ALL RECENT AP STORIES

A Southern California wildfire burning through coastal wilderness nearly doubled in size Friday, growing to more than 28 square miles. "It's just the beginning of May and we already have a 10,000-plus acre fire that's burning intensely," said Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Tom Kruschke. "That doesn't bode well for the rest of the season." Here's a look at that and other wildfires spreading across the region.

Florida Democratic leaders want Republican Gov. Rick Scott to veto the state budget or call a special session after the Legislature adjourned without passing an expansion of the state's Medicaid program. House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston said some low-income Floridians are not benefiting from the budget. In an unusual alliance, Scott, Senate Republicans, Democrats, Florida hospitals, health advocates and a diverse mix of business and labor groups all supported a bill that would have drawn...

Underlying California's attempts to meet a federal court order for reducing its prison population is an unsettling question: Will the public be in greater danger as a result? The answer could determine how many inmates are ultimately released, who that would be and even whether federal judges decide to hold Gov. Jerry Brown in contempt. The Brown administration filed its plan late Thursday night to further reduce the inmate population by 7,000 inmates, a plan that comes after it already has...

The last person known to have seen three people whose bodies were found in a makeshift grave in Oklahoma last month said Friday that one of the three was "hateful and snotty" to her the last time they were together but insisted she had nothing to do with their disappearance 21 years ago. Wendy Camp, her 6-year-old daughter and a sister-in-law disappeared May 29, 1992, and their bodies were found last month. DNA tests are pending, but investigators are confident they've found the three females....

Investigators searching for evidence in the stabbing death of an 8-year-old girl were looking Friday at several knives taken from her home to determine if one could have inflicted the fatal wounds. Sgt. Chris Hewitt of the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office said investigators had taken "several knives from the home," but he would say little else about them. "We don't want to put too many details out there that could taint our interviews," Hewitt said. Victim Leila Fowler shared the home with...

In a sun-deprived part of Washington state, the promise of nice spring weather prompted a small private school to give students a day off to enjoy the sunshine. Friday is a "sun day" of sorts for the 205 students at Bellingham Christian School, a small, private, nondenominational Christian school in Bellingham, Wash., about 90 miles north of Seattle. "SCHOOL CANCELLED DUE TO GREAT WEATHER! WAHOOO!" the school's website announced Thursday night. "Yeah! It's a Sun Day today and everyone gets the...

A New York state lawmaker already facing bribery and other corruption charges has been accused of using funds meant for a nonprofit to pay for community events promoting his political career. Federal prosecutors announced the new mail fraud charges against Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. of Brooklyn on Friday. A revised indictment accuses Boyland of using the diverted funds to buy T-shirts with the slogan "Team Boyland" for the community events. It also alleges he directed members of his staff...

Prosecutors are seeking a 25-year prison sentence for a Texas man who admits he plotted to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, saying he deserves the maximum in part because he didn't care if an explosive he sought to put in a Washington restaurant killed a lot of people. In papers filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the government called the plot Manssor Arbabsiar planned to carry out with members of the Iranian military an "extremely serious crime." Arbabsiar,...

One of the convicted spies known as the "Cuban Five" will be able to permanently remain in Cuba in exchange for renouncing his U.S. citizenship, a federal judge ruled Friday after U.S. officials dropped their initial opposition. Rene Gonzalez, 56, has been in Cuba since April 22 to attend memorial services for his father, who died last month. Gonzalez was released from U.S. prison in October 2011 but was still serving three years' probation, which the Justice Department had previously insisted...

Larry Shafer, a longtime public servant for the city of Ravenna who was a guardsman at Kent State University during the 1970 deadly shootings, died Friday, his family said. He was 67. Shafer's death came a day before the 43rd anniversary of the gunfire at the northeast Ohio college. His cause of death wasn't immediately known. Mayor Joe Bica told the Kent-Ravenna Record-Courier newspaper that Shafer died during surgery. Kent State was the scene of Vietnam War protests May 4, 1970, when the Ohio...

Exiled Chinese author Yu Jie joined other writers including Salman Rushdie on the 20th observance of World Press Freedom Day in appealing to China to live up to its own constitution and laws guaranteeing freedom of expression, and calling on the public to put pressure on governments that crack down on writers. Yu and other writers and activists were on a PEN International panel Friday highlighting a report on trends of the last five years in China's crackdown on free expression. It also marked...

Police say no crime occurred when a second-grade Colorado teacher taped her students' mouth shut when they wouldn't be quiet. Police interviewed the teacher at Fulton Academy in the suburb of Aurora after a student told her mother who then reported Thursday's incident to police. The student confirmed to police the teacher's statement to an officer that it was a joke, the children were laughing, and had asked that their mouths be taped. In her statement to police, the teacher said she didn't "think...

Hurricane evacuation areas would encompass 640,000 more city residents, and the number of zones would double, under plans disclosed Friday. Details on the new zones won't be released until June, but the changes could mean neighborhoods around the city might newly be told to clear out ahead of future storms, even as the city grapples with findings that nearly two-thirds of people shrugged off orders to leave before Superstorm Sandy. As officials reckon with a new understanding of flooding risks...

Arkansas' attorney general asked Gov. Mike Beebe to set execution dates for seven death row inmates, according to letters obtained Friday by The Associated Press. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel noted in the letters sent to Beebe late Thursday that six of the seven inmates are challenging the state's new lethal injection law and protocol, which calls for Arkansas to use a drug that has never before been used for lethal injections in the U.S. However, McDaniel said there aren't any court orders...

A Northern California preschool teacher is facing jail time after pleading no contest to slipping sleeping pills in toddlers' water cups. Santa Clara County prosecutors say 59-year-old Deborah Gratz entered the plea this week to a charge of attempted child endangerment. Gratz worked at the Kiddie Academy in Morgan Hill. Prosecutors say she told police she slipped Sominex in the cups because she wanted the children to sleep longer during naptimes. Gratz was caught after a teacher observed her...

Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin says recent mass shootings have prompted leaders in Washington, D.C., to exploit tragedy in order to limit the freedoms of law-abiding people. Palin spoke at the National Rifle Association's convention Friday afternoon in Houston. She said while she and others were saddened and angered by December's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, the emotions that have resulted from it won't make anybody safer and won't "protect the good...

U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk says rehab worked after he suffered a stroke last year. The Illinois Republican spoke Friday at a charter school in the northern Chicago suburbs along with fellow Sen. Dick Durbin. Kirk was asked about his health. On Friday he used a wheelchair at the school. He told the students "rehab works." Kirk says he usually walks a block every morning at his Lake Forest home as part of his rehabilitation. The News-Sun in Waukegan reports ( http://bit.ly/1253HE9 ) that the senator said...

Investigators have determined that a man who shot dead five family members at their home in central Illinois was motivated by his anger over a custody dispute. In a statement Friday, Illinois State Police said Rick O. Smith planned the shooting attack on the family members because he believed they were interfering in his dispute with the mother of his 3-year-old daughter. The mother and Smith's daughter live at a different address and were not among the victims of the April 24 shooting in Manchester....

Prosecutors in Northern California have decided not to pursue any criminal charges against a former teacher accused of tying up a 2-year-old girl when she worked at a preschool. Alameda County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Teresa Drenick declined to elaborate on the decision to the Oakland Tribune ( http://bit.ly/ZFFMwH ) this week except to say the DA's office reviewed the evidence and declined to file charges. The girl's parents have sued Centerpointe Church and Preschool in Pleasanton...

A Boy Scouts of America group will vacate its city-owned Philadelphia headquarters in return for $825,000 under an agreement that settles a long legal battle over the organization's ban on gays, Mayor Michael Nutter's office said Friday. The Boy Scouts Cradle of Liberty Council staff will leave its downtown Philadelphia headquarters of 85 years by June 30 and the retail store in the building will close by Oct. 31. In exchange, the city will reimburse the Boy Scouts for improvements made to the...

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum praised the National Rifle Association as "warriors" defending the U.S. Constitution. Santorum spoke Friday in the political rally at the NRA's national convention in Houston. The convention is being held amid the backdrop of the fierce gun control debate raging across the country and the recent defeat of a major gun control bill in the U.S. Senate. Santorum, a former senator from Pennyslvania, told NRA members that the Bill of Rights and...

Visitors to the nation's third-largest city are usually spotted wandering the Magnificent Mile, snapping pictures of the Willis Tower and sampling Chicago-style deep dish pizza, but if some persistent Illinois lawmakers and Mayor Rahm Emanuel get their way, a glitzy casino would be on their agenda, too. Trying to land a Chicago casino has become an annual sticking point, despite political gusto from mayors and legislators who want to expand gambling in Illinois. Gov. Pat Quinn has axed two gambling...

The administrator of a fund created to help people injured in the Boston Marathon bombings and the families of those who died in the attack plan to meet with victims next week with hopes of cutting the first checks by the end of June. Kenneth Feinberg is overseeing The One Fund Boston, which had taken in more than $28 million as of Friday and should get another significant boost from an upcoming benefit concert featuring performers such as Aerosmith and New Kids on the Block. Feinberg, a Massachusetts...

Lawmakers in South Carolina are trying to keep junk food out of the governor's mansion. State senators inserted a clause in the 2013-14 budget plan that would bar Gov. Nikki Haley's office and the Governor's Mansion from buying junk food with public money, whether for employee treats or entertaining. The move was a response to state efforts to fight obesity by limiting what people can buy with money from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, known more commonly as food stamps. Those efforts...

After fleeing to Israel following a 2008 immigration raid, a former manager at a kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa has appeared in a U.S. courtroom to answer charges that he harbored immigrants in the country illegally for profit. With his hands and feet shackled, Hasam Omara walked slowly into the federal courtroom in Cedar Rapids on Friday. Omara pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with 25 counts related to harboring people in the U.S. illegally and two counts related to document fraud....

A Philadelphia abortion provider will spend another weekend in custody after a jury failed to reach a verdict in his murder case. Dr. Kermit Gosnell is accused of killing four babies born alive. He's also charged in the 2009 overdose of a patient. Jurors deliberated for more than three days before leaving Friday without a verdict. They are to return Monday. They must weigh hundreds of counts against the 72-year-old Gosnell, many of them allegations he performed illegal, third-trimester abortions....

Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz says the federal government should put its efforts into prosecuting criminals who illegally buy guns and not into trying to pass new gun control laws. Cruz told thousands of people at the National Rifle Association's convention Friday afternoon that President Barack Obama's administration has not done enough to prosecute felons and fugitives who illegally buy guns and has cut funding for such efforts. Cruz also said the Obama administration had cut millions of dollars...

A not guilty plea was entered Friday on behalf of Beverly Hall, the former superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools who is charged in a broad conspiracy alleging educators cheated on standardized tests to mask poor student performance for personal gain. Hall was among several former Atlanta educators who appeared in Fulton County Superior Court. Hall sat quietly in the gallery, standing up as her attorney J. Tom Morgan said she would waive a formal reading of the charges. The court then entered...

A man appeared intent on suicide, or what's known as suicide by cop, when he opened fire with a pistol inside a busy terminal at Houston's largest airport and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said Friday. Carnell Marcus Moore, 29, of Beaumont shot himself in the temple with a 40-caliber semi-automatic pistol Thursday afternoon after shooting twice into the ceiling at a ticketing area at Bush Intercontinental Airport. A Department of Homeland Security special agent who confronted...

Along the irrigation canal that cuts through this centuries-old New Mexico town, a small group of churchgoers gathers to recite the rosary before tossing rose petals into the water. Remnants of a tradition that stretches back to the days of Spanish explorers, the humble offerings are aimed at blessing this year's meager irrigation season and easing a relentless drought that continues to march across New Mexico and much of the western half of the U.S. From the heart of New Mexico to West Texas...

Investigators searching for evidence in connection with the stabbing death of an 8-year-old girl were looking at several knives Friday to determine if one could have inflicted the fatal wounds. Sgt. Chris Hewitt of the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office would not say from where investigators had recovered the knives but that the information eventually would come out. "We don't want to put too many details out there that could taint our interviews," Hewitt said. He declined to say whether they...

An Iowa agency's refusal to list both spouses in a lesbian marriage as parents on their children's birth certificates is a violation of their constitutional rights and must stop, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday. The court, which made history by legalizing gay marriage in 2009, ordered the Iowa Department of Public Health to start listing the names of both female spouses on the birth certificates of their children. The ruling was backed by all six justices who participated. Iowa had been the...

Two teen hikers lost for days in a California forest might have to pay for part or all of the $160,000 search after a small amount of drugs was found in their car, authorities said. Officials initially said Nicolas Cendoya, 19, and Kyndall Jack, 18, wouldn't be responsible. But Cendoya was charged this week with drug possession because methamphetamine was allegedly found in the car the pair parked before going on a hike last month in Cleveland National Forest. "The recent drug charge on Cendoya...

Roughly 300 gallons of crude oil spilled early Friday into the Mississippi River near St. Louis after a vessel on the rain-swollen waterway slammed into a fleet of docked barges, causing 14 of them to briefly break away, according to the Coast Guard. None of the oil was found to have washed up on the river's banks as of mid-morning Friday, though crews still were assessing the possible environmental fallout of the spill _ the equivalent of seven barrels _ and the precise cause of the accident...

A man was apparently electrocuted when he climbed a 200-foot tower, touched a high-voltage power line and fell to a platform where his body was recovered by a Seattle Fire Department team. Firefighters found a cap and a cellphone next to the body but nothing to indicate why he climbed the tower early Friday, said department spokesman Kyle Moore. There was no one at the scene who said they knew the man, Moore said. The King County medical examiner's office took the body to determine his identification...

An Iowa woman whose nose was severely injured by an attacking dog says her husband bit the animal to make it stop assaulting her. Caren and Laine Henry told The Des Moines Register ( http://dmreg.co/108DUsz ) on Thursday that a 50-pound Labrador mix ran out of a yard in rural Madrid (MAD'-rihd) on Sunday and attacked the couple while they were walking their pet beagle. Caren Henry says the dog bit her abdomen and right thigh, scratched at her eyes, then clamped onto her nose, tearing it off....

Investigators searching for evidence in connection with the stabbing death of an 8-year-old girl are looking at several knives to determine if one could have inflicted the fatal wounds. Sgt. Chris Hewitt of the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office would not say from where investigators had recovered the knives but that the information would "come out eventually." He declined to say whether they were confiscated from the rural home victim Leila Fowler shared with her father, stepmother, 12-year-old...

Prosecutors say a federal magistrate judge made a mistake by agreeing to let a teenage terrorist suspect in Illinois out of jail pending trial. A different judge will hear the government's appeal opposing Abdella Ahmad Tounisi's release Friday. Thursday's release order was stayed for 24 hours until a ruling on the appeal. The 18-year-old Aurora teen is accused of seeking to join al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria. Prosecutors say Tounisi helped a friend last year select possible bombing targets...

Nestle Pizza Co. of Little Chute is recalling four frozen-pizza products that might be contaminated with plastic fragments. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the following products are subject to recall: _ California Pizza Kitchen Limited Edition Grilled Chicken with Cabernet Sauce. _ DiGiorno Crispy Flatbread Pizza Tuscan Style Chicken. _ DiGiorno pizzeria! Bianca/White Pizza. _ California Pizza Kitchen Crispy Thin Crust White. The USDA says one consumer reported a chipped tooth after...

A 27-year-old upstate New York man has been charged with starting a fire that swept through a second-floor apartment, killing a man and three young children and critically injuring a fourth child, police said Friday. Schenectady police Lt. Mark McCracken said Robert Butler of Saratoga Springs was arraigned in Schenectady City Court on a first-degree arson charge and was sent to the county jail without bail. McCracken said Butler was known to the family. David Terry, 33, was killed along with...

This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, May 5: More fighting in Virginia, Death of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The Second Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., was fought 150 years ago in May 1863 in and around Fredericksburg, Va. Thousands of Confederate forces clashed with Union foes anxious to press onward to the gates of Richmond, capital of the Confederacy. Union troops overran and captured Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg in fierce combat that included hand-to-hand fighting with Southern...

A female training instructor at a Texas Air Force base has been ordered to serve three months in jail after pleading guilty to having sex with a male student. A military judge in San Antonio on Thursday also ordered Staff Sgt. Emily Allen to do 30 days of hard labor and reduced her rank to airman first class. Allen was the first woman among more than 30 instructors at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland charged in what has turned into the military branch's worst sex scandal. She pleaded guilty Wednesday...

Rhode Island has become the nation's 10th state to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed, after a 16-year effort to extend marriage rights in this heavily Roman Catholic state. Gays, lesbians, their friends and families erupted into cheers Thursday following a final 56-15 vote in the Rhode Island House, and then again an hour later when Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed the bill into law on the Statehouse steps. "Democracy feels good, doesn't it?" said House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence, who is gay....

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1. BANGLADESH FINANCE MINISTER DOWNPLAYS COLLAPSE THAT KILLED 500 He says "I don't think it is really serious _ it's an accident" and "It happens everywhere." 2. PAKISTAN PROSECUTOR IN MUSHARRAF CASE IS KILLED Gunmen in a taxi fired upon the lawyer who was leading the charge against the former military ruler. 3. ASSAD REGIME ACCUSED OF `MASSACRE,' KILLING AT LEAST 50 Activists say Syrian...

Jeff Hanneman, a founding member of Slayer whose career was irrevocably changed after a spider bite, has died. He was 49. Slayer spokeswoman Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald said Hanneman died Thursday morning of liver failure at a Los Angeles hospital with his wife, Kathy, by his side. The guitarist had recently begun writing songs with the band in anticipation of recording a new album later this year. He had been slowly recovering from what was believed to be a spider bite that nearly cost him his...

A six-story-high rubber duck is making a big splash in Hong Kong. Crowds watched the inflatable duck being pulled by tugboat across Victoria Harbor in front of Hong Kong's signature skyscraper skyline. Tourist Zhang Wenjin from Shanghai says it's a big surprise. "This is huge. My daughter liked it when she saw it just now. Because kids like cute stuff." Yu Kwan Yee of Hong Kong was part of the crowd. "The duckie is swimming," the 2 1/2-year-old said. Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman created...

With all the orchards and corn fields that dot the Hudson Valley landscape, Tuthilltown Spirits doesn't have to look far for the grains and apples to make their whiskey, vodka and gin. The 10-year-old company crafts many of their liquors from ingredients grown no more than a few minutes away, the bounty of the rolling hills that surround it. "The people who come to our distillery and visit us and see our operation can then drive down the road to the local orchard or the local farm and actually...

"Arming the rebels _ that's an option. You look at and rethink all options. It doesn't mean you do or you will. ... It doesn't mean that the president has decided on anything." _ Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on arming Syrian rebels, becoming the first top U.S. official to publicly acknowledge the reassessment of the Obama administration in regard to the civil war there. ___ "I will remember to my death that way my daughter called me `Baba.' I will never forget that sound. My daughter loved me...

An oil tank has exploded in Louisiana in an area outside Baton Rouge, prompting the evacuation of 30 to 35 homes. The explosion happened late Thursday night near Denham Springs. No injuries had been reported early Friday. Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness director Mark Harrell told The Times-Picayune ( http://bit.ly/12uUH9T ) there were two oil holding tanks at the scene and one of them ruptured and caught fire. He said it wasn't known why the tank ruptured. The...

With all the orchards and corn fields that dot the Hudson Valley landscape, Tuthilltown Spirits doesn't have to look far for the grains and apples to make their whiskey, vodka and gin. The 10-year-old company crafts many of their liquors from ingredients grown no more than a few minutes away, the bounty of the rolling hills that surround it. "The people who come to our distillery and visit us and see our operation can then drive down the road to the local orchard or the local farm and actually...

A wildfire fanned by a long day of Santa Ana winds raged along the edges of Southern California communities and coastal highways Thursday, forcing the evacuation of a university and hundreds of homes and threatening 2,000 more, officials said. The blaze erupted during morning rush hour along U.S. 101 in the Camarillo area about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles. It was quickly spread by winds, which also pushed other damaging blazes across the region. Flames quickly moved down slopes toward...

Investor Warren Buffett has a knack for explaining what he does in simple terms that sound easy to follow, and his ranking as one of the world's richest men inspires many to copy his moves. "Always get more for your money than you pay," Buffett said Thursday when summarizing the key to investing success. But in recent years, copying Buffett has become harder because most investors lack his connections and the massive pile of cash held by his company, Berkshire Hathaway. Just consider Berkshire's...

The fight against Somali pirates has been so effective that they haven't been able to mount a successful hijacking in nearly a year, the chair of the global group trying to combat the pirates said Thursday. U.S. diplomat Donna Leigh Hopkins credits the combined efforts of international naval forces and stepped-up security on ships including the use of armed guards. But there are also other factors including the jailing of some 1,140 Somali pirate in 21 countries "which started deglamorizing piracy,"...

Florida lawmakers have approved a new plan to help pay for Everglades restoration. The legislation was sent to Gov. Rick Scott on a 39-0 vote by the Senate on Thursday. It cleared the House earlier in the session. The bill is backed by environmental groups and sugar farmers, and its sponsors have said it represents a truce in a decades-old dispute. The measure would keep intact an existing tax on farmers in the northern Everglades until 2036. The money from the tax will be used to help pay for...

A high-school teacher from Alabama is accused of kidnapping a 6-year-old girl from school in Mississippi, sending a frightening text message to the child's mother and paying to keep her overnight in a hotel. U.S. Attorney Gregory Davis says a federal magistrate in Jackson denied bond Thursday to 54-year-old Jesse Mae Pollard, of Northport, Ala. The Clarion-Ledger ( http://on.thec-l.com/153Tbm7 ) says Pollard teaches at a school near the elementary school where a woman asked for the child by name...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday: 1. US RETHINKING POSITION ON ARMING SYRIA'S REBELS Hagel says it's among the options under consideration, but that "doesn't mean you do or you will." 2. OIL IMPORTS PLUNGE As production rises in the U.S., the daily flow of imported crude oil falls to a 17-year low. 3. BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT'S REMAINS CLAIMED A funeral home picked up Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body for his family. The cause of...

Investigators working to figure out what caused a massive, deadly fertilizer plant explosion in Texas have talked to more than 370 people and received more than 200 tips as they continue to search for a breakthrough. Two weeks after the April 17 blast that killed at least 14 people, agents compare their work to solving a puzzle or completing an archaeological dig. "We're trying to find the critical piece," said Chris Connealy, the state fire marshal, on Thursday. Their work is complex for several...

A man who had fired a gun inside a ticketing area at Houston's largest airport was killed after being confronted by a law enforcement official during an incident that sent people in the terminal scrambling and screaming, police said Thursday. It's unclear if the man fatally shot himself or was killed by a Homeland Security agent who had confronted him, said Houston police spokesman Kese Smith. The man's name was not released by police, but they said he was about 30-years-old. Police say the...

The teenage daughter of a woman who just revealed she abandoned her family 11 years ago said Thursday the disclosure has angered her and she is not eager to restart their relationship. Morgan Heist, who learned last week that Brenda Heist had surfaced in the Florida Keys, said the news has made her recall with bitterness the years of mourning she endured when she assumed her mother was dead and feared she'd been killed. "I ached every birthday, every Christmas," said 19-year-old Morgan Heist,...

Shareholders of Montana's largest public company elected former Gov. Brian Schweitzer and three other outsiders to Stillwater Mining Co.'s board Thursday after alleging mismanagement by the current directors. But the shareholders also re-elected four current board members, including CEO Frank McAllister, meaning the two sides now have even numbers and will be forced to work together after an acrimonious struggle for control of the company. Schweitzer and the Clinton Group, a New York hedge fund...

As one of five Democrats who opposed expanding background checks for firearm sales, U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas is facing pressure from gun control groups who are urging him to rethink a position they suggest could haunt him during his re-election bid next year. Mayors Against Illegal Guns on Thursday brought the father of a student killed in the Newtown, Conn. school shooting last year to Arkansas in the hopes of arranging a meeting with the two-term senator. The director of the group also...

John Williamson, a pioneer of the 1960s sexual revolution as co-founder of Topanga Canyon's Sandstone Retreat, where nudity and free love once took place with abandon, has died at age 80. Williamson died of cancer March 24 at a hospital in Reno, Nev., said his wife, Barbara Williamson. The pair had lived on a Northern Nevada ranch for the past 18 years, taking in abandoned lions, tigers, cougars and other big cats. They were a young newlywed couple in 1968 when they bought a cluster of rundown...

Jodi Arias wept and looked away from jurors Thursday as the prosecutor in her murder trial concluded closing arguments by displaying a gruesome photo of the victim's back, covered in stab wounds, while describing her as a manipulative liar who meticulously planned the savage attack on her one-time boyfriend. Prosecutor Juan Martinez pounded his hand on a table, raising his voice occasionally but largely speaking in an almost whisper-like tone. He explained how Arias lied from the start and is...

A western Michigan police chief has released a second surveillance video showing a van that's believed to be connected to the disappearance of a 25-year-old mother and gas station night clerk. Norton Shores Chief Daniel Shaw says the video may help investigators fill in the timeline of events of Friday night, when Jessica Heeringa was last seen. Shaw says officers searched a state park Thursday evening after gunshots were heard in the area but found nothing. He says the shots probably...

The National Rifle Association has spent much of the past year under siege, ardently defending gun rights following mass shootings in Colorado and Connecticut and fighting back against mounting pressure for stricter laws in Washington and state capitols across the country. Now, after winning a major victory over President Barack Obama with the defeat of a gun control bill in the U.S. Senate, the powerful gun-rights lobby will gather in Houston this weekend for its annual convention. Organizers...

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by Los Angeles against air quality regulators who are requiring the city to do more to control dust on a lake that was siphoned dry a century ago to provide water for the booming metropolis. U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii granted a motion Wednesday to dismiss the lawsuit in the latest chapter in a decades-old spat over water rights in the arid region 200 miles north of Los Angeles. The lawsuit was filed last year in U.S. District Court in Fresno....

The British parent company of the PokerStars website says it still wants to buy an Atlantic City casino, even though a deal to obtain it fell through on Wednesday. The Rational Group said Thursday night it wants to try to save its deal to purchase The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel. The casino said Wednesday the purchase deal was dead, but declined to say why. Eric Hollreiser, a spokesman for the Isle Of Man-based company, said it had expected the closing deadline for the sale to be extended. "Several...

The eight members of Stillwater Mining Co.'s board of directors, based on preliminary results from the company's annual meeting Thursday: NEW MEMBERS: _ Charles Engles, 65, former CEO of Stillwater Mining; independent consultant and senior director at PatentBridge LLC, an intellectual property brokerage firm. _ Michael McMullen, 42, principal at MRI Advisory Group AG, a private mining company. _ Patrice Merrin, 64, chairman of the board of CML HealthCare. _ Brian Schweitzer, 57, former Montana...

Rhode Island on Thursday became the nation's 10th state to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed, as a 16-year effort to extend marriage rights in this heavily Roman Catholic state ended with the triumphant cheers of hundreds of gays, lesbians, their families and friends. Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed the bill into law on the Statehouse steps Thursday evening following a final 56-15 vote in the House. The first weddings will take place Aug. 1, when the law takes effect. "I've been waiting 32 years...

Oklahoma authorities said Thursday that bodies found last month in a hole initially dug for a septic tank were likely those of three females missing since 1992 and that police had arrested a man who sprinkled black pepper on the impromptu grave in an apparent attempt to cover any odor. Remains found beneath 8 feet of dirt near Jennings were likely those of Wendy Camp, 23; her daughter Cynthia Britto, 6; and Lisa Kregear, 22, who was Camp's sister-in-law, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation...

Schoolchildren in Minnesota and Wisconsin got a rare May snow day Thursday as a storm dropped up to 16 inches of sticky snow across a beleaguered region that was just starting to enjoy spring. Bobbi Howe's daughters, 10-year-old Emma and 7-year-old Averie, stayed home in the southeastern Minnesota city of Owatonna, where 15.5 inches of snow made it hard for the family to open their front door. Owatonna was one of dozens of Minnesota and Wisconsin school districts that canceled classes for the...

A former top lieutenant to polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs who was sentenced last year to a decade in prison is scheduled to be released on parole next week, Texas prison officials said Thursday. Wendell Loy Nielsen, the former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was convicted in March 2012 on three counts of bigamy and given a 10-year prison term. Nielsen and 11 other FLDS members were indicted after a 2008 police raid at the church's remote West...

Opponents of capital punishment marked a milestone Thursday as Maryland became the first state south of the Mason-Dixon line to abolish the death penalty in nearly 50 years, joining only West Virginia. The passage was a significant victory for Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Roman Catholic who opposes capital punishment and is considering seeking the 2016 presidential nomination. Death penalty opponents said the governor helped maintain the national momentum of repeal efforts by making Maryland...

An undercover FBI investigation that imperiled a politician's bid to become New York City's first Asian-American mayor resulted Thursday in convictions of a former campaign worker and a fundraiser in a case that may have raised more questions than it answered. The candidate, City Comptroller John Liu, was never charged, and he has vehemently denied he was in on an alleged conspiracy to get around donation limits. But his name came up repeatedly ever since the trial in federal court in Manhattan...

Marijuana magazines are under scrutiny in Colorado, where lawmakers might require stores to put them behind the counter. The unusual provision to treat pot magazines like pornography was considered Thursday in a Senate committee. If approved, the provision would make Colorado the first state to require stores that allow entry to shoppers under age 21 to place pot magazines behind the counter. "It's analogous to the pornography example," said Republican Rep. Bob Gardner, sponsor of the magazine...

Shareholders of Montana's largest public company on Thursday elected former Gov. Brian Schweitzer and three other dissident investors to Stillwater Mining Co.'s board of directors after alleging mismanagement by the current board. But the shareholders also re-elected four current board members, including CEO Frank McAllister, meaning the two sides will have even numbers and will have to work together. Schweitzer and the Clinton Group, a New York hedge fund, charge that mismanagement by McAllister...

An eastern Ohio grand jury has adjourned for three weeks while investigators go back to analyzing evidence and interviewing witnesses to determine whether other laws were broken in the case of a 16-year-old girl raped by two high school football players last summer. The panel in Steubenville had met three days in a row before the adjournment was announced after the grand jury wrapped up Thursday afternoon. The delay will allow investigators from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation "to continue...

A Manhattan judge on Thursday backed a $55 million settlement in a court battle over the Empire State Building, effectively clearing the way for a plan to let the public buy shares in the famous New York City landmark. Judge O. Peter Sherwood told lawyers at a court hearing that he would formally approve the settlement in the coming days with a written ruling. "I'm satisfied that the settlement reached is fair," Sherwood said. The settlement stems from a long-running dispute over plans by real...

A New Jersey Army major and his wife accused of abusing their foster children with disciplinary measures that included assault, withholding food and water and forcing the children to eat hot sauce were freed on bail Thursday. John and Carolyn Jackson of Mount Holly were charged this week with 17 counts including endangerment, assault and conspiracy. Prosecutors allege that the assaults against the children were so violent they caused broken bones. The couple forced the children to eat hot pepper...

Fifty years ago, Birmingham leaders used fire hoses, police dogs and jailings to stop waves of students who marched out of a church and on to downtown streets seeking equal rights for blacks. Thursday, more than 1,000 students recreated that landmark demonstration, bringing tears to the eyes of 65-year-old Ronald Short. He was only 15 when he participated in the so-called "Children's Crusade," which authorities in the then-segregated city met with overwhelming force that shocked the nation. He...

It sounded like an excuse from a politician who had been caught doing something wrong: When New Jersey Assemblyman Paul Moriarty was accused of driving drunk last year, he said he had been set up by a rogue police officer. A Gloucester County grand jury believed him, and now it's the officer who's facing charges. The Washington Township officer, Joseph DiBuonaventura, was indicted Wednesday on 14 counts, all accusing him of making a bogus arrest of Moriarty on July 31 and lying to support his...

A homeless mother-of-six charged with murder in her baby's starvation death at a Philadelphia shelter has become "a scapegoat" for the alleged failings of social workers, doctors and city officials, a defense lawyer told jurors Thursday. Tanya Williams, 34, is charged in the death of two-month-old twin Quasir Alexander. He died Dec. 23, 2010, weighing just over four pounds. In opening statements, lawyer Greg Pagano said a social worker checked on the boy 36 hours before he died, and declared...

An early morning fire swept through a two-story wood frame house in eastern New York on Thursday, killing four people, including three children, authorities said. A fourth child was injured and taken to a burn unit at Westchester Medical Center. The fire in Schenectady, just west of the capital of Albany, broke out shortly after 4 a.m. It was the third fire of the night in the city of about 66,000 people and struck shortly after firefighters fought another blaze about a half-mile away. The...

In a story May 1 about a Pennsylvania woman who disappeared in 2002 and resurfaced last week in Florida, The Associated Press, relying on information from Lititz Borough Police, erroneously reported where her daughter attended college and what year she was in. The daughter is a freshman at Montgomery County Community College, not a sophomore at West Chester University. A corrected version of the story is below: Missing Pa. woman, thought dead, surfaces in Fla. Missing Pa. woman, last seen dropping...

A jury has finished its second full day of deliberations in the murder trial of a Philadelphia abortion doctor without reaching a verdict. Dr. Kermit Gosnell is charged in the deaths of four babies allegedly born alive at his clinic, and the 2009 overdose death of a patient. Questions from the panel this week suggest jurors remains focused on lesser charges against Gosnell's co-defendant and former employee, unlicensed doctor Eileen O'Neill. The 56-year-old Phoenixville woman is charged with...

A Native American group is clashing with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and state officials over logging at a site in Northern California. PG&E Corp. has announced plans to suspend logging at the 368-acre site in the Humbug Valley after reports that a Maidu Indian archaeological site was damaged, the Sacramento Bee reported on Thursday ( http://bit.ly/10u1lvt ). The valley is 10 miles southwest of Lake Almanor, which is in Plumas County. PG&E has temporarily expanded a buffer area at...

Arrrrgh! That must've been embarrassing. A man held hostage by Somali pirates says he was bemused when he encountered a crowd of eye patch-wearing, plastic sword-wielding women on the lecture circuit earlier this month. Colin Darch , 75, said Thursday that his host, a southwest England chapter of the education-focused Women's Institute, seemed to have thought he was going to speak about historical `shiver me timbers' pirates, rather than the modern-day bandits terrorizing the Indian Ocean. Darch,...

Native American activist, curator and professor George Horse Capture has died in Great Falls. He was 75. Horse Capture, a member of the Gros Ventre tribe, died April 16 of kidney failure, his family said. Horse Capture was an author, archivist and curator at the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo. He served as assistant professor at Montana State University, taught at the College of Great Falls and worked for the National Museum of the American Indian at the...

Here's a look at some key energy terms and technologies. HORIZONTAL DRILLING: Companies used to drill wells straight down into the earth to tap pools of oil and gas that had formed over millions of years. Now they can drill down and then change the angle to follow thin layers of source rock, reaching more oil and gas with each well. SOURCE ROCK: Wide, thin layers of sedimentary rock, like frosting in the middle of a layer cake, that are interspersed with oil and gas. In the past, drillers had...

Every morning, Jim Crabtree said he would wake up, wash and dress his wife who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and drop her off at his parents' home so he could go to work. On Wednesday, he did the same, without any sign of trouble. Hours later, his parents and his wife were dead in an apparent murder-suicide. Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives are trying to determine what happened. Crabtree identified the three dead as his 80-year-old mother, Carol Crabtree, his 84-year-old father,...

Plans to overhaul neglected sites on Washington's National Mall with lakeside gardens, grassy amphitheaters and restaurants with views of the nation's memorials are getting a boost from a German carmaker. Volkswagen of America announced a $10 million gift Thursday to the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall to jumpstart fundraising for the park. It's the largest private gift to date to restore the most-visited national park. The National Mall sees more visitors each year than Yosemite, the Grand...

A juror says she wanted to send a message by supporting a historic $240 million verdict for 32 mentally disabled men who faced decades of abuse by a Texas company: Never again. Juror Robin Griebel outlined her rationale for awarding $7.5 million to each former employee of Henry's Turkey Service, while the men, their attorney and relatives celebrated Wednesday's verdict. One man planned to dress up for a steak dinner with Robert Canino, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawyer who represented...

A Houston man convicted of capital murder for a slaying during a shooting spree last year outside a Texas courthouse disrupted the punishment phase of his trial for the second straight day Thursday with an outburst. Bartholomew Granger, 42, apologized for an obscenity-filled rant the previous day as his trial resumed Thursday morning. Within hours, however, Granger screamed at his daughter as she was being cross-examined by his attorney after testifying that Granger had molested her years earlier,...

New York municipalities can use local zoning laws to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing to drill for natural gas, a mid-level state appeals court said Thursday. State mining and drilling law doesn't trump the authority of local governments to control land use, the four-judge appellate division panel ruled unanimously. Norse Energy Corp.'s challenge to a drilling ban in the upstate town of Dryden has been closely watched by an industry hoping to drill in New York's piece of the Marcellus...

A judge has granted Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's request to withdraw from the politically charged embezzlement case against a former Virginia Executive Mansion chef. Circuit Judge Margaret Spencer on Thursday deferred until May 14 a motion by defendant Todd Schneider to dismiss the four-count indictment. Spencer appointed Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Gregory Underwood to prosecute the case. Schneider, meanwhile, is demanding the state provide information about the relationship between...

Federal safety officials have shut down a small tour bus company after finding that it required drivers to maintain and repair vehicles and failed to keep proper records. Coach USA Tour Inc., a Niagara Falls company, was ordered to cease operations following a review by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the department said Thursday. It was the third shutdown of a passenger carrier this month following the motor carrier administration's deployment...

A 2-month-old taxicab strike has ended in Las Vegas after management with the Yellow-Checker-Star cab company agreed to pay drivers a larger share of the meter revenue and allow more flexible scheduling. A contract was signed Thursday morning, officially ending the 60-day strike by members of the Industrial, Technical and Professional Employees Union/Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 4873. "The drivers stood strong during a very difficult strike," said the union group's...

The reward for the capture and return of a fugitive member of a black militant group convicted of murdering a New Jersey state trooper was doubled to $2 million on Thursday, the 40th anniversary of the bloody gunbattle. The FBI also announced it has made Joanne Chesimard, now living in Cuba as Assata Shakur, the first woman on its list of most wanted terrorists. "She continues to flaunt her freedom in the face of this horrific crime," State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said at a...

An Oklahoma woman has pleaded guilty to child neglect after one of her children was found locked in a metal dog cage while two others were unattended and her husband was passed out on painkillers. The woman faces up to five years in prison at sentencing. The woman's husband has pleaded not guilty to child neglect and faces an Oct. 7 trial. The Associated Press isn't naming either parent to protect the children's identities. In an affidavit read Thursday, the mother admitted she "should have...

Reputed mobster James "Whitey" Bulger cannot argue at his trial that a now-dead law enforcement official granted him immunity from prosecution, the new judge presiding over his case has ruled. The 83-year-old Bulger is scheduled to go on trial next month in connection with 19 slayings. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued they should be able to present a trial defense claiming he had immunity. But in a ruling filed Thursday, U.S. District Judge Denise Casper upheld a decision by the...