Ryan supports prayer in schools if states agree

Demos rush to change platform to add God & Jerusalem as capital of Israel

Judge approves police enforcement of contentious part of Ariz immigration law

Ryan praises Bill Clinton on day of his speech

Chicago mayor shifting from national campaign to pro-Obama super PAC

Rain, political & security risks force Obama's speech indoors

First lady’s message: Obama is just like you

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Michelle Obama's message: President Barack Obama is just like you.

SC Republicans Haley, Scott crash Democrats’ convention

Obama navigate thru sluggish economy

Judge: Mass. must pay for killer's sex change

Demos: GOP's Romney just 'doesn't get it'

Wildfire stays in forest, away from cities in LA area

National debt hits $16T; GOP critical

Jimmy Carter, women out front

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Convention Watch shows you the 2012 political conventions through the eyes of Associated Press journalists. *CARTER'S WORDS: "He has done it all in the face of bitter, unyielding, in fact unprecedented partisan opposition." - former President Jimmy Carter, enumerating at the Democratic National Convention (on video, not in person) what he calls Barack Obama's victories in the past ...

Days after Isaac, thousands still in the dark

Former TWA Flight 800 investigators want new probe of crash

Russia could stand in way of Obama's nuke weapon cuts

FBI uses drones for surveillance

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI uses drones for surveillance of stationary subjects, and the privacy implications of such operations are "worthy of debate," FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday. He said the law enforcement agency very seldom uses drones now, but is developing guidelines that will shape how unmanned aerial vehicles are to be used. There will be a number of issues regarding drones "as they become more omnipresent, not the least of which is ...

Compromise eyed on border security

Nation news briefs

FATHER SENTENCED FOR BINDING KIDS OUTSIDE WAL-MART: LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - A suburban Chicago man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison for binding and blindfolding two of his children a year ago in a Wal-Mart parking lot in eastern Kansas.

Prison for woman who buried mom in yard

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A woman who quit her job to care for her elderly mother felt at a loss to support herself when the older woman died so she buried her in the yard of their Florida home and lived off her mother's Social Security checks for 14 years, her lawyers and federal authorities say.

IRS playing $70M in employee bonuses

Deen says she used slur but doesn't tolerate hate

As the West burns, feds cut funding for fire prevention

FBI digging at ex-home of famed NY mobster

IRS worker: No political bias against tea party

Feds fire, demote employees over killing, rape

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Federal probation officers in upstate New York have been fired or demoted after a man they were monitoring was charged with slipping out of his electronic bracelet, raping a 10-year-old girl and killing her mother during a carjacking at a New York mall. The changes at the federal probation office in Syracuse were detailed in a letter from U.S. courts administrators to Rep. Dan Maffei, who had written to the courts ...

Odd News

DRIVER SAYS HE WAS SPEEDING SO HE COULD DRY CAR: BLACK DIAMOND, Alberta (AP) - He was drying off his freshly washed car.

18 mayors want Congress to limit use of food stamps to buy soda

USFS may not refill Incline Lake after all

RENO, Nev. (AP) - The U.S. Forest Service is leaning toward abandoning plans to restore a small lake overlooking Lake Tahoe to the way it was when the rich and famous vacationed at the private enclave a half century ago and instead let it return to a natural wetland. The federal government bought Incline Lake for $43.5 million in a land deal five years ago with the intention of repairing a small dam built in ...