, some of whom are now outside of Libya, and said the ICC plans to make a decision soon on a second major case and on more cases of Gadhafi regime officials...

A man whose 6-year-old son was among those killed in the Newtown, Conn., elementary school massacre was scheduled to appear in Connecticut Superior Court Wednesday on larceny and other charges. Neil Heslin, who has lobbied Congress and the Connecticut legislature for increased gun control in the wake of the shooting, had five separate cases listed on the docket in Milford Superior Court. The News-Times of Danbury reports Heslin faces charges that date back to July 2011, three of which involve...

An American Eagle flight from Detroit has landed safely at New York's LaGuardia Airport after being struck by lightning. American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller says American Eagle Flight 4563 was struck twice by lightning as it approached New York on Wednesday morning. Miller says the captain declared an emergency as a precaution. The plane landed safely at 10:41 a.m. The spokesman says a maintenance team is inspecting the aircraft. It was an Embraer 135 with 20 passengers and three crew members....

Kerry Lester, an award-winning political reporter in Illinois, has been named Supervisory Correspondent for The Associated Press in Springfield, Ill. Lester, 30, joins the AP from the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill. She will join a four-person team covering state government and politics in Illinois that includes investigative reporter John O'Connor in Springfield and political reporters Sara Burnett and Sophia Tareen in Chicago. The appointment was announced Wednesday by Central Region...

A Tucson climber was found dead, hanging from a southern Arizona cliff in his climbing gear and covered with bee stings. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office says 55-year-old Steven Johnson was found in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson late Monday. Cause of death hasn't been determined yet, but officials say Johnson was covered with stings when he was found. Johnson was last seen Friday when he went hiking, and friends became worried when he didn't go to work on Monday. Search and...

A federal investigation is reportedly underway in the town of Anthony, which straddles New Mexico and Texas. The El Paso Times reports ( http://bit.ly/11j0tS1 ) several residents reported waking to the sound of loud bangs around 5 a.m. Wednesday. And at least two helicopters were seen flying over the town, with one shining a spotlight over some areas. A spokesman with the FBI in New Mexico told the newspaper there is a multi-agency operation being conducted in Anthony, N.M., and that more information...

Authorities say a 3-year-old Florida boy has died after shooting himself with a gun he found in his uncle's backpack. The shooting happened Tuesday night in a bedroom Jadarrius Speights shared with his uncle at an apartment complex in Tampa. Authorities say the uncle, 29-year-old Jeffrey D. Walker, has been charged with culpable negligence. It wasn't immediately clear whether Walker had an attorney. His phone number was not listed and jail records didn't give a lawyer for him. Police say he...

A man walking by a Pasco County home saw a hand waving to him from the window of a car parked in the garage. As he walked up the driveway, he heard a muffled voice. "I can't get out of my car," Justyn "Jay" Ambrozia, 90, called out. "Can you help me?" Tim Weidman called 911. Turns out Ambrozia had been stuck inside the car for three days, after falling during a shopping trip to Publix supermarket on April 30. Ambrozia fell as he rounded a corner that day, according to The Tampa Bay Times (...

From the privacy of their bedrooms to the public bustle of busy hospital wards, families and friends are struggling with the heartbreak of losing five loved ones, all nurses, killed Saturday in a burning limousine. Outside the Fruitvale HealthCare Center in Oakland, the medical center where all nine met and became fast friends, nurse Medhanit Kahassai ran sobbing out the door into the parking lot on Tuesday, overwhelmed with grief as flowers piled up in their break room. "It's hard today,"...

Investigators in Arizona have arrested a man suspected of killing a woman in Tucson more than 35 years ago. Tucson police say 66-year-old Bruce McCullough has been charged with first-degree murder in the March 1976 death of 20-year-old Donna Smith. Authorities say the two had been living together as a couple. Detectives reviewing cold cases were able to track McCullough to San Diego and arrested him at his home last week. They say he avoided law enforcement for decades by using a fake identity...

1. SUSPECT IN WOMEN'S DISAPPEARANCE HELPED LOOK FOR THEM Neighbors say Ariel Castro handed out fliers with Gina Dejesus' picture on it years ago. The woman was found in his home and police say Castro kidnapped her years ago. 2. REPUBLICANS PUSH FOR MORE ANSWERS ON BENGHAZI Three State Department officials are testifying at a House hearing today exploring the White House's actions before and after the September 2012 attack. 3. AIR FORCE SIDELINES 17 NUCLEAR LAUNCH OFFICERS The AP obtains an...

As he shivered on a narrow iron bar 220 feet above San Francisco Bay, 22-year-old Kevin Berthia heard a voice. It did not belong to the old wounds, crushing worries and inner demons that had driven him to the Golden Gate Bridge. This voice, calm and kind, patient and reassuring, belonged to California Highway Patrol Officer Kevin Briggs. And it was all that stood between Berthia and all-but-certain death. For more than an hour, Briggs kept talking as the younger man poured out his troubles....

Mikki Snyder-Hall married her partner, Claire, in California in 2008, and moved two years ago to Rehoboth, a gay-friendly Delaware beach town. Now they're looking forward to July 1, when Delaware officially becomes the 11th state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage after Gov. Jack Markell signed a gay marriage bill into law Tuesday. "As of July, we are considered married," said Snyder-Hall said. The couple said that while they don't intend to have another wedding ceremony, they may have...

Federal land managers have cited the toll of environmental litigation _ as well as budget problems and low staffing _ in postponing all oil and gas lease auctions in California until October. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management recently announced it would put off an auction planned for later this month for leases to drill almost 1,300 acres of prime public lands near the Monterey Shale, home to one of the largest deposits of shale oil in the nation. Another auction for about 2,000 acres that had...

The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 15,000 for the first time Tuesday. An improving outlook for the economy and record corporate earnings are persuading investors to buy stocks. Federal Reserve stimulus is also helping. The Dow has gained 15 percent this year. It has more than doubled since hitting a bottom at 6,547 on March 9, 2009 during the Great Recession. Now that stocks have scaled these heights, what's next? Four market experts give their views. THE BULL: James Paulsen, chief...

A panel of three judges has decided that the vast majority of the $1 million reward offered in the manhunt for rogue ex-cop Christopher Dorner will go to a couple he tied up in their Southern California mountain cabin. The Los Angeles Police Department posted a document on its website Tuesday detailing the payouts for the much-sought reward, and it said about $800,000 will go to James and Karen Reynolds. The judges wrote that they awarded the money according to the "comparative value of the...

As prom season, summer weddings and sunshine escapes beckon, here are some questions consumers may want to ask when picking a limousine company to chauffeur a special evening. Industry officials and regulators alike say there are guidelines to keep in mind when choosing among the nation's 109,300 chauffeured limousines, party buses, SUVs and other vehicles: 1. DON'T LET PRICE BE YOUR ONLY CONSIDERATION After shopping around for the best price, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration spokesman...

"Despite different points of view, committed partners can accomplish great things together when the world needs it. And this is one of those moments." _ Secretary of State John Kerry after the U.S. and Russia agreed to try to convene an international conference this month to come to a political solution to end the two-year Syrian civil war. ___ "I don't want just more speeches or awareness programs or training, or ultimately folks look the other way. We're going to have to not just step up our...

Ukraine's foreign minister said he expects his country to sign a cooperation agreement with the European Union later this year despite the EU's objections to the jailing of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Leonid Kozhara said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that the government accepts that the Tymoshenko case is a problem in relations between Ukraine and the EU. But he said a single criminal case shouldn't be an obstacle to Ukraine signing an association agreement with...

One neighbor says a naked woman was seen crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard of the house a few years ago. Another heard pounding on the home's doors and noticed plastic bags over the windows. Both times, police showed up but never went inside, neighbors say. Police also paid a visit to the house in 2004, but no one answered the door. Now, after three women who vanished a decade ago were found captive Monday at the run-down house, Cleveland police are facing questions for...

The jury in Jodi Arias' murder trial concluded its second full day of deliberations on Tuesday without reaching a verdict. Jurors adjourned late Tuesday afternoon and will resume Wednesday morning. They got the case Friday afternoon but only deliberated for about an hour. Arias, 32, is charged with first-degree murder in the June 4, 2008, death of her one-time boyfriend at his suburban Phoenix home. Authorities say she killed Travis Alexander in a jealous rage after he wanted to end their...

The United Nations says a U.N. peacekeeper was killed in an attack on a military convoy in eastern Congo. U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said late Tuesday that the convoy was attacked by unidentified assailants in South Kivu. No other details were immediately available. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the attack killed a Pakistani peacekeeper and condemned it "in the strongest terms," Nesirky said. The secretary-general called on the Congolese government to bring the perpetrators to justice...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday: 1. BENIGN PORTRAIT EMERGES OF CLEVELAND SUSPECT The man who owned the home where three missing women were found alive played bass guitar in salsa and merengue bands and gave children rides on his motorcycle. 2. THE BULL THAT ROARED The Dow closed above 15,000 for the first time, and has climbed almost 15 percent since Jan. 1. 3. WHAT SYRIA'S TEPID RESPONSE TO ISRAEL MEANS Tied down...

In the tight-knit neighborhood near downtown where many conversations are spoken in Spanish, it seems most everyone knew Ariel Castro. He played bass guitar in salsa and merengue bands. He parked his school bus on the street. He gave neighborhood children rides on his motorcycle. And when they gathered for a candlelight vigil to remember two girls who vanished years ago, Castro was there, too, comforting the mother of one of the missing, a neighbor said. Neighbors and friends were stunned...

Federal prosecutors rested their case Tuesday in the trial of an 83-year-old nun and two follow nuclear protesters accused of painting slogans and splattering human blood on a Tennessee weapons facility known as the "Fort Knox of uranium." Prosecutors argued the act was a serious security breach that continues to disrupt operations at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. Attorneys for Sister Megan Rice and Michael Walli, both of Washington, D.C., and Greg Boertje-Obed of Duluth, Minn.,...

A man accused of killing three people in a Wisconsin farmhouse last month told investigators he broke into their house for warmth and then struck each of them with a fireplace poker as they returned home, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday. Jaren Michael Kuester, 31, was charged with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide, as well as single counts of burglary and driving a vehicle without the owner's consent. He's accused of killing 70-year-old Gary Thoreson; his 66-year-old...

Delaware became the 11th state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage when Democratic Gov. Jack Markell signed a gay marriage bill into law just minutes after its passage by the state Senate on Tuesday. "I do not intend to make any of you wait one moment longer," a smiling Markell told about 200 jubilant supporters who erupted in cheers and applause following the 12-9 Senate vote barely half an hour earlier. "Delaware should be, is and will be a welcoming place to live and love and to raise...

The administrator of a fund created to help Boston Marathon bombing victims has a blunt message for them: Lower your expectations. Attorney Kenneth Feinberg said at a public meeting Tuesday that the $28 million One Fund Boston won't pay out nearly enough to fully compensate the families of the three killed or the more than 260 injured, and may not pay much of anything to those with less serious injuries. "There isn't enough money to pay everybody who justifiably expects it or needs it,"...

After disrupting his capital murder trial several times with profanity-filled outbursts, a Texas man erupted in one final chaotic fit when a jury sentenced him to death on Tuesday for killing a bystander while trying to shoot his daughter outside a courthouse. Bartholomew Granger's courtroom rants against his daughter, prosecutors and the judge had intensified since he was convicted last week of capital murder in the death of 79-year-old Minnie Ray Sebolt, who was walking outside the courthouse...

Federal authorities announced a crackdown Tuesday on predatory businesses that cheat "desperate and vulnerable" people harmed by the 2008 financial crisis with phony promises to consolidate their debt. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told a news conference that charges were brought against the owner and three employees of a New York company that cheated over 1,200 customers nationwide after opening its doors in 2009. They were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, along...

Louisiana's Supreme Court says the funding method for a private school tuition voucher program pushed through the Legislature last year by prominent Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal violates the state constitution. The voucher program was touted as a major achievement for Jindal, often mentioned as a potential presidential contender. It makes state-paid tuition available to students from low- to moderate-income families who otherwise would have to attend a poorly performing public school. Tuesday's...

From the privacy of their bedrooms to the public bustle of busy hospital wards, families and friends Tuesday struggled with the heartbreak of losing five loved ones, all nurses, who died Saturday in a burning limousine. Outside the Fruitvale HealthCare Center, the medical center where all nine met and became fast friends, nurse Medhanit Kahassai ran sobbing out the door into the parking lot on Tuesday, overwhelmed with grief as flowers piled up in their break room. "It's hard today," she...

Two Air National Guard units that fly C-130 cargo planes against wildfires are taking part in annual training this week under new standards and procedures adopted since one of the specially equipped planes crashed last year. The changes include reassessing fire and weather conditions throughout the day and not primarily before the first flights each morning. "We're more focused on taking the time that's necessary to analyze each scenario," Maj. Jeremy Schaad, with the Wyoming Air National...

With the beaming smiles of newlyweds, Paul Forziano and Hava Samuels hold hands, exchange adoring glances and complete each other's sentences. Their first wedding dance, he recalls, was to the song "Unchained ..." "Melody," she chimes in. They spend their days together in the performing arts education center where they met. But every night, they must part ways. Forziano goes to his group home. His wife goes to hers. The mentally disabled couple is not allowed to share a bedroom by the state-sanctioned...

Almost a month into their review of the deadly blast at a Texas fertilizer plant, investigators are hoping to draw a picture from the air of how the plant looked before the explosion and compare it to the 93-foot-wide crater that's there now. They'll paint and mark off lines for the walls of each building at West Fertilizer, where an April 17 explosion killed at least 14 people. Then, they'll fly overhead to compare the lines to the crater. That process will occur as investigators try to reconstruct...

Authorities on Tuesday were investigating the deaths of three people whose bodies were found on a rural property in eastern Kansas, a day after friends of the residents called police to report a foul smell at the site. Meanwhile, investigators in a nearby county were waiting to see if one of the bodies is a suburban Kansas City mother who has been missing with her 18-month-old baby since last week. The bodies of two adult men and one woman were found Monday on the farm west of Ottawa, which...

John Reifsteck looks out at his muddy 1,800-acre central Illinois farm and wonders when he'll get to plant. Like so many other Midwest growers who were praying for rain during the recent drought, he's now pining for enough sunshine and heat to dry out his soggy fields as the deadline approaches for deciding what he can even plant this year. It's a troubling scenario playing out across America's breadbasket, where the U.S. Department of Agriculture says just 12 percent of the nation's cornfields...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has spoken out publicly about his struggle with weight on many occasions, starting when he first ran for the state's highest office in 2009. He has frequently joked about his size while also seeking to identify with other Americans struggling to shed pounds, though he has never said how much he weighs. Some comments Christie has made about his weight and other related developments: ___ OCTOBER 2009: A TV ad for Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine accuses Christie, his...

Captivated jurors in a Cincinnati murder trial watched video Tuesday that prosecutors say shows a dying, paralyzed shooting victim who couldn't speak identifying a photo of his killer by blinking his eyes. Over the unsuccessful and repeated objections of defense attorneys, prosecutors showed the jury a 17-minute video of shooting victim David Chandler, 35, in which he answers detectives' questions by blinking twice to say "no" and three times for "yes." Ricardo Woods, 35, is charged with Chandler's...

Apparently frustrated by a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down an $18 million penalty for a Texas natural gas firm, a federal judge is taking the unusual step of asking the environmental community for suggestions on how to sentence the company in a way that will have "the broadest possible impact." U.S. District Judge William Smith in Providence said in a preliminary sentencing memorandum filed April 25 that the high court's decision means he is limited to fining Southern Union Co. $500,000...

A San Francisco lawmaker said Tuesday that he has abandoned a proposal to rename San Francisco International Airport after slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk and instead plans to pursue getting an airport terminal named in Milk's honor. Supervisor David Campos said he gave up on the idea of putting a question on the city ballot asking voters to approve the name change after the plan generated a fair amount of opposition, including from the city's daily newspaper and Mayor Edwin Lee. Some fellow...

Former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin avoided prison time Tuesday for her campaign corruption conviction but was ordered to send written apologies to every judge in the state because she abused her office. Melvin and her sister and former aide Janine Orie each received house arrest for illegally using the judge's state-funded staff as part of her two campaigns for a seat on the state's highest court. Allegheny County Judge Lester Nauhaus chided Melvin for engaging in...

Brian Speer thought he had completed all of his obligations when he registered in Bradford County as a convicted sex predator after serving an eight-year prison sentence for child molestation. But now, in addition to submitting to a public registry for sex offenders, he has a permanent reminder of his crime posted right in his front yard: a bright red sign reading, "Brian Speer is a convicted Sexual Predator and lives at this location." The sign is one of 18 the Bradford County Sheriff's Office...

The Mississippi Supreme Court has indefinitely delayed Tuesday's scheduled execution of Willie Jerome Manning amid questions involving evidence in the case, intervening hours before he was set to die for the slayings of two college students. Manning, who had challenged errors involving evidence analysis, was originally set to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. CDT at the state prison in Parchman. But with mere hours remaining, the high court blocked the execution until it rules further in the...

The Coca-Cola Co. said Tuesday that it is spending $2 billion to support the planting of 25,000 acres of new orange groves in Florida, a move officials are lauding as a major investment in the Sunshine State's citrus industry. The announcement was made at a news conference at Coca-Cola's juice production plant in Auburndale. Coca-Cola will buy fruit from two growers: Peace River Citrus Products in Vero Beach and Cutrale Citrus, one of Brazil's top growers and juice processors. Cutrale Citrus'...

A jury weighing murder charges against a Philadelphia abortion provider will re-hear several hours of testimony before resuming deliberations. Dr. Kermit Gosnell is charged with killing a patient and four babies allegedly born alive. Prosecutors say the 72-year-old Gosnell routinely killed babies born alive. The jury is set to spend much of Wednesday reviewing the testimony of medical assistant Lynda Williams. One of the infant deaths Gosnell is charged with relates to Williams. She has testified...

Former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin avoided prison time Tuesday for her campaign corruption conviction but was ordered to send a letter of apology to every judge in the state because she abused her office. Melvin and her sister and former aide Janine Orie each received house arrest for illegally using the judge's state-funded staff as part of her two campaigns for a seat on the state's highest court. Allegheny County Judge Lester Nauhaus chided Melvin for engaging in...

A Chippewa Cree tribal leader, a former state lawmaker and three others used a fake billing system and a shell company to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus aid meant for the Montana tribe, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. The Chippewa Cree Tribe received $33 million in federal funding between 2009 and 2010 for construction of a $361 million pipeline to supply fresh drinking water for the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and surrounding counties in northern Montana. Most...

A jury of eight men and four women is deliberating Jodi Arias' fate. Jurors have several options as they consider four months of testimony and evidence in the case: _ FIRST-DEGREE MURDER: If jurors believe that Travis Alexander's June 2008 killing at his suburban Phoenix home was a premeditated act, they can convict Arias of first-degree murder. This charge carries a possible death sentence or life in prison. Jurors also can consider a more complicated first-degree murder count that says she committed...

An Anchorage man has donated a trophy moose head and antlers to the Navy's newest warship. Lex Patten told the Anchorage Daily News ( http://is.gd/Xb7yAJ ) that his gift to the USS Anchorage pays tribute to his late father, Allen Patten, a World War II Navy veteran. The shoulder mount was donated to the ship before its departure from Anchorage on Monday. The warship is an amphibious transport dock that was in the city's port for its commissioning ceremony Saturday. Patten's father was assigned...

Three women who disappeared in Cleveland a decade ago were found safe Monday, and police arrested three brothers accused of holding the victims against their will. A timeline of key events in the case: _ Aug. 23, 2002: Michelle Knight, 20, vanishes. She was last seen at a cousin's house near Lorain Avenue and West 106th Street. _ April 21, 2003: Amanda Berry, 16, disappears after leaving her job at a Burger King at the corner of Lorain Avenue and West 110th Street, a few blocks from her home....

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

Three women who disappeared in Cleveland a decade ago were found safe Monday, and police arrested three brothers accused of holding the victims against their will. A timeline of key events in the case: _ Aug. 23, 2002: Michelle Knight, 20, vanishes. She was last seen at a cousin's house near Lorain Avenue and West 106th Street. _ April 21, 2003: Amanda Berry, 16, disappears after leaving her job at a Burger King at the corner of Lorain Avenue and West 110th Street, a few blocks from her home....

Biologists at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are getting a peek into what city bears do all day. Six bears were equipped with rugged video cameras attached to collars around their necks, which are allowing biologists to get a good idea of how the four black and two brown bears spent their time last summer. The biologists collected 60 hours of video, according to the Anchorage Daily News ( http://is.gd/v1HE5M ). It shows the bears sleeping, eating gull eggs, walking greenbelts, and licking...

A 26-year-old volunteer firefighter trying to distance himself from a white-supremacist group was found beaten to death last month in a cornfield in foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, and three fellow members of the group are due in court this week to answer to murder charges. Corey Matthews, a father of two young girls, was targeted by other members of the Aryan Nations over a dispute, Franklin County Sheriff Tim Fuller has said, and Matthews "stepped outside of the bounds of their beliefs."...

Elizabeth Smart says she's overjoyed to hear about the happy ending for the Cleveland women who escaped Monday after being missing a decade. Smart said Tuesday on ABC's Good Morning America ( http://abcn.ws/YrUx5k ) that the ordeal highlights the importance of the public staying alert and vigilant. She advised the women to focus on moving forward and let go of the past. Smart says it's also important for others to respect the privacy of those women as they recover from the decade-long ordeal....

Connecticut's attorney general is getting involved in the decision over how to spend money sent to Newtown in the wake of December's shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation, which is overseeing more than $11 million of that money, postponed public hearings with the victims' families planned for Tuesday and Wednesday. It will instead meet with Attorney General George Jepsen to discuss the disbursement process, said Dr. Charles Herrick, a member...

Federal officials in Utah are investigating after a Molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of a church in Ogden. The Deseret News reports ( http://bit.ly/13ZQPQK ) the device was thrown into a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sometime Sunday night. Ogden Fire Department Deputy Chief Eric Bauman says the remains of the failed weapon were found Monday by a maintenance worker. Bauman says it caused about $1,000 in damage to the kitchen of the church. The...

The leader of a Roman Catholic diocese in Massachusetts charged with driving drunk in Rhode Island pleaded not guilty and was allowed to remain free on $1,000 bail at his arraignment Tuesday. Worcester Bishop Robert McManus, 61, wearing a white clerical collar in court, did not speak during the two-minute hearing, letting his lawyer enter the not guilty plea on his behalf to charges of driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident. "I have instructed him not to comment," his...

Michael J. Mishak, who has covered politics in California and Nevada, has been named the AP's new Miami-based politics writer. Mishak, 32, joins the AP from the Los Angeles Times, where he covered the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown's administration from Sacramento since 2010. He previously covered politics and labor for the Las Vegas Sun, where in 2007 and 2008 he broke several stories about how the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns were courting unions and other voting blocs in Nevada's...

A transcript of the 911 call placed Monday by a woman missing since 2003, when she was 16. (unintelligible) Caller: Help me. I'm Amanda Berry. Dispatcher: You need police, fire, ambulance? Caller: I need police. Dispatcher: OK, and what's going on there? Caller: I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now. Dispatcher: OK, and what's your address? Caller: 2207 Seymour Avenue. Dispatcher: 2207 Seymour. Looks like you're calling me from 2210....

A South Carolina high school teacher removed from the classroom when he stomped on an American flag while discussing freedom is being paid $85,000 to avoid a legal challenge. The State newspaper ( http://bit.ly/13eJez6 ) obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act that show Chapin High School teacher Scott Compton is being paid the settlement by Lexington-Richland District 5, in addition to his salary through June 7. Compton resigned as part of the settlement after criticism about...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1. `I'M FREE NOW', SAYS MISSING WOMAN FOUND AFTER A DECADE A neighbor found the three women who went missing separately in a Cleveland home where police said they were likely tied up for years. Three brothers were arrested. 2. KERRY TO MAKE CASE FOR TOUGHER RUSSIA STANCE ON SYRIA The secretary of state is meeting with President Vladimir Putin with Assad's powerful ally after Israel's weekend...

Shortly before beginning a shooting rampage through a mental health clinic in Iraq, an Army sergeant sat in a vehicle outside the building and smoked a cigarette, prosecutors said. The government on Monday began laying out its case against Sgt. John Russell during the opening of his court-martial, arguing Russell was not overwhelmed by rage but instead plotted the shooting that killed five fellow service members. Prosecutors described interactions in which Russell had indicated his wish to leave...

"We have consistently, in our conversations with the Russians and others, pointed clearly to Assad's behavior as proof that further support for the regime is not in the interest of the Syrian people or in the interest of the countries that have in the past supported Assad," _ White House spokesman Jay Carney as U.S. officials hope to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to support, or at least not veto, a fresh effort to impose UN sanctions on Syria if President Bashar Assad doesn't begin...

Rains moved across Southern California on Monday, dousing remnants of a wildfire that blackened thousands of acres in coastal mountains and bringing much-needed moisture to a region left parched by a dry winter. The 44-square-mile burn area in the western Santa Monica Mountains was 85 percent surrounded, and firefighters worked in muddy and slippery conditions to complete containment. Ventura County Fire spokesman Tony McHale said the wet weather significantly reduced fire activity. There were...

Three women who went missing separately about a decade ago, when they were in their teens or early 20s, had been tied up and held in a home just south of downtown before being found Monday, and three brothers were arrested, police said. One of the women frantically told a 911 dispatcher the person who had taken her was gone, and she pleaded for police officers to come and get her, saying, "I'm free now." Cheering crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where police said...

A Massachusetts funeral director says none of the burial offers he has received for out-of-state graves are panning out for the body of a Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was killed in a gun battle with police. Worcester funeral home director Peter Stefan said late Monday that has received 120 offers from the U.S. and Canada. He says he made follow-up calls on all the U.S. grave offers to take the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev (TAM'-ehr-lun tsahr-NEYE'-ehv). He said when he talked to somebody...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday: 1. FOUND ALIVE, A DECADE AFTER DISAPPEARANCE Three women who went missing are found in a Cleveland home, and three brothers were arrested. "I'm free," one of the women told a 911 dispatcher. 2. ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE SENDS MESSAGE NOT JUST IN MIDEAST For the West, the attack offers another compelling argument that the Syrian war must be brought to an end. 3. FORMER TOP US DIPLOMAT FAULTS BENGHAZI...

An Air Force officer who led the branch's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit has been charged with groping a woman in a northern Virginia parking lot, authorities said Monday. Arlington County Police said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski of Arlington faces a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery following an alleged assault about 12:30 a.m. Sunday in the Crystal City area of the county. A police report says that the 41-year-old Krusinski was drunk and grabbed a woman's breast and buttocks....

It is premature to move more than 3,000 inmates out of two state prisons until more is known about an airborne fungus that is being blamed for nearly three-dozen inmate deaths and hundreds of hospitalizations, Gov. Jerry Brown's administration said in a court filing Monday night. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the affiliated National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health agreed last week to study problems with valley fever at Avenal and Pleasant Valley state prisons....

As the wildfire season ramps up across the West, the U.S. Forest Service is adding bigger, faster planes to its fleet to fight the fires. The forest service announced Monday that it has selected contractors to provide seven air tankers that fly faster and drop a larger payload of fire retardant than other planes in its firefighting fleet. The agency will spend nearly $160 million over five years for access to several models of aircraft, including a converted DC-10 jumbo jet, which can carry...

A jury has found a Virginia man guilty of trying to kill seven Montana law enforcement officers by throwing pipe bombs at their vehicles during a chase in north-central Montana. Laurence Alan Stewart II was convicted Monday in Great Falls of seven counts of attempted deliberate homicide for his actions during a 45-minute chase Nov. 1, The Great Falls Tribune reported. ( http://gftrib.com/ZBO991 ). Cascade County Attorney John Parker said his office would seek a sentence of life in prison without...

Shortly before beginning a shooting rampage through a mental health clinic in Iraq, an Army sergeant sat in a vehicle outside the building and smoked a cigarette, prosecutors said Monday. The government began laying out its case against Sgt. John Russell during the opening of his court-martial, arguing Russell was not overwhelmed by rage but instead plotted the shooting that killed five fellow service members. Prosecutors described interactions in which Russell had indicated his wish to leave...

One of the survivors of a limousine fire that killed five people on a San Francisco Bay bridge is describing the terrifying moments _ and disputing the driver's version of events of what happened when the limo burst into flames. With a cut visible on her face, an emotional Nelia Arellano told San Francisco's KGO-TV that she yelled at the driver to stop the car, but he "didn't want to listen." When the driver, Orville Brown, did finally stop, Arellano says he did nothing to help the women get...

California regulators recommended Monday that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. pay a record $2.25 billion fine for decades of negligence that led to a deadly gas pipeline explosion that leveled a San Francisco Bay Area neighborhood. The penalty would be the largest ever imposed on a utility company by a state regulator, officials said. The California Public Utilities Commission's investigators said the fine was an appropriate remedy for dozens of safety violations extending back several decades,...

A Michigan woman whose alleged trail of lies led to the release of a man convicted of raping her was charged Monday with fraud after investigators said she tricked an insurance company and sympathetic supporters into believing she had cancer. It was Sara Ylen's second criminal case in just a few days. The 38-year-old Lexington resident also is charged with filing a false report of rape in September. Besides those cases, Ylen was involved in the prosecution of James Grissom, who was convicted...

A relative of a newlywed who died along with four friends in a burning limousine says the young nurse was preparing to get her master's degree and was planning a large second wedding in the Philippines. Christina Kitts said Monday that Neriza Fojas lived in Hawaii while she reviewed for her nursing exam, then took a job in Oakland, Calif., for two years before moving to Fresno, where she had been a nurse at Community Regional Medical Center for a year. Four friends and the limo driver survived...

A Taiwanese businessman long suspected of ties to North Korea and his Illinois-based son have been charged in Chicago with seeking to bypass a U.S. ban on the export of weapons machinery to the hard-line communist nation, federal prosecutors announced Monday. Hsien Tai Tsai, 67, and his 36-year-old son, Yueh-Hsun Tsai, are charged with one count each of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. in its enforcement of laws prohibiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, a statement from the U.S....

A former mortician was sentenced Monday to 25 years to life in prison for plotting to kill a funeral business rival in a decades-old case that initially resulted in an unusual sentence of lifetime probation. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dorothy Shubin imposed the sentence against David Wayne Sconce, 56, finding he had violated his lifetime probation with a federal conviction late last year for having a stolen firearm in Montana. "It was made clear he could not have a gun for any...

It has become a real-life soap opera watched by people around the world and dozens of fanatics who camp out on a Phoenix sidewalk in the middle of the night to get into the show. One seat even sold for $200. A cable network has set up a stage nearby for daily broadcasts, and the spectacle is routinely among the most heavily trending topics on Twitter. Fans have traveled from all over the U.S. to be close to the action, often seeking out autographs from the key people involved in the case, namely...

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

In the beginning, Phillip Patterson decided to write out every word in the Bible. On empty pages, he wrote of Adam, an ark, locusts, loaves, fishes and the resurrection in his neat, looping cursive. Four years of work begat more than 2,400 pages and left a multitude of pens in its wake. Now, as he copies the last words of the last book, Patterson sees all that he has created. And it is good. "I hadn't counted on the fact that it would end up being beautiful," Patterson said. "Or that it would...

A federal courthouse blocks from the World Trade Center site in Manhattan is getting a $10.4 million security boost, more than a decade after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks proved the need for it. Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska announced the plans Monday, saying a 4,500-square-foot glass and steel structure where court officers can screen people for weapons and explosives outside the building was a commonsense solution to a problem that seemed obvious after terrorists hijacked two planes and demolished...

The Phoenix jury deliberating the fate of Jodi Arias has adjourned for the day without a verdict. Jurors in the case concluded their first full day of deliberations at about 4:30 p.m. Monday. They will resume Tuesday morning. The jury began deliberating Friday afternoon on whether the 32-year-old Arias should be convicted of first-degree murder in the June 2008 death of her one-time boyfriend Travis Alexander. He was shot in the head and stabbed and slashed nearly 30 times. Prosecutors say...

A Houston man convicted of capital murder for a slaying during a shooting spree last year outside a Texas courthouse called his case a "mockery of justice" and a "lynching" during a profanity-filled tirade Monday that resulted in him being restrained and temporarily removed from court. Bartholomew Granger was convicted last week for the death of 79-year-old Minnie Ray Sebolt, who was a bystander shot when Granger opened fire on his daughter outside the Jefferson County Courthouse in downtown Beaumont....

The six educators killed in the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School were honored Monday by an organization comprised of Medal of Honor recipients. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society said it chose the women to receive its Citizen Honors Medal, the highest award it gives to a civilian, after receiving dozens of nominations for their actions during the shooting. The educators' families received the awards on their behalf at the ceremony at Newtown High School. Janet Robinson,...

Rain showers moved across Southern California on Monday, dousing remnants of a wildfire that blackened thousands of acres in coastal mountains and bringing much-needed moisture to a region left parched by a dry winter. The 44-square-mile burn area in the western Santa Monica Mountains was 80 percent surrounded, and firefighters worked in muddy and slippery conditions to complete containment. Ventura County Fire spokesman Tony McHale said the wet weather significantly reduced fire activity....

Records show that a political figure at the center of a Las Cruces judicial scandal was in regular contact with former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's staff to offer input on appointments to the bench in Dona Ana County. The Albuquerque Journal obtained ( http://bit.ly/18MKo4m ) the emails and a tape-recorded interview under the Inspection of Public Records Request. They suggest that, at the very least, real estate investor Edgar Lopez believed he was the man to see if someone wanted to garner...

Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Andr??s Alonso will retire at the end of the school year, after six years of leading the district and orchestrating a turnaround for a system ailing from decades of decline. Alonso's six years at the district's helm make him one of the longest-serving big-city superintendents in the country. Under Alonso's leadership, student enrollment and graduation rates increased as suspension and dropout rates dropped. He said Monday that he is retiring to return home to...

A tiger and two mountain lions were among a menagerie of wild cats seized from private farmland in rural northeast Kansas, where they lived in inadequate chain-link enclosures and weren't properly fed or watered, authorities said Monday. Authorities found a tiger; two mountain lions; three bobcats; two lynx; a type of African cat called a serval; and two skunks on the property. They were taken Sunday from the land belonging to a relative of the animals' owner and were turned over to animal sanctuaries...

U.S. cranberry farmers who spent millions of dollars to replant and expand bogs face a financial crisis after a huge harvest in Canada flooded the market and sent prices plummeting. Farmers in Wisconsin, the leading cranberry producer, have been working for years to expand their acreage at the request of Ocean Spray and other processors who expected to see strong growth in overseas sales of juice and sweetened, dried cranberries. Growth has been slower than expected, however, as nations continue...

Former neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman is questioning the expected use of a voice recognition expert at his murder trial next month. Zimmerman's attorney filed a motion made public Monday asking for a hearing to determine whether testimony from the expert would be allowed. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year in a gated community in Sanford during a struggle. Zimmerman is pleading not guilty. Neighbors called 911...

Authorities say searchers have found the body of an 83-year-old woman who went missing after arriving at a Washington airport from Barbados. U.S. Park Police spokesman Paul Brooks said in an email Monday afternoon that the body of Victoria Kong was found about 2 p.m. by a team with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police. Brooks said Kong's body was found north of Reagan National Airport, about 30 feet from a bike trail in a wooded area. He said the investigation into her death...

North Carolina authorities are accusing a couple of using zip ties to bind their 4-year-old daughter's wrists and ankles to a baby gate. Raleigh police say 26-year-old Gerald Thomas Swinehart and 28-year-old Marlaine Victoria Coffey are accused of tying the child to a gate with plastic ties normally used by electricians. They also say Swinehart pushed or kicked the girl so hard her lower teeth broke through her lower lip. Arrest warrants say the abuse occurred earlier this year. The child was...

Pennsylvania's debt-laden capital city violated federal antifraud rules for securities issuers by repeatedly giving misleading information that created risks for bond investors at a time the city's finances were rapidly deteriorating, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday. Harrisburg, dragged to the brink of bankruptcy by a massive debt on its municipal trash incinerator, is also having trouble paying its day-to-day bills while it puts off payments on its general obligations...

A Philadelphia jury reviewed laws addressing murder and manslaughter without reaching a verdict Monday in the high-profile case of an abortion provider accused of killing a patient and four babies who prosecutors say were born alive, then killed with scissors in unorthodox, late-term abortions. Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, ran the Women's Medical Society in West Philadelphia, which served mostly low-income women and teens and went years without a state inspection. Former staff members have testified...