Vatican win: Judge says priests aren't employees

Listen to radios? Watch TVs? Not for Class of '16

Missouri congressman fights to save GOP Senate bid after rape remarks

Scott McKenzie, singer of 'San Francisco,' dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Singer Scott McKenzie, who performed "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" - which became a hit in 1967 during the city's "Summer of Love" - has died. A statement on McKenzie's website says the 73-year-old died on Saturday in Los Angeles. McKenzie battled Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease that affects the nervous system, and had ...

Military budget deal unlikely by November

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says he doesn't believe Congress can reach a deal before the November elections that avoids deep cuts in military spending, but says he is optimistic that the reductions won't occur. In interviews Monday with news outlets from regions with a large military presence, Obama said he has made sure that service members don't lose pay or ...

Humorist Phyllis Diller dies at age 95 in Los Angeles

Ex-Marine detained for evaluation after making strident Facebook posts

NorCal. fire forces thousands to flee as more than 3,000 homes threatened

REDDING - (AP) - Thousands of people were told to leave their homes Sunday as a growing wildfire burning out of control in thick forest threatened rural communities in far Northern California.

Man fights to keep wife buried in front yard on street near Alabama community’s downtown

STEVENSON, Ala. (AP) - James Davis is fighting to keep the remains of his late wife right where he dug her grave: In the front yard of his home, just a few feet from the porch.

Lawsuit over roads in Tahoe Forest in Sierra west of Reno

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A national group representing off-highway recreationists is suing the U.S. Forest Service to try to overturn a new travel management plan on national forest lands in the Sierra west of Reno they say is overly restrictive.

Nation news briefs

• 72 RESCUED WHEN SIGHTSEEING VESSEL TAKES ON WATER: ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Coast Guard says responders have rescued 72 people on a sightseeing vessel that began taking on water in Alaska's Glacier Bay after reportedly striking a rock.

Ryan paid a higher federal tax rate than Romney

Ryan paid a higher federal tax rate than Romney

Odd News

AIR FRANCE: OUT OF GAS? ASK PASSENGERS TO PITCH IN: PARIS (AP) - An emergency layover in Syria's capital was bad enough. Then passengers on Air France Flight 562 were asked to open their wallets to check if they had enough cash to pay for more fuel.

Forest Service now tries to tamp out every flame

Ex-teacher gets 5-year prison term for student sex

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - A former North Texas high school teacher was convicted Friday and sentenced to five years in prison for having sex with five 18-year-old students at her home. The Tarrant County jury decided on the sentence for Brittni Nicole Colleps, 28, of Arlington after nearly three hours of deliberation. It took jurors less than an hour to find ...

Rare Superman comic book sells for $175,000

Committee rejects overhaul of military justice

Prosecutor says man endangered teen's life in hoax

Boy admits killing mom in fight over chores

MILLERSBURG, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio boy admitted he fatally shot his mother in the head with a rifle when he was 10 after what a relative described as an argument over chores. The boy, now 13, entered the equivalent of a guilty plea Monday in juvenile court. In January 2011, the boy went to a neighbor's house, called 911 and told the dispatcher he had shot his mother at their home in rural Holmes ...

Southern Baptists oppose gay Scout rule

Wildfires burn out of control in Colorado

Transgender suit goes to Maine high court

Nation news briefs

10-YEAR-OLD BEHIND WHEEL OF SUV: KENNER, La. (AP) - Police in Louisiana say a call about an SUV being driven recklessly on Interstate 10 led them to pull over a 10-year-old boy who was driving.

Levees, removable walls proposed

Levees, removable walls proposed

Woman accused of fatally pinning ex with car

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut woman has been charged with murder after police said she ran down her ex-boyfriend with her car and crushed him against a cinder-block garage wall. Cherelle Baldwin of Bridgeport was arraigned on a murder charge in state court in the death of 24-year-old Jeffrey Brown, the father of her toddler son. Baldwin, 21, was detained on $1 million bail. She was arrested Monday after a three-week investigation. Baldwin's relatives ...

27-car I-80 sandstorm pileup kills 1

NC health dept.: Poison gas not in pool inspection

BOONE, N.C. (AP) - Inspectors checked a motel where three people were presumed killed by carbon monoxide fumes six weeks before anyone died, but their review didn't include investigating for the poisonous gas, the local health agency said Tuesday. The Appalachian District Health Department said it inspected the swimming pool at the Best Western Blue Ridge Plaza in Boone six weeks before a Longview, Wash., couple were found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in their ...

Woman ordered to get help after 396 arrests

NYC bomb plot details settle little in NSA debate

ACLU sues over NSA phone records

NEW YORK (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Obama administration Tuesday, asking the government to halt a phone-tracking program that collects the telephone records of millions of Americans and that it says is unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York by the American Civil Liberties Union, along with the New York Civil Liberties Union. "The practice is akin to snatching every American's address book - with annotations detailing ...