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CHICAGO (AP) -- Convicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich left his home early Thursday morning and hopped in a car, the first leg of a trip that will end with him behind bars in a federal prison in Colorado, and the latest chapter in the stunning downfall of one of the most charismatic political figures in Illinois' history....

ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) -- Five construction workers in New Jersey, vindicated by a jury, must wait before learning exactly how much they'll share of a $38.5 million Mega Millions jackpot that a co-worker who was part of their lottery pool claimed as his own in 2009....

CHICAGO (AP) -- They have a reputation for being environmentally minded do-gooders. But an academic analysis of surveys spanning more than 40 years has found that today's young Americans are less interested in the environment and in conserving resources - and often less civic-minded overall - than their elders were when they were young....

CHICAGO (AP) -- They have a reputation for being environmentally minded do-gooders. But an academic analysis of surveys spanning more than 40 years has found that today's young Americans are less interested in the environment and in conserving resources - and often less civic-minded overall - than their elders were when they were young....

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ten years after 9/11, the New York Police Department's surveillance of Muslims has exposed a bitter divide between New Yorkers and their neighbors across the Hudson River, with city leaders defending the police force and out-of-town politicians angry to learn of New York detectives working their turf....

ATLANTA (AP) -- Tobacco taxes and smoking bans haven't budged the U.S. smoking rate in years. Now the government is trying to shock smokers into quitting with a graphic nationwide advertising campaign....

Raising The Debt; Lowering The Boom 8-4-11

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) -- Jurors deliberating in the hate-crime trial of a former Rutgers University student accused of webcam spying against his roommate won't be deciding just whether he'll go to prison - they also could indirectly determine whether he's deported to his native India....

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) -- A U.S. Army private accused of leaking classified material to the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks could soon learn when his trial will start....

CHICAGO (AP) -- They have a reputation for being environmentally minded do-gooders. But an academic analysis of surveys spanning more than 40 years has found that today's young Americans are less interested in the environment and in conserving resources - and often less civic-minded overall - than their elders were when they were young....

A police request to “take a look” in a car or to “check” it for contraband does not include looking in locked containers. Here, the officer did take a look, then took the keys and unlocked the glove compartment finding a gun. That exceeded the consent. The state's burden in a consent case is "heavy," and here not met. People v. McFarlane, 2012 NY Slip Op 01754, 2012 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1767 (1st Dept. March 13, 2012):

Here, the officer's request to "take a look" into the car or "check" it for contraband could reasonably have been understood to be a request to search the vehicle, possibly to include closed containers, but it did not reasonably imply a request for permission to open the locked glove compartment (cf. People v Gomez, 5 NY3d 416, 418-419, 838 N.E.2d 1271, 805 N.Y.S.2d 24 [2005] [general consent to search car did not authorize breaking into hidden compartment]). That the officer subjectively intended to search the glove compartment when he made the request is not determinative. Normally, a locked container can only be opened by breaking into it or using a key. A reasonable person in defendant's situation would have assumed that if the officer wanted to open the glove compartment with defendant's consent he would have asked for the key or asked defendant to open it. The officer did neither; after checking the seats and the center console, he simply took the keys from the ignition and opened the glove compartment.

In a probation search, the government must first have probable cause to believe the home is the defendant’s, a fact not in dispute in this case. This search was based on a CI saying that defendant as involved in a homicide, but the CI’s track record and information was clearly lacking. A shotgun was found at defendant’s house. A California probation search, however, can be suspicionless, so the gun was not suppressed after all. United States v. King, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 5262 (9th Cir. March 13, 2012).

Where defendant’s father signed a consent to search form, his mother’s refusal to sign because she disagreed with the search was not binding on the police. Brunetti v. Comm'r of Corr., 2012 Conn. App. LEXIS 125 (March 13, 2012).*

A “road closed” sign is a traffic control device, and disobeying it justified a stop. State v. Morrissey, 2012 Neb. App. LEXIS 52 (March 13, 2012).*

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Mitrice Richardson was arrested for walking out on an $86 restaurant tab and vanished after being released from a remote sheriff's station in the middle of the night with no car, no phone and no money. What happened after that remains a mystery....

SEATTLE (AP) -- A toddler shoots himself to death with his father's gun. A young girl dies when a sibling fires a gun found in the family car. A school girl is seriously wounded when a gun in a boy's backpack goes off....

SEATTLE (AP) -- A toddler shoots himself to death with his father's gun. A young girl dies when a sibling fires a gun found in the family car. A school girl is seriously wounded when a gun in a boy's backpack goes off....

CHICAGO (AP) -- When he walks into prison Thursday, impeached Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will undergo a full-body strip search and hand over his personal belongings, save for his wedding ring. The man with a taste for fine Oxxford-label suits will be given khaki prison garb and boots....

BOSTON (AP) -- Those plump and tempting scallops behind the fish counter glass might be a lot smaller than they look - a sodium-based compound can bloat scallops well past their actual size. And that pollock fillet isn't such a good deal if the price includes the layers of ice glazed onto it to keep it fresh....

NEW YORK (AP) -- The accused madam of a multimillion-dollar Manhattan brothel could get out of jail if a judge okays a defense lawyer's plan to put up his own apartment as bail and a house-arrest locale for her....

PORT ST. JOE, Fla. (AP) -- The St. Joseph Peninsula is picture-perfect Florida: 17 miles of sugar sand beach interrupted by a few clusters of homes, each with a million-dollar view of the Gulf of Mexico....

PORT ST. JOE, Fla. (AP) -- The St. Joseph Peninsula is picture-perfect Florida: 17 miles of sugar sand beach interrupted by a few clusters of homes, each with a million-dollar view of the Gulf of Mexico....