Nation news briefs

ARIZ. WOMAN ACCUSED OF ABUSING NIECE PLEADS GUILTY: PHOENIX (AP) - The legal guardian of a 10-year-old Arizona girl who died in 2011 after being padlocked in a footlocker by another family member pleaded guilty in the case Friday.

Boston police: Bombing suspect is in custody

WATERTOWN, Mass. (AP) - A 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead.

MIT cop killed, police converge on neighborhood outside Boston

WATERTOWN, Mass. (AP) - A tense night of police activity just days after the Boston Marathon bombings has caused police to converge on a neighborhood outside Boston where they say there were explosives.

Crews seek survivors, bodies after Texas blast

Marathon runner witnesses double disasters

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - People keep asking Joe Berti if he feels unlucky.

FBI issues photos of two suspects

Teen stunned at portrayal as bombing suspect

Flight delays: Furloughs begin at airports Sunday

Former official charged in Texas DA slayings

Atomic bomb re-enacting dropped from Ohio air show

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.

Anal probes ordered after traffic stop

Dinosaur that predates T. rex found in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Paleontologists on Wednesday unveiled a new dinosaur discovered four years ago in southern Utah that proves giant tyrant dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus rex were around 10 million years earlier than previously believed.

Some unions could get break from paying Obamacare fees

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration appears ready to give some labor unions a break from costly fees under the new health care law, a move that drew criticism from Republicans who say it unfairly favors a key White House ally.

Pot’s tax potential attracts new allies

DENVER (AP) - Colorado's hearty embrace of a 25 percent marijuana tax this week could prove a turning point for legalization backers. They've long argued that weed should come out of the black market and contribute to tax coffers instead of prison populations.

Democrats, GOP, tea party dig in

College defends lockdown set off by costume

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Officials at Central Connecticut State University on Tuesday defended the police and school response to reports of a masked man with a gun and sword a day earlier, when law enforcement swarmed the campus and buildings were locked down for three hours.

Paralyzed deer hunter chooses to end life support

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Tim Bowers got to decide for himself whether he wanted to live or die.

Mall shooting baffles relatives of gunman

TEANECK, N.J. (AP) - Relatives and friends of a young man who fired shots in New Jersey's largest mall, trapping terrified shoppers for hours before killing himself, struggled Tuesday to reconcile those actions with a person they described as pleasant and well-liked.

White House sidesteps on Obamacare change

Christie re-elected governor of NJ

Coach fired for Hooters party plan

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A Portland, Ore.-area middle school football coach who said he was willing to lose his job rather than back down from plans for a team party at Hooters has lost his job. The athletic director for the Corbett School District, Jean-Paul Soulagnet, sent a letter to parents Monday night telling them the end-of-season awards party at Hooters was no longer a Corbett Middle School event. Soulagnet also fired coach Randy Burbach ...

Colon cancer testing may be leveling off

News from around the nation

TESTOSTERONE TREATMENTS LINKED WITH HEART RISKS: CHICAGO (AP) - Testosterone treatments may increase risks for heart attacks, strokes and death in older men with low hormone levels and other health problems, a big Veterans Affairs study suggests.

JFK ASSASSINATION FILM, TV PROJECTS

Sharpton demands profiling guarantee from Macy's

NEW YORK (AP) - The Rev. Al Sharpton said he and other civil rights leaders had a "brutally honest" meeting Monday with the CEO of Macy's over racial profiling, and demanded that the department store lay out how they will guarantee the practice doesn't happen before the holiday shopping season begins.