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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 ...

BLYTHE, Calif. — The latest setback in a stalled 1,000-megawatt solar plant in the Southern California desert came nearly 10 months after Interior Secretary Kenneth L. Salazar and Gov. Jerry Brown broke ground on what was then touted as the world's largest solar project and a keystone of the Obama ...

TALLAHASSEE — The police chief at Florida A&M University is retiring less than a week after reports surfaced that Tallahassee authorities didn't receive timely information about an off-campus hazing incident from 2010.

The university announced Tuesday that Calvin Ross will retire May 1 after 11 years with the university and ...

On the same day that a gunman killed seven students at a small California Christian university, hundreds of college students across the nation went to class wearing empty holsters on their hips.

The message was part of Students for Concealed Carry's weeklong Empty Holster Protest, an event designed to encourage ...

OAKLAND, Calif. — One Goh's life was on the skids even before he became the suspect in the nation's biggest mass school shooting since Virginia Tech.

He was chased by creditors. He grieved the death of his brother. In January, he was expelled from Oikos University, a small Christian school ...

INDIANAPOLIS — Austin Carroll was fighting insomnia when he turned to Twitter for relief and casually dropped the F-word multiple times, apparently to demonstrate to his followers that the expletive would fit almost anywhere in a sentence.

But his middle-of-the-night profanity quickly cost the Indiana teen. A few days later, ...

DALLAS — Tornadoes raked the Dallas area Tuesday, crumbling a wing of a nursing home, peeling roofs from dozens of homes and spiraling big-rig trailers into the air like footballs. More than a dozen injuries were reported.

Overturned cars left streets unnavigable and flattened trucks clogged highway shoulders. Preliminary estimates ...

STURGEON BAY, Wis. (AP) — An elderly woman took control of a small plane, dangerously low on fuel, from her unconscious husband and landed it on a runway at a small northeastern Wisconsin airport, the facility's director said Tuesday.

Helen Collins, 80, had some flight training years ago but was ...

OAKLAND, Calif. — One Goh's life was on the skids even before he became the suspect in the nation's biggest mass school shooting since Virginia Tech.

He was chased by creditors. He grieved the death of his brother. In January, he was expelled from Oikos University, a small Christian school ...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — One wounded woman cowered in the bushes after the gunman opened fire on the campus of a small Christian university. One student hid in a locked classroom as the shooter banged on the door. Another heard the shots and ran to safety.

All within an hour ...

OAKLAND, Calif. — A 43-year-old former student of a small Christian university in California opened fire at the school Monday, killing at least seven people and setting off an intense, chaotic manhunt that ended with his capture at a nearby shopping center, authorities said.

Police Chief Howard Jordan said One ...