Hundreds of students brawl at high school

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A food fight quickly turned into a brawl involving hundreds of students at a Minneapolis high school on Thursday, forcing police to use chemical spray to break up the melee. Four people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, including a staff member who was hit in the head with a bottle, according to the school and police. <p ...

NYC plans to stop many marijuana arraignments, issuing, appearance tickets

Obama pushes preschool plan but won't discuss cost of implementation

Miss America pageant returns to Atlantic City

Taco Bell to launch Cool Ranch tacos on March 7

NEW YORK (AP) - Taco Bell fans can finally mark their calendars: Doritos Locos Tacos in Cool Ranch flavor will be launched March 7. The chain is rolling out the new variety a year after the Doritos Locos Tacos were launched in a Nacho Cheese flavor. Taco Bell says it already sold more than 350 million of finger-staining tacos, making them the ...

Morning-after pill use up to 1 in 9 younger women

Minimum wage plan renews economic debate

Calif. man killed NJ man for laughing at sandwich

TORRANCE (AP) - A Southern California man has been convicted of killing a New Jersey businessman who laughed at him when pastrami fell out of his sandwich at a doughnut shop. The prosecutor says 26-year-old Ronald Eugene Murray II, of Gardena, punched and kicked 56-year-old Mun Jang while they were eating in the Donut King in October 2011. <p style="line-height: 18pt; background: ...

Serial killer wrongly issued razor before suicide

Boehner: Up to Democrats to prevent automatic budget cuts from happening

Nation news briefs

PILOT OF SMALL PLANE DEAD AFTER PLANE LOSES WING: WINTERS . (AP) - Authorities say one person is dead after a small plane lost a wing and crashed just feet from a Northern California freeway.

Hackers use alert system for zombie warnings

Grad student sues Leigh University, says C-plus cost her $1.3 million

EASTON, Pa. (AP) - Talk about grade inflation. Graduate student Megan Thode wasn't happy about the C-plus she received for one class, saying the mediocre grade kept her from getting her desired degree and becoming a licensed therapist - and, as a result, cost her $1.3 million in lost earnings. Now Thode is suing her professor and Lehigh ...

3 arrested in NJ videotaped stripping, whipping of man

Seattle barista fired over snarky blog

SEATTLE (AP) - A Seattle barista says it was all satire, but his anonymous blog that made snarky comments about his boss and the customers he didn't like got him fired. Matt Watson was exposed as the author of the blog "Bitter Barista" this week by another coffee site called Sprudge.com, which led his boss at All City Coffee in Seattle's Georgetown ...

Alec Baldwin's show ending on MSNBC

NEW YORK (AP) - Alec Baldwin has his Friday nights back. He and MSNBC said Tuesday they were ending his weekly talk show after the actor had been suspended for two weeks for using an anti-gay slur in a New York City street encounter.

Unusual ice circle forms in North Dakota river

News from around the nation

IND. OFFICER GETS 13 YEARS IN FATAL CRASH: FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - A former Indianapolis police officer who killed a man and seriously injured two others when he was driving drunk and crashed his police cruiser into two motorcycles stopped at a traffic light was sentenced Tuesday to 13 years in prison.

Nasty weather for holiday travel

NEW YORK (AP) - Thanksgiving travelers scrambled to book earlier flights Tuesday to avoid a sprawling storm bearing down on the East Coast with a messy mix of snow, rain and wind that threatened to snarl one of the busiest travel days of the year and ground giant balloon versions of Snoopy and SpongeBob SquarePants in the Macy's parade.

IRS targets tax-exempt political groups

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration Tuesday launched a bid to rein in the use of tax-exempt groups for political campaigning.

Adopted boy's abandonment stirs worry

CINCINNATI (AP) - When an Ohio couple recently gave child welfare officials a 9-year-old boy they raised from infancy, prosecutors said they committed a crime. People within the adoption community say giving up a child after so much time is rare and undermines the lifelong commitment that adopted children require.

Bombers cross China's claimed air defense zone

WASHINGTON (AP) - Days after China asserted greater military control over a swath of the East China Sea to bolster claims to a cluster of disputed islands, the U.S. defied the move Tuesday as it flew two B-52 bombers through the area.

USA News

SEWER BODY PARTS ID'D AS MISSING LA COUNTY WOMAN'S: LOS ANGELES (AP) - Authorities on Tuesday identified a woman whose body parts were found at two Los Angeles County water treatment plants, but there was still no word on how she died.

Judge rejects OJ Simpson's bid for new trial

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A judge in Las Vegas rejected O.J. Simpson's bid for a new trial on Tuesday, dashing the former football star's bid for freedom based on the claim that his original lawyer botched his armed robbery and kidnapping trial in Las Vegas more than five years ago.

Cop convicted in death of unarmed teen

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - An Oklahoma jury Tuesday convicted a veteran police captain of first-degree manslaughter in the death of an unarmed teenager who was running away after scuffling with the officer.

Teen cartel killer released in Mexico, goes to US

MEXICO CITY (AP) - A 17-year-old U.S. citizen who acknowledged being a killer for a Mexican drug cartel finished his three-year juvenile-offender term for homicide, kidnapping and drug and weapons possession and returned to the United States.

Mother of bullied girl wants tougher laws

Obama pushes back against critics of Iran deal

Thanksgiving-Hanukkah overlap dilemma

Poll numbers down, Obama tells donors to buck up & give money

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Stung by plunging approval numbers at a low point in his presidency, President Barack Obama is urging donors to buck up and making a thread-the-needle appeal for bipartisanship with Republicans even as he calls for replacing the House GOP majority and holding his Democratic edge in the Senate.