Nation news briefs

MONTANA GOV. SIGNS BILL DECRIMINALIZING GAY SEX: HELENA, Mont. (AP) - An obsolete law deeming gay sex as deviant - akin to bestiality - was stricken from Montana code Thursday, prompting gay rights activists to say they hope that full legal equality may be close at hand.

Minister gets 56-year prison term for murder

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) - The former minister of a small Michigan congregation was sentenced Thursday to at least 56 years in prison for killing his fiancée's 24-year-old daughter, allegedly to fulfill a fantasy to have sex with a dead body. Isabella County Chief Circuit Judge Paul Chamberlain ordered 55-year-old John D. White to serve from 56 to 85 years behind bars, ...

FBI issues photos of 2 suspects in Boston bombing

BOSTON (AP) - The FBI released photos and video Thursday of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing and asked for the public's help in identifying them, zeroing in on the two men on surveillance-camera footage less than three days after the deadly attack. FBI agent Richard DesLauriers said the photos of the two men came from surveillance cameras near the explosion sites. One man is seen wearing a light-colored baseball cap, ...

Texas fertilizer plant explodes

WEST, Texas (AP) - A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco on Wednesday night injured more than 140 people and killed an unknown number of others. The blast sent flames shooting into the night sky, leaving the factory a smoldering ruin and leveling buildings for blocks in every direction.

Nation news briefs

ROBBER ATTACKS RIVERSIDE SHOP OWNER WITH HAMMER: RIVERSIDE (AP) - Detectives say security cameras captured a robber beating the owner of a Riverside tobacco store with a hammer and taking cash and other items.

Video footage shows bomb suspect

Miss. man accused of sending letters with ricin

Ex-official's wife says husband shot DA

Ariz. bill passed makes cities sell turned-in guns

Woman goes on trial in severed penis case

SANTA ANA (AP) - A Southern California woman yelled "You deserve it" before severing her estranged husband's penis with a 10-inch kitchen knife and throwing it in a garbage disposal, a prosecutor said Wednesday in opening statements at her trial. Catherine Kieu, 50, is accused of drugging her estranged husband's tofu with sleeping pills and tying him to a bed before the ...

Hospital tosses dead baby out with laundry

Obama slams Senate gun vote as 'shameful'

Recently married couple wounded in Boston bombing

AP source: Feds deny reports Boston suspect is arrested

BOSTON (AP) - Police and reporters converged on the federal courthouse in Boston on Wednesday amid conflicting reports of whether a suspect was in custody in the marathon bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 170.

Magic Johnson’s son talks about being gay

Lawyer: Former ricin suspect's home is unlivable

1st female Iraq war resister to be court-martialed

Abortion trial stirs debate on when life ends

Boston suspect's defense team gets major boost

Army says no to more tanks, but Congress insists on them

WASHINGTON (AP) - Built to dominate the enemy in combat, the Army's hulking Abrams tank is proving equally hard to beat in a budget battle.

Dozens of air shows cancel without military jets due to federal budget cuts

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Dozens of air shows that draw tens of thousands of people and generate millions of dollars for local economies have been cancelled this year after the military grounded its jet and demonstration teams because of automatic federal budget cuts.

A new front for gun background checks

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - After struggling to sway both state and federal lawmakers, proponents of expanding background checks for gun sales are now exploring whether they will have more success by taking the issue directly to voters.

Man charged in suspicious letters case

BRANDON, Miss. (AP) - The arrest of a 41-year-old Mississippi martial arts instructor in a case of poison-laced letters sent to President Barack Obama and others capped a week in which investigators initially zeroed in on a rival of James Everett Dutschke, then decided they had the wrong man.

So.Cal collector selling off 55,000 dresses, ballgowns

GARDENA (AP) - It was a sale fit for a princess on Saturday as a Southern California man put up for sale some of the 55,000 dresses and ballgowns in his collection.

Anthony Foxx in line for transportation post

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx as his new transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday.

Obama jokes about aging during 2nd term

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama joked Saturday that the years are catching up to him and he's not "the strapping young Muslim socialist" he used to be.

Police say 4 people stabbed at Albuquerque church

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Police say a 24-year-old man stabbed four people at a Catholic church in Albuquerque as a Sunday mass was nearing its end.

Methane report further divides fracking camps

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change?

NYPD whistle-blowers testify at stop-frisk trial

NEW YORK (AP) - After Officer Pedro Serrano decided to testify in federal court about what he sees as wrongdoing within the New York Police Department, a rat sticker appeared on his locker.

Nation news briefs

WIKILEAKS SUSPECT NAMED SF PRIDE PARADE MARSHAL: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The U.S. Army private charged in a massive leak of U.S. secrets to the WikiLeaks website has been named as a grand marshal of San Francisco's annual gay rights parade, a choice that was immediately condemned by several groups representing gay and lesbian service members.