Mass. school district closed due to slick floors

AMHERST, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts school district has canceled classes for the day because floors are too slippery. The Amherst Regional School District announced on its website that all six of its schools are closed Thursday because of "weather-related building issues." Amherst Regional High School Principal Mark Jackson said there had been 22 reported falls throughout the district on Wednesday because of slick floors. He had not heard of any serious injuries. He says ...

Mass. school district closed due to slick floors

AMHERST, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts school district has canceled classes for the day because floors are too slippery. The Amherst Regional School District announced on its website that all six of its schools are closed Thursday because of "weather-related building issues." Amherst Regional High School Principal Mark Jackson said there had been 22 reported falls throughout the district on Wednesday because of slick floors. He had not heard of any serious injuries. He says ...

Colo. mountain flooding kills 3

Colo. mountain flooding kills 3

Some Pittsburghers cited for parking in their own driveways

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Some Pittsburghers are being ticketed or warned not to park in their own driveways under an obscure ordinance that requires them to pay $225 for a permit if they wish to park within 30 feet of a street. Some residents have complained about the tickets and warnings, which are issued by the city's Bureau of Building Inspection. The agency is caught in the middle, contend John Jennings, its acting chief. The bureau ...

Scathing obit about abusive mom goes viral

3 years for hacking police websites

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A 22-year-old Ohio man linked to the hacker collective Anonymous was sentenced Thursday to three years in federal prison for breaking into police and other websites across the country.

Pastor arrested before he could burn Qurans

MULBERRY, Fla. (AP) - A Florida pastor was arrested Wednesday as he drove a pickup truck towing a large barbecue-style grill filled with kerosene-soaked Qurans to a park, where the pastor had said he was planning to burn 2,998 of the Muslim holy books- one for every victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Nation news briefs

VEGAS MOM GIVES BIRTH TO HEALTHY QUINTUPLETS: PHOENIX (AP) - A Las Vegas mother is resting Wednesday after delivering a healthy set of quintuplets in a suburban Phoenix hospital, bringing five new additions to her family's already full house.

Russian prestige on the line in Syria?

2 recalled over gun control support

Low estrogen may play a role in 'male menopause'

ATLANTA (AP) - TV ads tout testosterone treatments for "low T," but surprising new research shows a different hormone may play a role in less sex drive and more fat as men age. Estrogen - the female hormone - is needed by men, too, and the study gives the first clear evidence that too little of it can cause certain "male menopause" symptoms.

Nation pauses on 9/11 to pay tribute

NEW YORK (AP) - Life in lower Manhattan resembled any ordinary day on Wednesday as workers rushed to their jobs in the muggy heat, but time stood still at the World Trade Center site while families wept for loved ones who perished in the terror attacks 12 years ago.

Referendum on Bloomberg looms in NYC election

NEW YORK (AP) - The race to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg is shaping up as a referendum on the 12-year legacy of the billionaire who guided the nation's biggest city through the aftermath of 9/11 and the meltdown on Wall Street.

Schools can arm teachers, staff

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A state board voted Wednesday to allow 13 school districts in Arkansas to continue using teachers, administrators and other staff as armed guards, despite a warning from the state's top attorney that the licensing law they relied upon was intended for private businesses.

DCC crowd pushes through barriers to WWII Memorial

WASHINGTON (AP) - A crowd converged on the World War II Memorial on the National Mall on Sunday, pushing past barriers to protest the memorial's closing under the government shutdown.

Spending stumbling block to budget deal to avoid debt crisis

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans and Democrats hit an impasse Sunday over spending in their last-ditch struggle to avoid an economy-jarring default in just four days and end a partial government shutdown that's entering its third week.

Dying Ohio man on gurney leads 24-year-old daughter down aisle

CLEVELAND (AP) - A terminally ill Ohio man who arrived at his daughter's wedding by ambulance gave her away, from a hospital gurney.

As Bakken booms, drug arrests spike

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - The booming Bakken oil patch that's given a major boost to U.S. energy production has emerged as a new front in the fight against drug trafficking.

Woman’s remains must be removed from yard

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday rejected an elderly north Alabama man's appeal to keep the grave of his late wife in the front yard of the home they shared for decades.

Kansas man is hit by train, gets up and walks away

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Authorities say a Kansas man who was walking along railroad tracks wearing headphones was hit by a train that he didn't hear approaching behind him - but that he got back up and kept walking. Shawnee County Sheriff Herman Jones says the BNSF conductor slowed down the train and blew the horn when he saw 25-year-old Kristopher Wenberg on the tracks in Topeka on Thursday. Wenberg told deputies he couldn't hear ...

Teen gets 3 years for prostituting minor

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Montia Parker seemed loaded with promise as she was finishing high school this spring: an honor roll student already accumulating college credit, a frequent volunteer and cheerleading captain at her suburban Minneapolis school.

Some states reopen national parks

Obamacare a success so far? It's hard to say

Boy, 11, found guilty of murder conspiracy

COLVILLE, Wash. (AP) - An 11-year-old boy was convicted Friday of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in a fifth-grade plot that targeted a female classmate. Stevens County Superior Court Judge Allen Nielsen said Friday that "simple anger" fueled the plot the boy hatched earlier this year with a 10-year-old classmate at Fort Colville Elementary school in northeast Washington. School staff seized a handgun and knife the boys brought to school Feb. 7. The judge, who ...

News from around the nation

ZOOKEEPER IN SOUTHWEST MISSOURI KILLED BY ELEPHANT: SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - A longtime zookeeper in southwest Missouri was killed Friday morning when he was crushed by an elephant, a spokeswoman for the city of Springfield said.