Senate panel boosts spending on IRS, Pell Grants

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate panel divided along party lines Thursday to approve legislation funding President Barack Obama's health care and financial services overhaul laws and boosting spending on the IRS and Pell Grants for low-income college students.

Man sentenced in Grand Canyon child abuse

F-22 oxygen problem worse than thought

Nation news briefs

DEMS: OBAMA COULD LOSE, DONORS BETTER GET MOVING: WASHINGTON (AP) - In growing numbers, once-confident Democrats now say President Barack Obama could lose the November election.

10,000 germ species live in and on healthy people

Bishops press religious-freedom fight with gov't

Most every day is Flag Day for Philly seamstresses

Nation news briefs

NJ YACHT HOAX RESPONSE COST MORE THAN $300,000: NEW YORK (AP) - Rescue officials say a search operation after a fake report of a yacht explosion off the New Jersey coast cost agencies including the Coast Guard more than $300,000 and took about five hours.

Smoke from wildfire 60 miles away blankets Denver ‘ 100 structures burned

Average price of 4-year university up 15 percent

Tanned NJ woman's salon is fined for overexposure

Face-chewing victim 'awake and alert'

KKK group aims to adopt highway in Georgia for litter control; state balking

Sheriff: Man writing book on kindness shot while hitchhiking across Montana

Nation news briefs

HAWAII TELESCOPE SEES WHAT COULD BE OLDEST GALAXY: HONOLULU (AP) - A team of Japanese astronomers using telescopes on Hawaii say they've seen the oldest galaxy, a discovery that's competing with other "earliest galaxy" claims.

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.