Students fight bill that would raise class fees

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Proposed legislation that would raise fees for high-demand courses during summer and winter sessions at California community colleges is meeting opposition from students and faculty.

SoCal fire forces evacuation of 200 homes east of Los Angeles

MONROVIA (AP) - Authorities lifted evacuation orders for some residents Saturday night as firefighters made advances on a brush fire in foothills east of Los Angeles, officials said.

Despite Brown decree retirees in some state jobs

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Data reviewed by The Sacramento Bee shows that more than two dozen departments are still using retired executives to fill some of the highest-paying positions in state government, the newspaper reported Sunday.

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.

Davidian survivors mark 20th anniversary

Dramatic capture of bombing suspect Boston bomb suspect in custody, brother killed

Texas town grieves for dead first-responders; 14 confirmed deaths

Is California realignment working?

SACRAMENTO (AP) - In response to a federal court order, Gov. Jerry Brown pushed a novel approach through the Legislature two years ago to dramatically reduce California's prison population.

Compassionate release buoys old inmates

NEW YORK (AP) - At age 88, John Rigas could be a poster child for inmates who might seek early release from prison because of the hazards of advanced aging.

50 years on, finding profit in ‘truth’ on JFK assassination

DALLAS (AP) - On the very day John F. Kennedy died, a cottage industry was born. Fifty years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, it's still thriving.

Drowsy driving kills 11,000 in 10 years

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) - It probably happens to most drivers.

Amtrak unveils new locomotives

SACRAMENTO (AP) - When Amtrak unveils the first of 70 new locomotives Monday at a plant in Sacramento, it will mark what the national passenger railroad service hopes will be a new era of better reliability, streamlined maintenance and better energy efficiency.

17 wounded in New Orleans parade shooting

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Gunmen opened fire on dozens of people marching in a Mother's Day second-line parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding at least 17 people, police said.

‘Idol’ judges drama upstaging singers

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The ratings are down. Randy Jackson is out. Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj are still at it.

Paramedic in West, Texas, facing charges

WEST, Texas (AP) - Three days after a massive explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant, Bryce Reed climbed onto a coffee table at a local hotel where displaced families picked over donated sweatshirts and pizza. Wearing a navy blue shirt emblazoned with "West EMS," he gathered the crowd close.

Portland airport stripper fights $1K federal fine

Nation news briefs

Criminal probe into plant explosion

Man damages 4 homes with bulldozer

Suspect buried in Virginia cemetery

Theater apologizes for actor carrying fake gun in stunt

Spire installed on WTC tower