Vatican win: Judge says priests aren't employees

Listen to radios? Watch TVs? Not for Class of '16

Missouri congressman fights to save GOP Senate bid after rape remarks

Scott McKenzie, singer of 'San Francisco,' dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Singer Scott McKenzie, who performed "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" - which became a hit in 1967 during the city's "Summer of Love" - has died. A statement on McKenzie's website says the 73-year-old died on Saturday in Los Angeles. McKenzie battled Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease that affects the nervous system, and had ...

Military budget deal unlikely by November

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says he doesn't believe Congress can reach a deal before the November elections that avoids deep cuts in military spending, but says he is optimistic that the reductions won't occur. In interviews Monday with news outlets from regions with a large military presence, Obama said he has made sure that service members don't lose pay or ...

Humorist Phyllis Diller dies at age 95 in Los Angeles

Ex-Marine detained for evaluation after making strident Facebook posts

NorCal. fire forces thousands to flee as more than 3,000 homes threatened

REDDING - (AP) - Thousands of people were told to leave their homes Sunday as a growing wildfire burning out of control in thick forest threatened rural communities in far Northern California.

Man fights to keep wife buried in front yard on street near Alabama community’s downtown

STEVENSON, Ala. (AP) - James Davis is fighting to keep the remains of his late wife right where he dug her grave: In the front yard of his home, just a few feet from the porch.

Lawsuit over roads in Tahoe Forest in Sierra west of Reno

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A national group representing off-highway recreationists is suing the U.S. Forest Service to try to overturn a new travel management plan on national forest lands in the Sierra west of Reno they say is overly restrictive.

Nation news briefs

• 72 RESCUED WHEN SIGHTSEEING VESSEL TAKES ON WATER: ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Coast Guard says responders have rescued 72 people on a sightseeing vessel that began taking on water in Alaska's Glacier Bay after reportedly striking a rock.

Ryan paid a higher federal tax rate than Romney

Ryan paid a higher federal tax rate than Romney

Odd News

AIR FRANCE: OUT OF GAS? ASK PASSENGERS TO PITCH IN: PARIS (AP) - An emergency layover in Syria's capital was bad enough. Then passengers on Air France Flight 562 were asked to open their wallets to check if they had enough cash to pay for more fuel.

Forest Service now tries to tamp out every flame

Ex-teacher gets 5-year prison term for student sex

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - A former North Texas high school teacher was convicted Friday and sentenced to five years in prison for having sex with five 18-year-old students at her home. The Tarrant County jury decided on the sentence for Brittni Nicole Colleps, 28, of Arlington after nearly three hours of deliberation. It took jurors less than an hour to find ...

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 ...