Archive By Section - Signal AP
George Lucas' filmmaking rooted in rebellion
LOS ANGELES (AP) - There's no mistaking the similarities. A childhood on a dusty farm, a love of fast vehicles, a rebel who battles an overpowering empire - George Lucas is the hero he created, Luke Skywalker.
NY power being restored; gas problems rise
NEW YORK (AP) - More New Yorkers got power Saturday for the first time since Superstorm Sandy struck the region, but frustrations mounted over gasoline shortages as refueling sites turned into traffic jams of horn-honking confusion.
Rebels fight Syrian troops over airbase
BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian rebels launched a dawn assault Saturday on a strategic airbase in the north of the country, trying to disrupt strikes by warplanes and helicopters that pound rebel-held towns and give the regime of President Bashar Assad a major edge in the civil war.
IRS not enforcing rules on churches and politics
NEW YORK (AP) - For the past three years, the Internal Revenue Service hasn't been investigating complaints of partisan political activity by churches, leaving religious groups who make direct or thinly veiled endorsements of political candidates unchallenged.
At the end, Romney, Obama spar over voter revenge
MENTOR, Ohio (AP) - Reaching for the finish line, Republican Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama embarked Saturday on the final 72-hour haul of their long, grinding quest for victory, swatting at one another over what should motivate Americans to vote and making closing arguments that offer dueling pictures of what the next four years can and should bring.
Ariz. group can keep shielding financial documents
SACRAMENTO (AP) - An Arizona group can continue to withhold documents related to an $11 million contribution to a California political action committee while it appeals a lower court ruling, California's 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled Friday.
Arizona 20-week abortion ban faces court test
PHOENIX (AP) - A federal appeals court is poised to consider Arizona's earliest-in the-nation ban of most abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy amid debate over both its legality and its practical impact on women if allowed to take effect.
Elephant in South Korean zoo imitates human speech
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - An elephant in a South Korean zoo is using his trunk to pick up not only food, but also human vocabulary.
Pastor charged with killing fiancee's daughter
BROOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - As police frantically worked to figure out how his fiancée's 24-year-old daughter had vanished, a Michigan pastor who had turned to God to shed his violent past went to his flock with a request: pray for her.
Cal State LA dorm fire injures 5, 2 critically
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Five women have been burned - two critically - in a kitchen fire at a dorm at California State University Los Angeles.
California grandma claims $23M lotto prize just in time
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) - For more than five months - while Julie Cervera struggled to pay a $600 electrical bill, feed her family and keep the cable company from shutting off her service because she couldn't pay - she was a millionaire without knowing it.
Food-labeling initiative could encourage lawsuits
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Supporters of a ballot proposal to label cereals, sodas and other products containing genetically modified ingredients say their effort is about empowering consumers who deserve to know what's in their food.
Ventura County worker killed in hole-digging machine
SANTA PAULA, Calif. (AP) - A Ventura County field worker has been killed after being pulled into a machine that digs post holes.
DA seeks rehearing in Anna Nicole Smith drug case
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Prosecutors refusing to accept an appellate court's ruling in the Anna Nicole Smith case asked the court on Friday to change its decision and allow her former boyfriend and manager to be retried.
Songs offer messages of hope at Sandy benefit show
NEW YORK (AP) - From "Livin' on a Prayer" to "The Living Proof," every song Friday at NBC's benefit concert for superstorm Sandy victims became a message song.
Articles by Section - Signal AP
Oscar nominated director held at LAX
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Immigration officials briefly detained the Palestinian director of the Oscar-nominated documentary "5 Broken Cameras" on his way into town for Sunday's Academy Awards.
OSHA finds VA at fault for Calif. researcher death
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Federal officials on Wednesday blamed unsafe working conditions and poor training for the death of a young Veterans Affairs medical center researcher in San Francisco who died after handling bacteria that causes meningitis.
Trial begins in case of fatal Ore. hunting mistake
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Lawyers for an Oregon hunter who killed a man he mistook for a bear say they concede their client shot the Marine reservist, but they maintain the death in a field near Silver Falls State Park was an accident.
Woman, 104, forced to lie about age on Facebook
GROSSE POINTE SHORES, Mich. (AP) - Marguerite Joseph can be forgiven for lying about her age on Facebook.
NY developer: Airline reneging on 9/11 promise
NEW YORK (AP) - A World Trade Center developer asked a judge Wednesday to disqualify American Airlines from using an "act of war" defense to dodge property liability resulting from the Sept. 11 attacks.
Jesse Jackson Jr. pleads guilty in campaign case
WASHINGTON (AP) - Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., holding back tears, entered a guilty plea Wednesday in federal court to criminal charges that he engaged in a scheme to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items. He faces 46 to 57 months in prison, and a fine of $10,000 to $100,000, under a plea deal with prosecutors.
Pentagon notifies Congress of likely furloughs
WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress on Wednesday that if automatic government spending cuts kick in on March 1 he may have to shorten the workweek for the "vast majority" of the Defense Department's 800,000 civilian workers.
Future science: Using 3-D worlds to visualize data
CHICAGO (AP) - Take a walk through a human brain? Fly over the surface of Mars? Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago are pushing science fiction closer to reality with a wraparound virtual world where a researcher wearing 3-D glasses can do all that and more.
Renewed fervor for Google lifts stock above $800
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google's stock price topped $800 for the first time Tuesday amid renewed confidence in the company's ability to reap higher profits from its dominance of Internet search and prominence in the growing mobile market.
US homebuilder confidence dips from a 6½ year high
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Confidence among U.S. homebuilders slipped this month from the 6½ year high it reached in January, with many builders reporting less traffic by prospective customers before the critical spring home-buying season.
UPDATE: Body found in rubble of KC explosion
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - The mayor of Kansas City says search crews have found a body in the rubble of a Kansas City restaurant destroyed by an explosion.
In fact-based films, how much fiction is OK?
NEW YORK (AP) - The scene: Tehran's Mehrabad airport, January 1980. Six U.S. diplomats, disguised as a fake sci-fi film crew, are about to fly to freedom with their CIA escorts. But suddenly there's a moment of panic in what had been a smooth trip through the airport.
US ready to strike back against China cyberattacks
WASHINGTON (AP) - As public evidence mounts that the Chinese military is responsible for stealing massive amounts of U.S. government data and corporate trade secrets, the Obama administration is eyeing fines and other trade actions it may take against Beijing or any other country guilty of cyberespionage.
14 hurt in Kansas City gas blast, fire
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A gas explosion that sparked a massive, block-engulfing blaze in an upscale Kansas City shopping district injured 14 people, a city official said Tuesday evening, adding it is believed that an accident by a utility contractor may have caused the blast.
