WASHINGTON — The picture of an economy growing modestly without producing inflation yet struggling to create jobs emerged from government reports Thursday

JACKSON, Miss. — Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps says the Mississippi prison system will end the practice of keeping male HIV-positive inmates in segregated units.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has postponed his trip to Asia until June so he can stay in Washington for a possible Sunday vote on his health care overhaul plan.

WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders are unveiling what is expected to be their final health care bill Thursday, setting the stage for a Sunday vote on a plan that would affect most Americans and has become the defining issue in Barack Obama's presidency.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday signed into law a package of tax breaks and spending designed to give the nation a jobs boost by encouraging the private sector to start hiring again.

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. – The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.

Organizations from around the country are preparing to make their national presence known - and have their collective voices heard - as they organize to march on the National Mall March 21.

Haiti earthquake overwhelmed Florida hospitals in January, state officials pleaded with the federal government for basic information about arriving patients but got little assistance, e-mails obtained by The Associated Press show.

DETROIT — Toyota plans to cast doubt Monday on a California man's claim that his Prius sped out of control last week on the freeway, a person briefed on the matter told The Associated Press.

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio — With a fresh sense of urgency, President Barack Obama sought to reassure seniors Monday about health care legislation approaching a final vote in Congress, pledging it would make preventive care cost-free and close a gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage.

WASHINGTON — A new Democratic Senate bill to tame U.S. financial markets would give the government new powers to break up firms that threaten the economy and would force the industry to pay for its failures.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An Ohio State University janitor who was about to lose his job walked into a maintenance building for his early morning shift Tuesday and shot two supervisors, killing one of them and fatally shooting himself. No students were hurt. AP/Courtesy of Ohio State University

From left to right, Lance Madison, Dr. Romell Madison and Jackie Madison Brown talk to attorney Mary Howell in New Orleans last month after Michael Lohman, a former lieutenant of the New Orleans Police Department, pleaded guilty to conspiring with fellow NOPD officers to obstruct justice by covering up a police-involved shooting that killed their brother, Ronald Madison, during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. (AP Photo/Cheryl Gerber)

WASHINGTON — The number of newly laid-off workers requesting unemployment benefits slipped last week, but remains above the level many economists say would signal new hiring.

WASHINGTON — House leaders have concluded they cannot change a divisive abortion provision in President Barack Obama's health care bill and will try to pass the sweeping legislation without the support of ardent anti-abortion Democrats.

LOS ANGELES — Federal regulators expanded their efforts Thursday to go after children's jewelry that contains high levels of the toxic metal cadmium by telling parents to throw away "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"-themed charm bracelets.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio State janitor who shot two supervisors in a campus maintenance shop before killing himself left behind a brief handwritten note directed to a woman named Donna that said "sorry I let you down," according to documents released Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Americans are recovering their shrunken wealth — gradually.

WASHINGTON – A rash of ethics lapses has given Democrats an election-year headache: how to convince skeptical voters that they’re any cleaner than Republicans they accused of fostering a “culture of corruption” in 2006. AP/Harry Hamburg

NEW YORK — There's been a sharp drop in the percentage of America's children being bullied or beaten up by their peers, according to a new national survey by experts who believe anti-bullying programs are having an impact.

WASHINGTON — Support from his own party in doubt, President Barack Obama summoned more than a dozen House Democrats to the White House Thursday, pleading with them to put aside their qualms, seize a historic moment and vote for his massive health care overhaul.

Beset by waning support and a recent scandal with a top aide, N.Y. Gov. David Paterson sets aside the idea of running for a full term.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama alternatively courted and blasted Republicans who have impeded his health care plan Thursday, in an extraordinary live-on-TV summit aimed at breaking a partisan deadlock over his top domestic priority.

The debate over same-sex marriage has sounded different in the nation's capital, with references to interracial marriage and Martin Luther King Jr.

PORTLAND, Maine — Nearly 200,000 homes and businesses were still without power Monday as restoration efforts continued days after a slow-moving storm battered the Northeast with heavy snow, rain and high winds.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama took aim Monday at the nation's school dropout epidemic, proposing $900 million to states and education districts that agree to drastically change or even shutter their worst performing schools.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — It's hard enough to find a job in this economy, and now some people are facing another hurdle: Potential employers are holding their credit histories against them.

NEW YORK — New York Gov. David Paterson declared Monday that he still has the authority to govern and plans to do so through the final year of his term, despite calls for his resignation amid a state police scandal.

FORT WORTH, Texas — An attorney says the Army psychiatrist charged in the worst mass shooting on a U.S. military base will soon be moved to a county jail near Fort Hood after four months in a military hospital.

CONCEPCION, Chile — Rescuers found signs of life in the wreckage of a 15-story building Monday as the world offered aid to victims of an earthquake that killed more than 700 people. Troops and police arrested dozens of people for violating a curfew designed to prevent looting.

NEW YORK — Two high school classmates of admitted terrorist plotter Najibullah Zazi were indicted Thursday in a foiled scheme to bomb New York City subways that a prosecutor said was directed by "al-Qaida leadership."

NEW YORK — Unless a last-minute buyer steps forward, General Motors Co.'s Hummer brand is fading into history.

JACKSON, Miss. — A former Ku Klux Klansman convicted in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers is suing the FBI and Mississippi's attorney general.

WASHINGTON — Republicans are taking aim at the Obama administration's struggling mortgage assistance program. They argue the effort is making the economic crisis worse and say many homeowners would be better off as renters.

WASHINGTON — New claims for unemployment benefits jumped unexpectedly last week, mostly because state agencies processed a backlog of claims caused by snowstorms the previous week.

NEW YORK – Hours before the NAACP officially announced that Roslyn M. Brock was the new chair of the National Board of Directors, she sat down in her suite at the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan recently for an exclusive interview.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama personally welcomed the Dalai Lama to the White House Thursday and lauded his goals for the Tibetan people, but he kept their get-together off-camera and low-key in an attempt to avoid inflaming tensions with China.

ROCKVILLE, Md. - A Maryland woman who adopted three children despite a troubled past was convicted Monday of murdering two of the girls, whose bodies were stored in a freezer as the woman continued collecting payments meant to help with their care.

WASHINGTON — The White House and congressional leaders are preparing a detailed health care proposal designed to win passage without Republican support if GOP lawmakers fail to embrace bipartisan compromises at President Barack Obama's summit next week.

AUSTIN, Texas — A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service plowed his small plane into an office building housing nearly 200 federal tax employees on Thursday, officials said, setting off a raging fire that sent workers fleeing as thick plumes of black smoke poured into the air.

AUSTIN, Texas — A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service plowed his small plane into an office building housing nearly 200 federal tax employees on Thursday, officials said, setting off a raging fire that sent workers fleeing as thick plumes of black smoke poured into the air.

WASINGTON – A D.C. Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by eight members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, or AKA, the nation’s oldest Black sorority.

LONDON – The most powerful force against AIDS in Africa may be circumcision, a procedure that’s easily done in the developed world. But it’s a challenge on a continent where there are too few medical workers and a reluctance by men for cultural reasons and fear of pain.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Snow and ice pelted parts of the South on Monday for the second time in a matter of days, glazing Tennessee highways and reaching into northern Alabama.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was sworn in Thursday as the 49th mayor of Baltimore, replacing Sheila Dixon, who resigned amid a scandal.

A woman's chance of having a child with autism increase substantially as she ages, but the risk may be less for older dads than previously suggested, a new study analyzing more than 5 million births found.

WASHINGTON — By now, it is abundantly clear that Michelle Obama loves french fries.

WASHINGTON — A powerful winter storm bore down on the Mid-Atlantic on Friday with as much as 2 feet of snow in store for the nation's capital, where the federal government prepared to shut early.

WASHINGTON — The outlook for jobs became a bit less bleak with January's unexpected decline in the unemployment rate, which fell to 9.7 percent from 10 percent as more Americans said they had jobs.

TOKYO — Toyota's president apologized Friday for the massive global recalls over sticking gas pedals as the automaker scrambles to repair a damaged reputation and sliding sales.

DETROIT — A Muslim prayer leader accused of encouraging his followers to commit violence against the U.S. government was shot 20 times during an FBI raid at a suburban warehouse last year, according to an autopsy report released Monday.

An experimental abstinence-only program without a moralistic tone can delay young teens from having sex, a new study found.

NEW YORK — Toyota says it's found a fix to its problem of sticky accelerator pedals. That problem has triggered one of the company's largest recalls, an unprecedented halt in sales and a public relations headache.

The $8 billion in stimulus cash awarded to 13 high-speed rail corridors across the country may seem like a windfall, but there's a catch. The money isn't enough to finish any of the major projects.

NEW YORK — Government subsidies for the media, which are not widely known but are a long-running source of revenue for publishers, are quietly vanishing just as the industry is struggling to remain commercially viable, according to a new report released Thursday.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A 16-year-old girl pulled from the rubble more than two weeks after a deadly earthquake was in stable condition Thursday, able to eat yogurt and mashed vegetables to the surprise of doctors, who said her survival was medically inexplicable.

WASHINGTON — Just days after President Barack Obama endorsed a partial freeze on domestic spending, his Democratic allies in the Senate have rejected a plan attempting to do pretty much the same thing.

NEW YORK — MSNBC's Chris Matthews says President Barack Obama has done so much to heal racial divisions that he "forgot he was Black" while watching his State of the Union address.

NEW YORK — Rep. Peter King says he has introduced a bill that would prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist trial from being held in New York City.

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Environmental groups are suing the Navy in an effort to halt plans for an offshore training range that they say would threaten endangered right whales.

WASHINGTON — The morning after President Barack Obama urged Congress to finish the job on health care overhaul, a key moderate Democrat on Thursday likened the sweeping legislation to a patient hovering near death.

DETROIT — Dutch luxury car maker Spyker Cars NV is still in talks with General Motors Co. to buy its ailing Saab brand, but no deal has been reached, GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre Jr. said Monday.

NEW YORK — Businesses expect to boost hiring and capital spending in the first half of the year as the U.S. recovery from the recession slowly continues, according to a new survey.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is offering new ideas meant to help struggling people pay bills and care for their families, aiming to help a middle-class he says has been "under assault for a long time."

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The collapse of much of Haiti's capital has a large part of the nation struggling just to find a place to sleep.

ELYRIA, Ohio — A combative President Barack Obama exhorted Congress Friday to pass a new job-creation bill, taking a populist appeal to America's recession-racked Rust Belt in hopes of recapturing the energy of his campaign and moving his presidency beyond this week's blows.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitians are fleeing their quake-ravaged capital by the hundreds of thousands, aid officials said Friday, as their government promised to help nearly a half-million more move from squalid camps on curbsides and vacant lots into safer, cleaner tent cities.

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke faced mounting Senate opposition for another four-year term Friday, even as the White House described President Barack Obama as confident about his confirmation.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama stepped up his campaign against Wall Street on Thursday with a far-reaching proposal for tougher regulation of the biggest banks.

WASHINGTON — Terrorism is creeping back to the forefront of the American mindset, creating an election-year issue for emboldened Republicans and forcing President Barack Obama to reassert himself after a wobbly period of homeland protection.

WASHINGTON — The leader of the House of Representatives said Thursday that she lacks the votes to move the Senate's sweeping health overhaul bill through the House, dealing a jarring blow to Democrats' hopes of finally speeding President Barack Obama's top domestic priority through Congress.

WASHINGTON — A major U.S. Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance Tuesday could alter drastically who gives and gets hundreds of millions of dollars ahead of the November congressional elections.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Workers are carving out mass graves on a hillside north of Haiti's capital, using earth-movers to bury 10,000 people in a single day even as relief workers warn that Haitians are still dying of injuries from the Jan. 12 quake for lack of medical care.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A senior White House adviser says evangelist broadcaster Pat Robertson's remark that Haiti has been "cursed" doesn't express the spirit of the American people or the president.

NEW YORK — Hundreds of immigrants across the United States became citizens this week in special ceremonies honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who would have turned 81 Friday

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Thursday he wants to tax banks to recoup the public bailout of foundering firms at the height of the financial crisis. "We want our money back," he said.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Thursday that "one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history" is moving toward Haiti as he continued to mobilize the U.S. response to the island's devastating earthquake.

WASHINGTON — The White House reached a tentative agreement with union leaders early Thursday to tax high-cost insurance plans, officials said, removing one of the major stumbling blocks in the way of a final compromise on comprehensive health care legislation sought by President Barack Obama.

Want to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti? Aid organizations say cash donations are best. Here are some that are accepting donations:

SAN FRANCISCO — An economist for the city of San Francisco says prohibiting same-sex couples from getting married hurts the city's finances.

WASHINGTON — A judge in Washington, D.C., has thrown out a lawsuit by opponents of gay marriage against the city's elections board.

GEORGETOWN, Del. — A Delaware pediatrician accused of sexually abusing possibly more than 100 patients has waived a preliminary court hearing and bond review.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Desperately needed aid from around the world slowly made its way Thursday into Haiti, where supply bottlenecks and a leadership vacuum left rescuers scrambling on their own to save the trapped and injured and get relief supplies into the capital.

GENEVA — The Red Cross federation says it estimates there have been 45,000-50,000 deaths in the Haitian earthquake.

WASHINGTON — Ten months into President Barack Obama's first economic stimulus plan, a surge in spending on roads and bridges has had no effect on local unemployment and only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry, an Associated Press analysis has found.

SAN FRANCISCO — The first federal trial to determine if the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from outlawing same-sex marriage gets under way Monday, and the two gay couples on whose behalf the case was brought will be among the first witnesses.

WASHINGTON — In case the prospect of nearly $4,000 in prescription assistance isn't enough to perk up low-income seniors, the government is using '60s singer Chubby Checker to publicize "the twist" in the Medicare drug program.

Energy prices fell for a second consecutive day Friday as the U.S. reported a sharp plunge in jobs.

LUCASVILLE, Ohio — Another successful execution using a lethal injection of just one drug instead of the traditional three has fueled debate over whether the state's unique approach should be adopted elsewhere.

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of law enforcement officers are being trained as federal air marshals to ramp up security as the Obama administration tries to prevent a repeat of the near-catastrophic attempt to blow up an airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day.

ST. LOUIS — Police on Friday identified the four people killed in a shooting at a Swiss-owned U.S. industrial plant and confirmed that man suspected of opening fire was among the dead.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A broad snowstorm pushed eastward early Friday ahead of a powerful cold front, complicating the morning rush and closing schools a day after contributing to a crash in Ohio that killed four people in a van carrying disabled adults.

WASHINGTON — Lack of confidence in the economic recovery led employers to shed a more-than-expected 85,000 jobs in December even as the unemployment rate held at 10 percent. The rate would have been higher if more people had been looking for work instead of leaving the labor force because they can't find jobs.

WASHINGTON — Security officials flagged the name of the Nigerian airline bombing suspect for extra screening after he was already in the air, U.S. officials said Thursday, as President Barack Obama got ready to outline government missteps in the near-catastrophe and order fixes.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Snow was piled so high in Iowa that drivers couldn't see across intersections and a North Dakota snowblower repair shop was overwhelmed with business as heavy snow and wind chills as low as 52 below zero blasted much of the Midwest on Thursday.

JACKSON, Miss. — Bobby DeLaughter, a former Mississippi prosecutor and judge whose legal conquests became the subject of books and a movie, is set to report to federal prison Monday for lying to the FBI in a judicial bribery investigation.

WASHINGTON — Threats to federal judges and prosecutors have jumped dramatically, according to a new government report issued Monday that found such threats more than doubled in the past six years

RALEIGH, N.C. — U.S. consumers and businesses are filing for bankruptcy at a pace that made 2009 the seventh-worst year on record, with more than 1.4 million petitions submitted.

ATLANTA — Former Georgia state Sen. Kasim Reed is being sworn into office as Atlanta's 59th mayor.

PLAINS, Ga. — The mayor of former President Jimmy Carter's hometown says the city acted immediately to remove an effigy of President Barack Obama that was found hanging from a building.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama returned Monday to the White House he never really escaped.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The power is out at Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., bringing flights and security screening to a standstill.

WASHINGTON — Counterterrorism officials have moved the names of dozens of people onto the terror watch list and the no-fly list after reviewing a massive government database of suspected terrorists.

NEWARK, N.J. — A man who caused a security breach at Newark Liberty International Airport, forcing major delays and grounding flights for six hours, left about 20 minutes after he walked the wrong way through a security checkpoint, the Transportation Security Administration said Monday.

LAS VEGAS — A hospital official says a court officer has died after being wounded in a shooting at a Las Vegas federal building. A second officer is in serious condition.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Snow falling like New Year's confetti joined forces with a chill that dipped deep to the South on Monday to close schools, delay commuters, threaten fruit farmers and shut down at least one nuclear power plant.

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that the aviation security system failed when a young man on a watchlist with a U.S. visa in his pocket and a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a fight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

New security restrictions swiftly implemented following a botched attempt to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day are making air travel more burdensome and could discourage some business fliers, key customers for the airlines.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats aren't optimistic that a government insurance plan, a central element of health care legislation passed in their chamber, will survive negotiations with the Senate.

NEW YORK — Holiday shoppers spent a little more this season, according to data released Monday, giving merchants some reason for cheer.

OMAHA, Neb. — Snow and rain storms that have battered much of the country for days have started subsiding, leaving behind concerns about flooding in some areas.

NEW YORK — Two emergency medical technicians accused of refusing to help a dying pregnant woman say they were never asked to examine her nor told the extent of her condition.

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats passed a landmark health care bill in a climactic Christmas Eve vote that could define President Barack Obama's legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in the country's history.

WASHINGTON — A fitful economic recovery is drawing strength from a stabilizing job market and signs that manufacturing will contribute to the rebound.

TOPEKA, Kan. — A powerful storm lumbered across the nation's midsection with heavy snow, sleet and rain Thursday, glazing roads and disrupting air travel but promising a white Christmas for some.

ROCKFORD, Ill. — A grand jury ruled Wednesday that the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by two white police officers at a daycare facility filled with children was justified, an official said

NEW YORK — Millions of East Coast commuters returned to work Monday over slick roads and icy sidewalks after a weekend winter storm dropped record snowfall, interrupted holiday shopping and stranded travelers.

AUGUSTA, Maine — A Maine legislator wants to make the state the first to require cell phones to carry warnings that they can cause brain cancer, although there is no consensus among scientists that they do and industry leaders dispute the claim.

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats won a crucial test vote on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, putting them on track for passage before Christmas of the historic legislation to remake the nation's medical system and cover 30 million uninsured.

NEW YORK — Dwindling funding for HIV/AIDS threatens to leave an estimated 10 million infected people without treatment in the developing world, making it one of 2009's Top 10 humanitarian crises, according to Doctors Without Borders.

WASHINGTON — Washington D.C. police are investigating after Internet videos showed a detective waving his gun during a mass snowball fight on a city street.

The snowstorm that blanketed the East Coast, closing malls and snowing in shoppers, spelled trouble for retailers, but elsewhere in the country stores saw a strong turnout on the last weekend before Christmas.

NEW YORK — Citigroup said Monday it is repaying $20 billion in public bailout money, freeing the banking giant from the close scrutiny and pay restrictions that came with the rescue program. The government will also sell its stake in the company.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Lieberman strongly rebutted charges Monday that he flip-flopped to oppose the expansion of Medicare as part of health care legislation, as Democratic leaders struggled to get President Barack Obama's top domestic initiative on track for passage by Christmas.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is asking bank executives to support his efforts to tighten the U.S. financial industry, while bankers are prepared to tell the president he should stop oversimplifying their concerns if he wants good-faith collaboration.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will decide how much privacy workers have when they send text messages from company accounts.

WASHINGTON — A year after Wall Street failures plunged the nation into recession, the House on Friday passed the most ambitious restructuring of financial regulation since the New Deal.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's pay czar is limiting the cash compensation for executives at companies that received the largest taxpayer bailouts to $500,000.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats have fended off an effort to kill a proposed consumer agency contained in legislation to regulate Wall Street. The vote was 223-208.

WASHINGTON — Signs of a strengthening global recovery emerged Friday, with consumers boosting retail sales, companies restoring stockpiles and Chinese exports mounting a comeback.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he needed to set a deadline to start withdrawing U.S. forces so the Afghans wouldn't assume their country would be "a permanent protectorate" of the United States.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — South Carolina's first lady, a former Wall Street vice president who helped launch her husband's political career, filed for divorce Friday more than five months after his tearful public confession of an affair with an Argentine woman

SAN ANTONIO — Women with very advanced breast cancer may have a new treatment option. Doctors say that a combination of two drugs that more precisely target tumors significantly extended the lives of women who had stopped responding to other treatments.

OSLO — Newly enshrined among the world's great peacemakers, President Barack Obama offered a striking defense of war.

WASHINGTON — The divisive issue of abortion emerged Monday as an obstacle to Senate passage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul as a moderate Democrat proposed tough restrictions that liberals said they could not possibly accept.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Monday the massive federal bailout program for financial insititutions has turned out to be much less costly than expected and there may be ways to redirect some of the money toward creating new jobs.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A condemned killer scheduled to become the first person in the U.S. put to death with a single drug — in an execution that could take longer than previous procedures — arrived Monday at the Ohio death house.

Pharmaceutical executives laid out plans Friday to prevent the misuse of prescription painkillers, under pressure from regulators trying to stop hundreds of fatal overdoses each year.

A surprising drop in the unemployment rate and far fewer job losses last month raised hopes Friday for a sustained economic recovery. The rate unexpectedly fell to 10 percent, from 10.2 percent in October, as employers cut the fewest number of jobs since the recession began.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, battling a foreclosure crisis that shows no signs of relenting, will step up pressure on mortgage companies to do more to help people remain in their homes, officials said Saturday.

With the Senate set to begin debate Monday on health care overhaul, the all-hands-on-deck Democratic coalition that allowed the bill to advance is fracturing already. Yet majority Democrats will need 60 votes again to finish.

NEW YORK — The couple who crashed President Barack Obama's first state dinner are peddling their story to broadcast networks for hundreds of thousands of dollars, a television executive says.

WASHINGTON — The Senate opened debate Monday on landmark health care legislation that would extend coverage to millions of uninsured and ban onerous insurance practices, with Democrats vowing to work weekends to deliver on President Barack Obama's domestic initiative by year's end.

JACKSON, Miss. – Dozens of students, members of the NAACP, alumni and concerned constituents gathered in a ‘rally’ at the Mississippi State Capitol last Friday to protest Gov. Haley Barbour’s proposal to merge Mississippi’s three historically Black universities.

KENNETT, Mo. - A Black school teacher who claimed white police officers abused and assaulted her agreed Friday to a plea deal convicting her of resisting arrest and disturbing the peace.

JACKSON, Miss. — Over the last three years, the FBI scoured faded documents, interviewed aging lawmen and tracked down witnesses from killings that occurred decades ago, many of them involving white police officers who shot black men or teenagers.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has met many of the border security benchmarks Congress set in 2007 as a prerequisite to immigration reform and now it's time to change the law, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday.

TEXARKANA, Ark. — Evangelist Tony Alamo used his stature as a self-proclaimed prophet to force underage girls into sham marriages with him, controlling his followers with their fears of eternal suffering.

WASHINGTON — One of sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad's ex-wives says it was "very difficult" to watch her children grieve as their father was executed.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In Arizona, the budget has grown so gloomy that lawmakers are considering mortgaging Capitol buildings. In Michigan, state officials dealing with the nation's highest unemployment rate are slashing spending on schools and health care.

WASHINGTON — Facing a daunting array of Asian challenges, President Barack Obama left Thursday on his first major trip to the region, where a surging China and newly assertive Japan are chipping away at America's standing on diplomacy and trade.

RICHMOND, Va. — Relentless rain drenched much of the Atlantic seaboard Thursday, pelting communities from North Carolina northward with gusty winds and heavy rains, inundating streets and stranding drivers in hard-hit Virginia.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The Colorado parents who reported their 6-year-old son floated away aboard a helium balloon will plead guilty to some charges so that the family can stay together, the attorney for the boy's father said Thursday.

WASHINGTON — The federal deficit hit a record for October as the new budget year began where the old one ended, with the government awash in red ink.

NEW YORK — ACORN has filed a lawsuit claiming that Congress violated the Constitution when it passed a law cutting off federal funding to the organization.

FORT HOOD, TEXAS — The Army psychiatrist accused in the Fort Hood shootings was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the military's legal system, making him eligible for the death penalty if convicted, officials said Thursday.

RICHMOND, Va. — Relentless rain drenched much of the Atlantic seaboard Thursday, pelting communities from North Carolina northward with gusty winds and heavy rains, inundating streets and stranding drivers in hard-hit Virginia.

WASHINGTON — Fewer people are claiming unemployment benefits — but still too many to signal that the economy is close to gaining jobs.

PHILADELPHIA — Trolleys, subways and buses were running again Monday and riders were trickling back to the city's transit system after an early-morning contract agreement ended a crippling six-day strike.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Reggie Turner stopped by a growing memorial to 11 victims of an alleged serial killer because he knew one of the women. Michelle Lee came to pay her respects as a mother and grandmother. Mark Mason and two buddies rode their motorcycles to just take a look.

WHEATON, Md. — When James D. Martin was shot dead seven years ago in the parking lot of a grocery store in suburban Washington, it got little attention on the nightly news.

WASHINGTON — Oh, how the tables have turned. Nervous Democrats are on defense and emboldened Republicans sense opportunity heading into 2010 and the midterm elections. It was just three years ago that the GOP lost the House and Senate as well as governors' races in a cross-country Democratic wave.

WASHINGTON — Don't look for the Senate to quickly follow the House on health care overhaul.

CLEVELAND — Authorities are investigating whether a suspected serial killer whose home and yard harbored the remains of at least 11 people is connected to any killings in places he lived while in the military, including Japan, California and the Carolinas.

WASHINGTON — A comparison of the three health care bills before Congress, including one by House Democrats and an alternative by House Republicans.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama signed a $24 billion economic stimulus bill into law Friday, giving tax incentives to prospective homebuyers and additional jobless benefits to those idled by the business slump.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats acknowledged they don't yet have the votes to pass a sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system, and signaled they may push back the vote until Sunday or early next week.

STERLING, Va. — U.S. mosques fearful of a backlash after the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas are stepping up security.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Police in Orlando say a gunman has been apprehended after killing one person and injuring five others at a downtown office building where he was let go two years ago.

ATLANTA — Only about a third of adults who have tried to get a swine flu vaccine have been able to get it, according to a new national poll.

MINNEAPOLIS — Attorneys say a construction company that was working on the Minneapolis bridge when it collapsed in 2007 have settled lawsuits filed by victims.

WASHINGTON — An Army spokeswoman says the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings had been scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan to counsel soldiers suffering from combat stress.

FORT HOOD, Texas — An Army psychiatrist suspected of opening fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood cleaned out his apartment and left a phone message saying goodbye to a friend in the days before the rampage that left 13 people dead, neighbors said Friday.

FORT HOOD, Texas — A soldier opened fire at a U.S. Army base in Fort Hood, Texas on Thursday, unleashing a stream of gunfire that left 12 people dead and 31 wounded. Authorities killed the gunman, and apprehended two other soldiers suspected in the attack.

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats Thursday blocked a GOP attempt to require next year's census forms to ask people whether they are U.S. citizens.

CLEVELAND — A Cleveland woman said Thursday that she was choked and threatened this year by the man now charged with murder after the remains of several people were found on his property — and that she is racked with guilt for not speaking up earlier.

PHILADELPHIA — A packed commuter train struck and killed a rail worker during the morning rush Thursday, disrupting service for three hours and stranding hundreds of riders on a system already crippled by a transit strike.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama trumpeted two major endorsements for his health overhaul push Thursday as House Democratic leaders pushed toward a vote Saturday on the far-reaching legislation remaking the U.S. health care system.

Using stimulus dollars as bait, President Barack Obama is coaxing states to rewrite education laws and cut deals with unions as they compete for $5 billion in school reform grants.

The Philadelphia transit system's largest union went on strike early Tuesday over wage, pension and health care issues, stalling the city's bus, subway and trolley operations

Remains of four more people were unearthed from the backyard of a rapist's home Tuesday

CLARKSVILLE, Tennessee — An Army Special Forces soldier has been arrested following the discovery of about 100 pounds (45.3 kilograms) of explosives outside his Tennessee home.

WASHINGTON — Government investigators say the U.S. government is unlikely to recover all of its investment in General Motors or Chrysler because the companies' value would need to "grow substantially above what they have been in the past."

PITTSBURGH — A federal appeals court has struck down an ordinance that created two types of buffer zones around medical facilities after a Christian legal group challenged the law on behalf of a nurse who protests abortions.

NEW YORK — Hopes for the fledgling economic recovery got a boost Monday from better-than-expected news on manufacturing, construction and contracts to buy homes.

WASHINGTON — Two Northwest Airlines pilots have told federal investigators that they were going over schedules using their laptop computers in violation of company policy while their plane overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday.

KABUL — A U.S. military helicopter crashed Monday while returning from the scene of a firefight with suspected Taliban drug traffickers in western Afghanistan, killing 10 Americans including three DEA agents in a not-so-noticed war within a war.

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke prodded Congress Friday to enact legislation overhauling America's financial regulatory system to prevent a repeat of the banking and credit debacles that had thrust the country into crisis.

WASHINGTON — Safety investigators say the Northwest Airlines plane whose two pilots overflew their destination by 150 miles had an older model cockpit voice recorder that records only 30 minutes at a time.

NEW YORK — Microsoft's new operating system launches Thursday, and you may be asking: How did we get to Windows 7? Did I miss 5 and 6?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The former president of the National Baptist Convention USA has sued the denomination over an election he overwhelmingly lost.

GENEVA — Nearly 5,000 people have reportedly died from swine flu since it emerged this year and developed into a global epidemic, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Air "sterilizers." A photon machine. Supplement pills to boost the immune system. Protective shampoos and face masks. Even fake Tamiflu.

NEW YORK — A legal provision criticized for making personal tragedies worse by triggering the automatic deportation of a small group of widows and widowers of U.S. citizens will not be in effect for much longer.

NEW YORK — A private forecast of economic activity rose for the sixth straight month in September, a sign the economy may keep growing early next year despite rising unemployment.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department on Thursday is expected to order seven companies that have not paid back last year's government bailouts to halve their top executives' average compensation.

Average tuition prices rose sharply again this fall as colleges passed much of the burden of their own financial problems on to recession-battered students and parents.

NEW ORLEANS — Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles and St. Tammany Parish will get nearly $13.5 million in federal grants for community development and affordable housing.

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had cancer surgery earlier this year, was kept at a hospital overnight after she became drowsy and fell from her seat aboard an airplane. Court officials blamed a reaction to medicine.

WASHINGTON — There will be no cost-of-living increase for more than 50 million Social Security recipients next year, the first year without a raise since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the case is growing stronger for allowing the government to sell health insurance in competition with private companies, contending recent attacks from the industry should dispel any doubts.

NEW ORLEANS - The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Louisiana Recovery Authority have announced an additional $21.7 million for schools throughout the New Orleans area, including funding for Edward Hynes Elementary and Holy Cross schools.

For those who might think that Sen. Roland Burris is beset by problems and is weighed down by the constant criticism both from the press and from local and national elected officials of his own party, think again.

For those who might think that Sen. Roland Burris is beset by problems and is weighed down by the constant criticism both from the press and from local and national elected officials of his own party, think again.

President Barack Obama's Sept. 11 address Friday at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Va.:

IRWINDALE, California — Firefighters were racing against the weather to clear brush before heat descends on Southern California, stoking the giant 15-day-old wildfire burning in the Angeles National Forest.

BARBOURVILLE, Ky. — Machete-wielding police officers have hacked their way through billions of dollars worth of marijuana in the country's top pot-growing states to stave off a bumper crop sprouting in the tough economy.

SAN ANTONIO — Better record-keeping could ensure U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement keeps dangerous immigrants in custody while operating its sprawling detention system safely and lawfully, according to a new report from a nonpartisan think tank.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Twenty governors have signed a letter to support legislation in Congress to allow states to jam contraband cell phones in prisons.

ROANOKE, Va. — A U.S. magistrate judge in Virginia has ordered the release of an avowed white supremacist, but prosecutors have appealed.

DALLAS–During a recent visit “home” former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk shared his thoughts on a number of issues and provided insight into his role as the U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama Administration. When first approached by President-elect Barack Obama about being in the Obama Administration, Kirk said he expressed his desire to be in an area where he could grow.

MILWAUKEE – A Milwaukee man authorities say is linked by DNA to the slayings of nine women since 1986 was captured by police after an alert officer spotted his car at a motel, authorities said.