Tea party achieves state policy victories

ATLANTA (AP) - Tea party activists in Georgia helped kill a proposed sales tax increase that would have raised billions of dollars for transportation projects. In Pennsylvania, tea partyers pushed to have taxpayers send public school children to private schools. In Ohio, they drove a referendum to block state health insurance mandates.

Junk food laws may help curb kids' obesity

CHICAGO (AP) - Laws strictly curbing school sales of junk food and sweetened drinks may play a role in slowing childhood obesity, according to a study that seems to offer the first evidence such efforts could pay off.

Romney seeks distance from Ryan's budget plans; cheered by large crowds

HIGH POINT, N.C. (AP) - Cheered by the biggest crowds of his campaign, Republican Mitt Romney declared Sunday that 42-year-old running mate Paul Ryan is ready to be president, but said his own budget plan, not the more detailed proposals of his partner, will be the basis of his White House bid.

Storied 101st Airborne marks 70th anniversary with active duty, veterans

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - After months of grueling road marches through the north Georgia mountains, a group of elite paratroopers had to put their training to the test in a trial by fire. They leapt from an airplane, bullets whizzing past parachutes and shrapnel pelting the plane's side panels.

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NATION

Source: Mitt Romney picks Ryan for running mate on GOP ticket

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has picked Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan to be his running mate, according to a Republican with knowledge of the development. They will appear together Saturday in Norfolk, Va., at the start of a four-state bus tour to introduce the newly minted GOP ticket to the nation.

Mars rover snapped photo of rocket crash

PASADENA (AP) - Space enthusiasts have been abuzz for days over whether the Mars rover Curiosity captured an extraterrestrial crash. On Friday, NASA declared the mystery solved.

Officers testify about kids tied up in Walmart parking lot by their parents

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - A 7-year-old girl found bound in the parking lot of a Kansas Walmart told police she was hitting her siblings and asked to be tied up and blindfolded, an officer testified Friday during a preliminary hearing for the girl's parents. Deborah Gomez, 44, and her husband, Adolfo Gomez Jr., 52, were arrested in June and charged with two ...

Director of 'Willy Wonka,' dead at 83

1873 dime sells for a pretty penny: $1.6M

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A dime made in 1873 has cost someone a pretty penny: It sold for $1.6 million at auction. An anonymous bidder won the pristine coin, said Chris Napolitano, president of Stack's Bowers Galleries, which auctioned it during an American Numismatic Association convention. With a 15 percent buyer's fee tacked on, the final price for the coin was $1.84 million, ...

Caged pit bull dies in heat wave

FONTANA . (AP) - A caged pit bull with no water and no shade has been found dead in a Southern California backyard during a triple-digit heat wave. A second dog was near death when it was rescued by a Fontana animal control officer responding to a neighbor's tip. The Riverside Press-Enterprise says 26-year-old Fontana dog owner Jose ...

Postal Service reports $5.2B loss in 3rd Q

Sibling rivalry will play out at AARP spelling bee

Lawyers: Colo. shooting suspect mentally ill

Facebook pressured to remove page deemed racist

Controversies add to Obama's frustrations

Train explosion caused by chemical cargo

Nation news briefs

$1M BAIL FOR MAN ACCUSED IN BABY-FREEZER CASE: TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - Bail was set at $1 million Tuesday for a 25-year-old Washington man accused of putting his 6-week-old daughter in a 10-degree freezer for about an hour to stop her crying.

Looking to IRS scandal for momentum

Twister debris would create mile-high pile

7 charged in $6B online money laundering

Healthy quintuplets born in Salt Lake

Nation news briefs

CUSTOMERS SETTLE BILLS FORGOTTEN IN BOSTON BLASTS: BOSTON (AP) - Amid the chaos and fear in the moments after the Boston Marathon explosions, many restaurant customers fled without settling their tabs.

Mass. paid welfare benefits to the dead

Man who disrupted flight says he's bipolar

Americans gather to honor fallen soldiers

ATLANTA (AP) - Americans gathered at memorials, museums and monuments and the president laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery to honor fallen service members on Memorial Day, as combat in Afghanistan approaches 12 years and the ranks of World War II veterans dwindle.

WWII vet receives long-lost dog tag from France

ROCHESTER, NY (AP) - Irving Mann has been in business long enough to be skeptical of out-of-the-blue offers that seem too good to be true.

Killed World War II Marine’s diary offers a brief look at his brief life

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Before Cpl. Thomas "Cotton" Jones was killed by a Japanese sniper in the Central Pacific in 1944, he wrote what he called his "last life request" to anyone who might find his diary: Please give it to Laura Mae Davis, the girl he loved.

Woman who flew in WWII finally gets honors

TROY, Mich. (AP) - One of the 1,000-plus women who flew for the armed forces during World War II but waited decades to earn full military recognition was the focus of her family's thoughts at a Memorial Day graveside ceremony.

NY mayoral hopeful would be a first

NEW YORK (AP) - It was an unscripted moment made for Christine Quinn.