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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Gun-rights advocates scored a victory Thursday when the Illinois Supreme Court decided to let a challenge to Cook County's assault-weapons ban proceed, even though two lower courts had tossed it out.

The high court, in a unanimous ruling, said it wants the trial court to hear ...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The state Senate voted Thursday to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut, a state that has executed only one prisoner in a half-century and is now on track to join a national trend away from capital punishment.

In an early morning vote that followed more than 10 ...

KODIAK, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard plans to use cannon fire to sink a derelict Japanese ship dislodged by last year's massive tsunami.

The shrimping vessel, which has no lights or communications systems, was floating about 195 miles south of Sitka in the Gulf of Alaska on Thursday ...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin urged West Virginians to observe a moment of silence Thursday, starting at 3:01 p.m., to mark the second anniversary of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster and the deaths of 29 men.

The powerful April 5, 2010, explosion at the former Massey ...

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — The judge overseeing Jerry Sandusky's child sex-abuse case says an ongoing secret grand jury investigation into the former Penn State assistant football coach is complicating preparations for his trial.

In a brief pretrial hearing Thursday, Judge John Cleland said he wouldn't issue a decision on a ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stung by high gasoline costs, outlying suburbs that sprouted in the heady 2000s are now seeing their growth fizzle to historic lows, halting American city dwellers' decades-long exodus to sprawling homes in distant towns.

New census estimates as of July 2011 highlight a shift in population trends ...

OAKLAND, Calif. — An administrator at a small Christian university where seven people were killed this week said Wednesday she was the gunman's primary target after she rejected his repeated requests for a refund of his tuition.

Ellen Cervellon, director of the nursing program at Oikos University, wasn't on ...

DETROIT — Pastor Terry Jones, the Florida-based minister who sparked deadly riots in Afghanistan last year after he burned a copy of the Koran, is suing a Michigan city he says is interfering with his right to protest this weekend against Islamic Shariah law.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in ...

SANTA MONICA, CALIF. — Police at a California college pepper-sprayed as many as 30 demonstrators as students angry over a plan to offer high-priced courses tried to push their way into a trustees meeting, authorities said, as state officials said they were reconsidering the policy.

"Let us in, let ...

LOUISIANA

NEW ORLEANS — Five former New Orleans police officers were sentenced Wednesday to prison terms ranging from six to 65 years for their roles in deadly shootings of unarmed residents on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina.

Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon were convicted of ...

A three-judge federal appellate court heard arguments Wednesday on whether a 1996 federal law that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman - thus denies marital benefits to gay couples married under state law - is constitutional.

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) amounts to "across-the-board ...

TAMPA, Fla. — Felipe Santos, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, and Terrance Williams, a black man, had little in common until about eight years ago. That was when they disappeared three months apart in the Naples area, both of them right after crossing paths with sheriff's Deputy Steven Calkins.

Investigations ...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Five former New Orleans police officers were sentenced Wednesday to prison terms ranging from six to 65 years for their roles in deadly shootings of unarmed residents on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina.

Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon were convicted of firearms ...

BOSTON (AP) — Lawyers for a gay and lesbian legal advocacy group told a federal appeals court panel Wednesday that a federal law denying benefits to married gay couples that heterosexual couples get is discriminatory.

A lawyer for a bipartisan congressional group argued Wednesday in Boston that Congress had a ...

DENVER (AP) — Sam Lucas was among the first to begin calling 911 about a wildfire burning near his home on the outskirts of Denver.

But the dispatcher, already having answered a handful of calls about the fire, cut Lucas off to tell him that it was a controlled burn ...

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Police at a California college pepper-sprayed as many as 30 demonstrators after students angry over a plan to offer high-priced courses tried to push their way into a trustees meeting, authorities said.

"Let us in, let us in," protesters shouted on video posted online Tuesday. "No ...

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The tornado hurtled toward the nursing home. Physical therapist Patti Gilroy said she saw through the back door the swirling mass barreling down after she had herded patients into the hallway in the order prescribed: walkers, wheelchairs, then beds.

"It wasn't like a freight train, like ...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — They were learning to become truck drivers but wound up in a nightmare. In detailed accounts to a federal agency, dozens of female employees of one of the nation's largest trucking companies told of being propositioned, groped and even assaulted by male drivers during cross-country training ...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Civic and religious leaders pleaded for an end to violence in Oakland after seven people were gunned down at a small Christian college by a suspect who police say was angry about being expelled and teased for his poor English skills.

Several hundred friends, family and ...

The nation's baby boomers, now entering into their golden years in record numbers, are not giving up the car keys without a fight.

As the leading edge of the massive boomer generation turned 65 in 2011, a study suggests that America's roads will be facing a "silver tsunami" of older ...