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President LBJ's youngest daughter hospitalized - 04/17/2010
Luci Baines Johnson, the youngest daughter of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, is being treated at the Mayo Clinic for what doctors suspect is a rare autoimmune disorder that affects the nervous system, her personal physician said Saturday. Johnson, 62, who was flown by air ambulance to the clinic in Rochester, Minn., on Friday, re

Ex-mentor: Sharpton is Obama's link to the streets - 04/17/2010
The Rev. Al Sharpton is a "lightning rod" for President Barack Obama on inner city streets, Obama's former Harvard mentor and friend said Saturday at a forum in Harlem. But Sharpton, who led the event, told The Associated Press that America's first black president "has to work both for us and for others," and that

White supremacists, demonstrators square off in LA - 04/17/2010
A white supremacist group rallied against illegal immigration in downtown Los Angeles Saturday as hundreds of counter-protesters gathered to shout them down in a tense standoff that included several arrests, thrown rocks and police in riot gear. Police officers stood between the white supremacists and counter-demonstrators on the sout

A royal widow takes on the `realists' over nukes - 04/17/2010
Tweeting, Skyping and blogging on Huffington Post, holding forth on CNN or al-Jazeera, debriefing arms negotiators and parleying with generals, the queen is perfecting her nuclear strategy. Her strategy is to get rid of them. Noor al-Hussein, widowed queen of Jordan, the American beauty whose storybook romance with the late

Pot enthusiasts gather at California cannabis expo - 04/17/2010
Medical marijuana users near San Francisco lit up Saturday at the opening of the two-day International Cannabis and Hemp Expo, where vendors displayed bongs, vaporizers, hash brownies and other marijuana-related products. Organizers of the event at the Cow Palace said they insisted on having an onsite medicating area before holding th

AP News in Brief - 04/17/2010
Spewing anew, volcano keeps Europe land-bound and uncertain of long term under ashy shadow PARIS (AP) _ The Icelandic volcano that has kept much of Europe land-bound is far from finished spitting out its grit, and offered up new mini-eruptions Saturday that raise concerns about longer-term damage to world air travel and trade.

Militia member says he wasn't aware of any plot - 04/17/2010
An Ohio man charged in what federal prosecutors say was a Christian militia's plot to wage war against the government said Saturday that he wasn't aware of any such specific plans and regrets not severing ties with the group. Kristopher Sickles, 27, of Sandusky, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from jail in Sanilac C

Sinkhole cuts off 100 homes in N. California city - 04/17/2010
Crews were building a new road after a massive sinkhole in Richmond cut off a neighborhood of more than 100 homes. The sinkhole swallowed up two parked cars when it opened Thursday evening. No one was in the cars. A Richmond fire official says the hole, estimated to be about 60 feet long, 40 feet wide and 20 feet deep, cut

Mafia-related fugitive nabbed in Ky. after 2 days - 04/17/2010
Authorities say they've caught a Mafia-affiliated fugitive who spent two days on the run after kicking out the door of a prison van in Kentucky. U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Craig Smith said 37-year-old Derek A. Capozzi was captured without incident in Versailles (vur-SAYLZ') Saturday afternoon. Capozzi escaped from cust

Man shot at San Diego County border crossing - 04/17/2010
Federal officers shot and injured a man at the nation's busiest border crossing Saturday after he entered San Diego County from Mexico, authorities said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Jackie Dizdul said the man, whom police have not identified, was shot just before 9 a.m. at a checkpoint at the San Ysidro Point of Ent

NY teen charged with threatening school massacre - 04/17/2010
Police say a 17-year-old boy on New York's Long Island threatened to go on a shooting spree at his former school on the anniversary of the Columbine (KAHL'-uhm-byn) High massacre. Nathan Myres, of North Massapequa (mass-uh-PEE'-kwuh), was arraigned Saturday on a charge of making a terroristic threat. He had attended Plained

LA's ex-gangsters train to go against gang life - 04/17/2010
The phone rang around 2 a.m., waking Teeida Townsend. "My homie got killed," the caller said. Townsend knew how the cycle plays out here in the gang heartland of south Los Angeles: a killing, a revenge shooting, and then another. He rushed to the crime scene. Gang members were growing agitated. Beyond the yellow police tape,

Towns reject FEMA flood buyouts, despite benefits - 04/17/2010
Two years ago, Larry Frese thought he'd escaped the worst of a flood that had left a lot of his neighbors' homes and a large swath of Iowa underwater, even as overflowing Otter Creek lapped at his garage door. "Then all of a sudden _ BANG!" said Frese, recalling the sound of the garage door buckling before the muddy water ru

2 decades after shaking baby, father jailed again - 04/17/2010
Soon after Christina Welch turned 18 in the spring of 2005, her biological parents asked permission to pay her a visit. Mike and Tina Wells broke down when the bed covers were pulled back and they saw the state of the girl: so severely brain damaged as a baby that she never learned to walk, talk or sit up by herself. Maureen Welch, th

Cousin: Vet who killed self in Ohio changed by war - 04/17/2010
The cousin of an Iraq War veteran who killed himself outside a Veterans Affairs medical center in Ohio says serving in the war "affected him mentally." Jason Osborne of Wilson, N.C. says 27-year-old Jesse Huff "went through a lot after he got out" and "wasn't the same when he came back." Huff s

NJ woman claims nearly $212M Powerball jackpot - 04/17/2010
A northern New Jersey school board member who held the lone winning ticket for a $211.7 million Powerball jackpot last month has claimed her prize. Sandra McNeil of Morristown chose a lump-sum award when she bought her ticket, meaning she will get about $101.6 million before federal and state withholding taxes are taken out. <

Calif. Sen. Boxer finds rocky re-election terrain - 04/17/2010
Hints of re-election trouble for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer come from a 65-year-old travel agent from this leafy Los Angeles suburb who's a fellow Democrat. Taxes and the national debt are too high, President Barack Obama has proved a disappointment and the Democratic Party needs new faces, according to Helen Sargent. Boxer, w

Ayers suing Univ. of Wyo. - 04/17/2010
Bill Ayers and a University of Wyoming student are suing the school after it banned the former 1960s radical from speaking on campus. Ayers, who is a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, makes college speeches and is routinely picketed, but the University of Wyoming last week banned him from using any university venue for

Wayward NM cat has free flight home from Chicago - 04/17/2010
No one knows how a tabby cat named Charles traveled the 1,300 miles from his New Mexico home to Chicago, but he's set for a complimentary flight home on American Airlines in a carrier donated by an Albuquerque business. Charles disappeared about eight months ago while his owner was out of town and a friend was caring for him.

Parents of murdered Calif. teen OK plea deal - 04/17/2010
The parents of Chelsea King faced a torturous decision. Should they insist that prosecutors seek the death penalty against a man charged with raping and murdering their 17-year-old daughter? Or do they settle for life in prison in exchange for his plea of guilty to the murders of their child and a 14-year-old girl whose killing would