Dorothy McGuire of McGuire Sisters dies

PHOENIX (AP) - Dorothy McGuire Williamson, who teamed with sisters Christine and Phyllis for a string of hits in the 50s and 60s as the popular McGuire Sisters singing group, has died. She was 84.

Images, not frequency, make NYC twisters notable

NEW YORK (AP) - Most people wouldn't say New York and tornado in the same breath.

Treasury to cut AIG stake below half in $18B sale

NEW YORK (AP) - The U.S. government is selling more of its shares in insurer American International Group Inc., in a move that should decrease its holdings below a majority stake for the first time since the $182 billion bailout in 2008.

President Obama cracks a birther joke

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - It's that birther thing again. President Barack Obama was at an Orlando sports bar, snapping a University of Florida Gators' sign, sipping a pint and working a crowd when he walked up to a table with five children. One adult pointed to one of the boys, 7-year-old Andre Wupperman of Orlando, and informed the president that the boy was born in Hawaii, the president's native state. Delighted, the president greeted the ...

Nation news briefs

• OBAMA GETS A RISE OUT OF A FLA. SUPPORTER: FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) - If President Barack Obama was looking for a lift in Florida, he got one from Scott Van Duzer.

WTC memorial magnificent but it comes at a steep price

NEW YORK (AP) - With its huge reflecting pools, ringed by waterfalls and skyscrapers, and a cavernous underground museum still under construction, the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center is an awesome spectacle that moved and inspired some 4.5 million visitors in its first year.

Status of World Trade Center site, 11 years after the attack

NEW YORK (AP) - Eleven years after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, the new multibillion-dollar World Trade Center once again dominates the lower Manhattan skyline. Hundreds of construction workers are at the 16-acre site every day, and tourists snap thousands of photos of the two towers that are nearing completion.

Number of visitors to Pa. Flight 93 memorial grows

PITTSBURGH (AP) - More and more people are visiting the Flight 93 National Memorial in rural western Pennsylvania, authorities say, and new construction is scheduled to begin next year.

Questions & answers on 9/11 war crimes trial

The U.S. is for a second time attempting to prosecute five prisoners held at the Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for planning and aiding the Sept. 11 attacks, charging them with war crimes in a special tribunal for wartime offenses known as a military commission. Here's an update.

Key facts about 9/11 Health & Compensation Act

(AP)- Some key information about the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which went into effect a year ago to aid ground zero responders and others who became ill after being exposed to dust and ash at the World Trade Center site:

SEAL explains why bin Laden dangerous when he was killed

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette says SEALs raiding Osama bin Laden's Pakistan hideout last year shot him dead instead of capturing him because his arms were hidden and may have been holding weapons.

Obama to observe 9/11 anniversary in Washington

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) - President Barack Obama will mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with a series of commemorations in and near Washington.

Gloomy jobs report shadows race

Ryan: Don't interfere with legalized medical pot

Eastwood talks about convention chat with chair

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Clint Eastwood said the idea to use an empty seat as a prop at the Republican National Convention was a spur-of-the-moment decision when someone backstage asked if he wanted to sit down. In his first interview since his Aug. 30 appearance at the convention to pledge support for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Eastwood told the Carmel Pine ...

Big Apple’s future: A lot of water?

Jury selection begins in Zimmerman's trial

Transplant group rejects lung rule changes

Rear slap gets ex-NFL player 30 days jail

Spy programs raise ire both home, abroad

Odd News

Study: Even for drop-outs, college pays

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - It sounds like the worst of all worlds - borrowing money for college, then dropping out and facing the debt without a degree.

Nation news briefs

HOUSTON WOMAN CLAIMS SELF-DEFENSE IN HEEL STABBING: HOUSTON (AP) - Officials say a Houston woman accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death with a stiletto high heel told police she was trying to protect herself.

Free gun initiative begins in Houston

HOUSTON (AP) - Houston resident Cheryl Strain's inexperience with guns was apparent as she struggled to load shells into a 20-gauge shotgun.

Obama, Xi signal new start with walk in the desert

PALM SPRINGS (AP) - It may not have been Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev's Cold War walk by a frozen lake in Switzerland.

Stripped-down Harley roaring back

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Some motorcycle enthusiasts feared Keith Wandell might be the outsider who drove Harley-Davidson into the ground. Instead, he may be remembered as the guy who kept the motorcycle maker on the road.

After Sandy: Soaring flood insurance

TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) - George Kasimos has almost finished repairing flood damage to his waterfront home, but his Superstorm Sandy nightmare is far from over.

Lost Lincoln document found at college

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) - In losing a president, Lycoming College found a piece of its history.

Erin Brockovich ia arrested while boating in Nevada

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Environmental activist Erin Brockovich, portrayed by Julia Roberts in a 2000 movie about her fight over the pollution of a California town, was arrested on suspicion of boating while intoxicated at Lake Mead near Las Vegas, authorities said Sunday.

Casino cocktail waitresses fight shoe rules

MASHANTUCKET, Conn. (AP) - Cheryl Haase has been serving cocktails for more than two decades, and the 52-year-old waitress says she has a list of foot ailments to prove it.