Source: Guardian Unlimited -- Read Full Story

Thousands of stranded travelers contemplated the prospect of ringing in the new year at motels and shelters after blowing snow and the risk of avalanches closed the main highway through the Colorado Rockies. A 60-mile stretch of I-70 was shut down west of Denver, and officials said it would be at least mid-afternoon Monday before it opened. They were waiting for 70 mph gusts to die down so they could use low-yield explosives to break the snow loose and avert avalanches. In the meantime, the champagne had to wait. ``I've got some in the car, but it's probably frozen by now,'' said Ken Simons of Grand Junction. He and his wife were trying to get to Denver for New Year's when the closing of the highway forced them and more than 2,000 others to spend Sunday night in shelters.

Source: FOX News -- Read Full Story

Five members of a Maryland family were killed late Sunday when a pickup truck driven by an alleged drunk driver slammed into their minivan, MyFOXToledo.com reports. Bethany Griffin, 36, and her daughters — Jordan Griffin, 10, Haley Burkman, 10, Lacie Burkman, 7, and Vadi Griffin, 6 months — were killed when the pickup hit their vehicle on Interstate-280, just north of downtown Toledo.

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A United Airlines flight bound for Denver Sunday morning had to be evacuated after the plane took a wrong turn and became stuck in the mud. No one was injured in the accident, which occurred shortly before 7 a.m. CST, and the 182 passengers were taken by bus back to the terminal, said Kansas City International Airport spokesman Joe McBride.

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A day after a federal court slip-up exposed intimate office e-mail exchanges with his executive secretary, Texas’ most powerful prosecutor, the district attorney of Harris County, issued a public apology Friday to his family and others. “I deeply regret having said those things,” the prosecutor, Charles A. Rosenthal Jr., said in a statement. “This event has served as a wake-up call to me to get my house in order both literally and figuratively.” Mr. Rosenthal’s current marriage is his second. His wife, Cindy, is a retired agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Source: CBS News -- Read Full Story

In a surprise move, Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) on Friday removed himself from consideration for the U.S. Senate seat vacated last week by fellow Republican Trent Lott. Pickering had been considered a leading candidate to succeed Lott, who stepped down after nearly 19 years in the Senate and 35 years in Congress. Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, will appoint a successor to serve through November 2008, when a special election will be held to complete the final four years of Lott’s Senate term. Whoever is appointed would be considered an odds-on favorite to hold the seat in solidly Republican Mississippi. Pickering, 44, had long been considered a rising star in Republican politics. The former Lott aide first won election to the House in 1996 but announced earlier this year that he would retire from Congress at the end of his current term to spend more time with his family, which includes five sons, and presumably make more money in the private sector.

Source: Washington Post -- Read Full Story

A federal appeals court in Chicago overturned a $156 million jury award against a former Muslim charity once billed as the nation's largest and several other defendants yesterday, saying that the plaintiffs failed to prove that financial contributions to a Palestinian terrorist group played a direct role in the slaying of an American teenager in Israel. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit voided a lower court judge's 2004 ruling on behalf of Stanley and Joyce Boim, whose son David was shot by Hamas operatives in the West Bank in 1996. The U.S. government designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1997.

Source: Washington Post -- Read Full Story

President Bush said Friday that he will veto the defense authorization bill because of Iraq's concerns that the legislation could hinder redevelopment efforts by entangling the country's assets in court claims by victims of Saddam Hussein. Bush said he is ready to work quickly with Congress in January to fix the bill, which also contains a 0.5 percent pay raise for U.S. troops and reforms to veteran health-care services. Another 3 percent pay raise for the military approved separately by Congress will not be affected by the veto

Source: Louisville Courier-Journal -- Read Full Story

A teenager who admitted killing a New Albany man when he fired a high-powered rifle at a pickup truck from a Jackson County overpass was sentenced yesterday to 42 years in prison. Zachariah Blanton, 18, committed "an act of terrorism" in the July 23, 2006, attacks along Interstate 65 that killed Jerry Ross, 40, and wounded an Iowa man in another vehicle, Jackson Circuit Judge William Vance said.

Source: Seattle Times -- Read Full Story

A Carnation woman and her boyfriend armed themselves with handguns on Christmas Eve and walked over to her parents' house, determined to kill them, according to police documents released in the slaying of six family members. The daughter, Michele Kristen Anderson, 29, and the boyfriend, Joseph McEnroe, also 29, each shot Wayne Anderson in the head and McEnroe shot Judith Anderson twice, according to a police document released today.

Source: Chicago Tribune -- Read Full Story

Neighbors of Drew Peterson found chilling notes in their mailboxes Wednesday morning that said his missing wife, Stacy, is in a graveyard. "Creepy. Oh my God, creepy," said Sharon Bychowski, one of the neighbors who got the notes, along with about 50 5-by-7-inch photos of grave sites scattered in her driveway and yard and, hung on her mailbox, a Christmas stocking with a National Enquirer taped to it.