More Americans expected to travel for Thanksgiving

By NAFEESA SYEED

The number of Americans traveling away from home for Thanksgiving will be up only slightly this year from 2008, according to a report from the AAA auto club.

New Nov 21, 2009 | 1:15 pm

Atlantis astronauts take 2nd spacewalk of mission

By MARCIA DUNN

A spacewalking astronaut put aside the impending birth of his daughter and blazed through his first-ever venture outside the International Space Station on Saturday.

Nov 21, 2009 | 12:45 pm

Suspicious note and package found at Fort Benning

A Fort Benning spokesman says Army officials are investigating whether a suspicious note and package found at the west Georgia post is a viable threat.

Nov 21, 2009 | 12:40 pm

Lawyer: Ex-Air Force nurse sped patients' deaths

By PAUL J. WEBER

A prosecutor has told a court martial that a former Air Force nurse killed three terminally ill patients with excessive medication because they were not dying quickly enough.

Nov 21, 2009 | 12:20 pm

EPA: Uranium from polluted mine in Nev. wells

By SCOTT SONNER

Peggy Pauly lives in a robin-egg blue, two-story house not far from acres of onion fields that make the northern Nevada air smell sweet at harvest time.

Nov 21, 2009 | 11:55 am

A bad month in Afghanistan rippled across the US

By SHARON COHEN

Every afternoon, seven days a week, Ed Epley has a 5 p.m. appointment with the war.

Nov 21, 2009 | 11:05 am

Mental health cases tax police, emergency workers

By LISA RATHKE

Police found him sitting on the floor of his old apartment near a bucket of urine, still dressed in his hospital gown.

Nov 21, 2009 | 10:30 am

NC man gets life in prison for woman's fatal scare

A man will spend the rest of his life in prison after he was found guilty in what prosecutors said was a case of scaring a 79-year-old North Carolina grandmother to death.

Nov 21, 2009 | 9:40 am

Hawaii anxiously watching year-end tuna supply

By AUDREY McAVOY

On New Year's Eve each year, thousands line up at fish counters across Hawaii to buy blocks of raw tuna, hoping that eating it will bring good luck and prosperity in the new year. This year, the long tradition may get a little more difficult to observe.

Nov 21, 2009 | 9:00 am

Report finds wide disparities in gifted education

By DORIE TURNER

When Liz Fitzgerald realized her son and daughter were forced to read books in math class while the other children caught up, she had them moved into gifted classes at their suburban Atlanta elementary school.

Nov 21, 2009 | 9:00 am

AP reporter caught up in Stalin family's agony

By LARRY HEINZERLING

Newly arrived in Moscow on his first foreign assignment, Associated Press correspondent George Krimsky sensed he had a sensational Cold War scoop on his hands and he pounced.

Nov 21, 2009 | 7:45 am

Postal Service to resume North Pole Santa letters

By RACHEL D'ORO

Wide-eyed children around the world will be hearing from Santa's "elves" at the North Pole after all.

Nov 21, 2009 | 6:30 am

Resort island reels after deadly attack by gunman

By GEMMA CASAS

The gunman who carried out Saipan's most violent attack in recent memory ended his life on the same rocky cliffs where numerous Japanese leapt to their deaths to avoid capture by U.S. troops during World War II.

Nov 21, 2009 | 5:00 am

Levin: could be more e-mails from Ft. Hood suspect

By PAMELA HESS and ANNE GEARAN

WASHINGTON _ The government intercepted at least 18 e-mails between the alleged Fort Hood gunman and a radical Muslim cleric, and a key senator says there could be more communications that might have tipped off law enforcement or military officials.

Nov 21, 2009 | 4:50 am

The nation's weather

By WEATHER UNDERGROUND

Heavy rains was forecast to continue over the Gulf States on Saturday while the Pacific Northwest was expected to see scattered precipitation.

Nov 21, 2009 | 12:50 am

Robbery motive in deaths of 5 in rural Arkansas

By JON GAMBRELL

Thieves shot to death five Arkansas family members and burned their bodies for the meager bounty of a set of wheel rims and some flat-screen televisions, court documents said Friday.

Nov 20, 2009 | 11:50 pm

Porn mogul's son to be tried in girlfriend's death

The son of a late San Francisco pornography mogul will stand trial on accusations that he crushed his ex-girlfriend's skull with a baseball bat.

Nov 20, 2009 | 11:35 pm

Calif. launches probe into scam targeting churches

By ROBERT JABLON

California is investigating several companies suspected of bilking churches nationwide of hundreds of thousands of dollars through fraudulent computer leasing schemes, authorities said Friday.

Nov 20, 2009 | 10:20 pm

Police: NC girl raped, killed on day she was taken

By ALYSIA PATTERSON

A 5-year-old North Carolina girl was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her home, according to an arrest warrant released Friday. Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mother reported her missing from the trailer park where she was staying…

Nov 20, 2009 | 10:20 pm

UC students occupy buildings to protest fee hike

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD

Dozens of demonstrators who barricaded themselves inside a campus building at the University of California, Berkeley in a protest over fee hikes and budget cuts were removed late Friday, bringing the daylong occupation to an end, university officials said.

Nov 20, 2009 | 9:30 pm