U.S. National

WASHINGTON - Fifty years after the pill, another birth control revolution may be on the horizon: free contraception for women in the U.S., thanks to the new health care law. Full Story »

NEW YORK - Of the courtiers to Camelot's king, Theodore C. Sorensen ranked just below Bobby Kennedy. He was the adoring, tireless speechwriter and confidant to President John F. Kennedy, whose term was marked by Cold War struggles, growing civil rights strife and the beginnings of the U.S. intervention in Vietnam. Full Story »

• Video: Theodore Sorensen, top JFK aide, dies at 82 AP

SALT LAKE CITY - Eight years after he's accused of slicing through a kitchen window screen with a knife and whisking away a young girl in the middle of the night, the man charged in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart is headed to trial in federal court. Full Story »

ATLANTA - On the Sunday before Election Day, preachers told black churchgoers across the country to get out and vote — and defy predictions that they'll be complacent or uninterested in a year that President Barack Obama isn't on the ballot. Full Story »

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - If you want to know what a member of the armed forces thinks about repealing "don't ask, don't tell," you could start by asking how old they are. Full Story »

CHICAGO - The next governor of Illinois will walk into office and find himself staring at a budget deficit that could top $15 billion. In California, the hole will be $12 billion. In larger-than-life Texas, the two-year total is $18 billion or more. Full Story »

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After a two-day delay, NASA's countdown clocks began ticking Sunday toward the final launch of space shuttle Discovery. Full Story »

• Slideshow: Space Shuttle

WASHINGTON - In the shadow of the Capitol and the election, comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert entertained a huge throng Saturday at a "sanity" rally poking fun at the nation's ill-tempered politics, fear-mongers and doomsayers. Full Story »

• Slideshow: 'Rally to Restore Sanity'

MIDLAND, Mich. - The government has spent many millions of dollars in recent decades cleaning up sites contaminated with dioxin and, in extreme cases, relocating residents of entire neighborhoods tainted by the toxin. Full Story »

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said Saturday it was his decision to hold practice outdoors on a windy day when a student videographer died after the lift he was in fell over. Full Story »

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Thomas J. Woods joined the military after graduating from an all-black high school in 1950, when Jim Crow laws forced him to the back of buses and Savannah shop clerks would greet him with a surly, "What you want, boy?" Full Story »

NEW YORK - When the dead are delivered, four mornings a week, the ferry Michael Cosgrove is waiting. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Alex lives in Washington but votes at a church in Virginia. Kathleen signed a lease here but casts her ballot in Pennsylvania. Nicolas moved to the nation's capital a year ago, but his polling place is in Connecticut. Full Story »