OLD BRIDGE, N.J. (AP) - For more than a month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said that the recent superstorm didn't cause significant problems at any of the 247 Superfund toxic waste sites it's monitoring in New York and New Jersey.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A weekend winter storm system that moved through Northern California proved a nuisance for holiday travelers, but an even bigger wave of mountain snow and coastal rain Sunday could create even more problems.
CHICAGO (AP) - Getting stranded at an airport once meant enduring hours of boredom in a kind of travel purgatory with nothing to eat but fast food. These days, it can seem more like passing through the gates of Shangri-la to find spas, yoga studios, luxury shopping and restaurant menus crafted by celebrity chefs in terminals with calming, sleek design.
ST. LOUIS (AP) - From sunken steamboats to a millennium-old map engraved in rock, the drought-drained rivers of the nation's midsection are offering a rare and fleeting glimpse into years gone by.
HONOLULU (AP) - After two days of services in Washington, Hawaii is saying aloha to the late Sen. Daniel Inouye.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Hospitals across the country recommended hepatitis C testing for about 7,900 patients last summer after a traveling medical worker was accused of stealing drugs and infecting patients with tainted syringes in New Hampshire. But five months later, nearly half of those who were possibly exposed to the liver-destroying disease in other states have yet to be tested.
BOSTON (AP) - The 20-year-old Rhode Island woman who brought the Miss Universe crown back to the U.S. for the first time in 15 years will not be returning to Boston University.
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) - Marnie Schwartz was in California, a lawyer raising two toddlers. She was in no position to move across the country to care for her mother, who was living alone in New York and whose health was beginning to decline.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Prison officials tossed convicted killer Todd Ashker into California's notorious Security Housing Unit 25 years ago after "validating" him as a member of the Aryan Brotherhood gang.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A peanut butter plant shuttered by a widespread salmonella outbreak has been given the go ahead to start harvesting a bumper crop of prized eastern New Mexico Valencia peanuts next week under an agreement that ends a tense, monthslong standoff with federal regulators.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Heavy rain, pounding waves and plenty of snow in the mountains were all in the forecast as Northern Californians braced for a weekend of wintry weather and potential delays in holiday travel.
BORREGO SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) - A magnitude-4.0 earthquake has hit the San Diego County desert but there are no reports of damage or injuries.
MAD ISLAND, Texas (AP) - Armed with flashlights, recordings of bird calls, a small notebook and a stash of candy bars, scientist Rich Kostecke embarked on an annual 24-hour Christmastime count of birds along the Texas Gulf Coast. Yellow rail. Barn owl. Bittern. Crested Cara-Cara. Kostecke rattled off the names and scribbled them in his notebook.
CHICAGO (AP) - If the wireless Internet connection during your holiday flight seems more reliable than it used to, you could have the humble potato to thank.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A $371 million overhaul of California's government payroll system is in chaos and in danger of collapsing, the state controller's office warned in a letter demanding fixes from the contractor.
Waiting in line for the bus, a Pennsylvania kindergartener tells her pals she's going to shoot them with a Hello Kitty toy that makes soap bubbles. In Maryland, a 6-year-old boy pretends his fingers are a gun during a playground game of cops and robbers. In Massachusetts, a 5-year-old boy attending an after-school program makes a gun out of Legos and points it at other students while "simulating the sound of gunfire," as one school official put it.
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) - Oscar Pistorius told a packed courtroom Tuesday that he shot his girlfriend to death by mistake, thinking she was a robber. The prosecutor called it premeditated murder.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The CIA thrillers "Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty" have won top screenplay honors from the Writers Guild of America.