DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The first widespread snowstorm of the season crawled across the Midwest on Thursday, with whiteout conditions stranding holiday travelers and sending drivers sliding over slick roads - including into a fatal 25-vehicle pileup in Iowa.
HARROLD, Texas (AP) - In this tiny Texas town, children and their parents don't give much thought to safety at the community's lone school - mostly because some of the teachers are carrying concealed weapons.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a $633 billion defense bill for next year despite Pentagon complaints that it spares outdated but politically popular weapons at the expense of the military's ability to fight.
CHICAGO (AP) - About 1,000 flights have been canceled as a winter storm bears down on the Midwest.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown says he is wary of expanding Medi-Cal as the state implements federal health reform because it could put California's budget "right out of whack" by adding up to $4 billion a year in costs.
NEW YORK (AP) - The brother of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison for crimes committed in the shadow of his notorious sibling.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police at California State University, Northridge, have held a training exercise involving a simulated shooting spree - a scenario made more poignant and timely by last week's deadly attack at a Connecticut elementary school.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown says he is wary of expanding Medi-Cal as the state implements federal health reform because it could put California's budget "right out of whack" by adding up to $4 billion a year in costs.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - When it comes to making coins, the Mint isn't getting its two cents worth. In some cases, it doesn't even get half of that. A penny costs more than two cents and a nickel costs more than 11 cents to make and distribute. The quandary is how to make coins more cheaply without sparing our change's quality and durability, or altering its size and appearance.
NEW YORK (AP) - For more than 20 years, state park officials in Massachusetts have encouraged locals to get off the couch Jan. 1 and take a hike - nothing too strenuous, but a healthy way to start the new year.
MOSCOW (AP) - Circus trainers claim two of their elephants were saved from the deadly Siberian cold by vodka.
CHICAGO (AP) - First, there was "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Now, there's "Mailers of the Lost Package." Days after the University of Chicago announced it had received a replica of the journal from the film "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the school says it has solved an international mystery with its roots in Guam. A few weeks ago, a journal addressed to one Henry Walton Jones, Jr. - the given name of Hollywood's ...
Now that he's away from the pool, Michael Phelps can reflect - really reflect - on what he accomplished.
MERIDA, Mexico (AP) - The crystal skulls have spoken: The world is not going to end.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Worshippers usually leave notes to the Almighty at one of Judaism's holiest sites. But half a billion dollars?
WASHINGTON (AP) - States should cut their threshold for drunken driving by nearly half- from .08 blood alcohol level to .05_matching a standard that has substantially reduced highway deaths in other countries, a federal safety board recommended Tuesday. That's about one drink for a woman weighing less than 120 pounds, two for a 160-pound man.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Two startup cooperatives have joined a crowded health insurance market in Oregon, offering a consumer-run experience and hoping to draw customers who prefer smaller not-for-profits, or who support underdogs and alternative, DIY culture.
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Authorities have identified three of the five people found dead in string of homicides in northern Nevada.
GENEVA (AP) - Sotheby's has auctioned off jewels belonging to actress Gina Lollobrigida, fetching just under $3 million for a fancy yellow diamond once owned by a shah of Persia.
METAIRIE, La. (AP) - Chuck Muncie, a Pro Bowl running back with both the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers, has died at age 60, the NFL clubs and a family spokesman said Tuesday.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles police say they saved a man who was stuck in a chimney at a Los Angeles recreation center after he called 911 from the tight space.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Despite surging state tax revenue, Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday announced a spending plan for the coming fiscal year that is $1.2 billion lower than he projected in January.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The budget deficit for the current year is projected to come in well below what was estimated just a few months ago, according to a government study released Tuesday.
IRVINE (AP) - A camp ranger carjacked by Christopher Dorner has sued after failing to get a $1 million reward offered for information that tracked down the killer.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.
VALLEY SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) - The father of a 12-year-old boy accused of fatally stabbing his 8-year-old sister said he'll believe his son is innocent until he sees evidence that proves otherwise.
KABUL (AP) - NATO says a suicide bomber has targeted U.S. special forces north of the Afghan capital but there were no casualties among the troops.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Police late Monday identified a 19-year-old man as a suspect in the shooting of about 20 people during a Mother's Day parade in New Orleans, saying several people had identified him as the gunman captured by surveillance camera videos.
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown will propose giving California school districts an additional $1 billion to implement new, more rigorous academic standards and $240 million more for his sweeping school funding overhaul.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Angelina Jolie says that she has had a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer.