National News
Whitney Houston, superstar of records, films, dies
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died Saturday. She was 48....
Faces beyond the numbers of long-term unemployed
J.R. Childress is up before the sun, bustling about in the French colonial brick house he built. He helps pack his wife's lunch, downs some eggs or cereal for breakfast, pores over online and newspaper job listings and hopes - even prays - this will be the day when his fortunes turn around....
Family, teachers remember Powell boys in Tacoma
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) -- More than a thousand people mourned the deaths of Charlie and Braden Powell at a public funeral Saturday, nearly a week after the young boys' father killed them and himself in a gas-fueled blaze....
Disabled ski champ Jill Kinmont Boothe dies at 75
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Jill Kinmont Boothe, the skiing champion who became a painter and a teacher after she was paralyzed during a race and was the subject of a book and two Hollywood films, has died. She was 75....
Remains in Calif. ID'd as serial killers' victim
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Human remains uncovered in Northern California with the help of a convicted serial killer have been preliminarily identified as one of his victims, and authorities continued to search another site for the remains of as many as 10 people....
US faces tough fight in cash smuggling crackdown
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jeanette Barraza-Galindo conspicuously left her bags of teddy bears and throw pillows on a bus during an inspection at the Texas-Mexico border - and professed ignorance about the $277,556 officers found hidden inside. The bags were handed to her at a bus station, gifts to be given to a child upon her return to Mexico, she told investigators....
US sex abuse lawsuit against Vatican dismissed
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Lawyers for a man who was sexually abused decades ago by a priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf have withdrawn their lawsuit naming Pope Benedict XVI and other top Vatican officials as defendants, a major victory for the Holy See, which has long insisted the pope bears no liability for the actions of an abusive priest....
Parents: Hazed students not allowed to play sports
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- The parents of two boys who say the teens were punched during high school baseball hazing rituals say they're being victimized again - this time because they aren't being allowed to play sports after switching schools....
Cold weather returns to the South; snow possible
ATLANTA (AP) -- Cold weather has been making a comeback in the South this weekend, after what's been a very mild winter so far....
Unions expect right-to-work will cost them members
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- After losing their fight against right-to-work legislation, labor organizers are making a desperate bid on shop room floors and at union halls to persuade members to keep paying their union dues and avoid crippling labor's influence in Indiana....
