Congress passes student loans, highway jobs bill

Effort to boost governor's tax hike on ballot draws lawsuit

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An effort to give Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative top billing on California's November ballot has drawn a lawsuit by a rival tax campaign. The lawsuit filed against the secretary of state accuses state lawmakers of abusing their power and says they are trying "to change the rules in the middle of the game." The ...

Nation news briefs

NM MOM JAILED FOR OVERDUE 'TWILIGHT' BOOK, DVDS: ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A New Mexico woman was arrested and spent a night in jail for not returning the book "Twilight" and two-DVD set "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" back to the library on time.

Colorado Springs fire destroys 346 homes

Colorado Springs fire destroys 346 homes

A look at the ruling

Small biz: questions, waiting after health ruling

Health care law survives with conservative Justice Roberts' help

Highways-student loan deal poised for votes today in House of Reps

It’s official: Stockton is largest city in US history to file bankruptcy

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Stockton has filed for Chapter 9 protection, making it the largest American city ever to declare bankruptcy. City Manager Bob Deis said officials sought the status Thursday in federal bankruptcy court in Sacramento, as expected. The filing comes after officials were unable to reach a deal with the city's creditors to restructure hundreds of millions ...

Heat wave: 1,000+ records fall in a week

NEW YORK (AP) - Feeling hot? It's not a mirage. Across the United States, hundreds of heat records have fallen in the past week.

Nation news briefs

TEXAS MAN ACCUSED OF STARTING TO EAT DOG ARRESTED: WACO, Texas (AP) - Bond has been revoked for a Texas man who police say killed and starting eating his housemate's dog after chasing a neighbor on his hands and knees while growling.

FDA clears first weight-loss pill in 13 years

Colleges move toward absolute bans on smoking on all areas on campuses

Debby floods neighborhoods in northern Fla.

Wildfire victims crowd Colorado shelters

Bombing suspects planned more attacks

BOSTON (AP) - As churches paused to mourn the dead and console the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing Sunday, the city's police commissioner said the two suspects had such a large cache of weapons that they were probably planning other attacks. The surviving suspect remained hospitalized and unable to speak with a gunshot wound to the throat.

Prayer and waiting in Texas town rocked by blast from fertilizer plant

WEST, Texas (AP) - The First Baptist Church in the tiny Texas town where a fertilizer plant exploded is still off-limits, so the Rev. John Crowder put folding chairs in a hay pasture and improvised a pulpit on a truck flatbed. At the elementary school, an official carted extra desks and chairs into the only public school campus that's left.

NATION NEWS BRIEFS

• FBI: ILL. MAN TRIED TO JOIN AL-QAIDA-LINKED GROUP: CHICAGO (AP) - An Illinois teenager who was friends with a man charged last year with trying to bomb a Chicago bar was arrested at an airport on his way to try to join a terrorist group in war-torn Syria, the FBI said Saturday.

Reese Witherspoon charged with disorderly conduct

ATLANTA (AP) - Oscar-winning Actress Reese Witherspoon was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after a state trooper said she wouldn't stay in the car while her husband was given a field sobriety test in Atlanta.

Caregiver: There’s now and app for that

NEW YORK (AP) - As her mother and father edged toward dementia, Nancy D'Auria kept a piece of paper in her wallet listing their medications.

More rain as rivers crest across Midwest

CLARKSVILLE, Mo. (AP) - Those fighting floods in several communities along the Mississippi River were mostly successful Sunday despite the onslaught of water, but an ominous forecast and the growing accumulation of snow in the upper Midwest tempered any feelings of victory.

Search ends for fishermen missing off Texas coast

HOUSTON (AP) - John Reynolds and the four others aboard the Nite Owl weren't worried when the thunderstorms made it impossible for the commercial fishing boat to return back to shore. They'd seen this kind of weather before.

Furloughs kick in, but flights come in on time

NEW YORK (AP) - Commercial airline flights moved smoothly throughout most of the country on Sunday, the first day air traffic controllers were subject to furloughs resulting from government spending cuts. But while the nightmarish flight delays and cancellations that the airline industry predicted would result from the furloughs did not materialize yet, the real test will come Monday, when traffic ramps up.

Skier, 4 snowboarders killed in avalanche

DENVER (AP) - Authorities have released the names of four Colorado snowboarders and one skier killed over the weekend in the state's deadliest avalanche in more than 50 years.