Mom questions how daughter shot during hug

NY man nears 3 millionth mile in beloved '66 Volvo

More public schools splitting up boys, girls; national count up to at least 500 schools

MIDDLETON, Idaho (AP) - Robin Gilbert didn't set out to confront gender stereotypes when she split up the boys and girls at her elementary school in rural southwestern Idaho.

Studies nix report of arsenic-loving bacteria

NEW YORK (AP) - It was a provocative finding: strange bacteria in a California lake that thrived on something completely unexpected - arsenic. What it suggested is that life, a very different kind of life, could possibly exist on some other planet.

Israeli spies behind Iran assassinations

WASHINGTON (AP) - A new book claims Israel's spy agency dispatched assassins into Iran, as part of a campaign to sabotage the country's disputed nuclear program.

Temps across US cool slightly but still hot

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The heat that blanketed much of the U.S. will begin easing up this week as temperatures approach normal from the Midwest to the East Coast.

Police: Hug triggers officer’s gun, kills woman

DETROIT (AP) - A woman celebrating the weekend before her 25th birthday was fatally shot Sunday when she hugged an off-duty police officer while dancing at a party, causing the officer's service weapon to fire, according to police and her mother.

Click it: Remember to check computer for malicious malware

WASHINGTON (AP) - Internet providers have plans to help their customers Monday and others are braced for calls to helplines because thousands around the country whose computers were infected with malicious software more than a year ago faced the possibility of not being able to get online.

Nation news briefs

• ZIMMERMAN AT 'SAFE HOUSE' IN CENTRAL FLORIDA: ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - The neighborhood watch leader charged with fatally shooting Trayvon Martin is in a safe house that is being protected by his security team.

Minnesota officials bemoan deer stand ‘mansions’

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) - Some Minnesota hunters are upgrading their deer stands, trading the traditional nailed-together hunks of wood for what one official calls "mansions" in trees on public property.

Odd News

Mass. man pays off mortgage with pennies MILFORD, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts man who pledged to make the last mortgage payment on his home with pennies has fulfilled that promise. After warning his bank, Thomas Daigle dropped off about 62,000 pennies weighing 800 pounds in two boxes for the final payment on the Milford home he and his wife, Sandra, bought in ...

Texas man says he regrets killing wife in argument

$?(&! What did that politician just say?

Ill. man leaves prison after case dropped

Zimmerman leaves jail on $1M bond

5 year-old shoots 2-year-old sister in Kentucky

Wind-fueled wildfire erupts east of LA

Missing woman, thought dead, surfaces in Fla.

J.C. Penney ad apologizes to retail customers

Ohio executes man who killed, raped 6-month-old

Justice appeals morning-after case

Food, skin allergies increasing in children

FBI: Backpack from Boston suspect's room

Nation news briefs

FROSTY START FOR UPSTATE NY ICE CREAM TRUCK SEASON: GLOVERSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) - The chilly relationship between rival upstate New York ice cream truck operators got out of hand this season, with Sno Cone Joe trying to chase Mr. Ding-A-Ling out of the market, authorities said Wednesday.

'American Idol' is now 3rd-rated competition show

Kansas school apologies to Airman in prom dispute

Kansas school apologies to Airman in prom dispute

Morning-after pill OK for ages 15 and up

Maria Shriver is coming back to NBC News

Worker dies in blender at Oregon meat plant

Utah referee critically hurt by soccer game punch