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SEATTLE — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. Border Patrol seeking to bar agents from making traffic stops, saying people are being pulled over and questioned "without reasonable suspicion."

The lawsuit stems from tensions between immigrants and the expanded presence of Border Patrol agents ...

One month after the chief restructuring officer for failed solar panel maker Solyndra reported no wrongdoing by the company, documents show federal investigators have remained busy in recent months scouring the company's financial documents, internal emails and computers.

The activity surrounding the criminal probe into Solyndra was revealed in bankruptcy ...

FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE — A Florida Highway Patrol lieutenant who ordered the reopening of a fog- and smoke-shrouded interstate highway shortly before a series of crashes killed 11 people was unaware of the agency's procedures and had no formal training in opening and reopening roads, a state report said Thursday.

The ...

BRIDGEPORT, OHIO — The first-graders in Ohio Pack 109's Tiger Scouts didn't know or care their den mother was a lesbian at least not until the Boy Scouts of America disqualified her over the organization's ban on gays.

Now, parents who were aware of Jennifer Tyrell's sexual orientation well before ...

WEST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — Steve Wohlen lay on his front lawn, blue, unconscious and barely breathing, overdosing on heroin.

His mother ran outside, frantically assembling a pen-like canister. Her heart pounding, she dropped to her knees and used the device to deliver two squirts up her son's nostrils.

Within ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida Highway Patrol lieutenant didn't have any formal training or know the procedures before he reopened a fog- and smoke-shrouded highway where a series of crashes killed 11 people in January, investigators said in a report released Thursday.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement report ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The Wisconsin group challenging the constitutionality of a cross on a war memorial in Rhode Island says it expects to prevail without the type of long legal battle that unfolded over a prayer banner ordered removed this year from a public high school.

The Freedom From ...

NEW YORK — A construction crane owner was acquitted of manslaughter and all other charges Thursday in the May 2008 collapse of his 200-foot-tall rig that snapped apart and killed two workers, which fueled concerns about crane safety.

James Lomma sat expressionless, looking frozen, as a judge announced his verdict ...

DES MOINES, Iowa — The announcement that mad cow disease was found in a California cow drew a rapid response this week from the beleaguered American beef industry, which has been enduring one crisis after another for more than a year.

First, a severe drought in the Southwest cut cattle ...

A top official at the Environmental Protection Agency apologized Thursday after being caught on video bragging that his agency's method of enforcing oil and gas regulations was to find a few bad actors to "crucify" and hold up as examples.

But his mea culpa didn't satisfy some Republicans in Congress, ...

NEW YORK (AP) — The problem of birds living near some of the nation's busiest airports is coming under renewed scrutiny after two emergency landings in a week and more than three years after the famous ditching of a jetliner in the Hudson River.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Democrat, ...

WASHINGTON — Expanding the prostitution investigation, the Secret Service acknowledged Thursday it is checking whether its employees hired strippers and prostitutes in advance of President Barack Obama's visit last year to El Salvador.

The disclosure came not long after the Homeland Security secretary assured skeptical senators that the recent prostitution ...

RENO, Nev. — Robert Ward has been hunting and collecting meteorites for more than 20 years, so he knew he'd found something special in the Sierra foothills along the path of a flaming fireball that shook parts of Northern California and Nevada with a sonic boom over the weekend.

And ...

Turns out the other "G-spot" is a myth.

Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that the so-called "God spot," an epicenter of the brain responsible for feelings of spirituality and connection to a higher power, doesn't exist. Their study instead shows that several regions of the human mind ...

House Republicans said Wednesday that they intend to swiftly pass a domestic-violence law and remove the issue from election-year politicizing, though the Democrat-led Senate is prepared to vote on a different bill on the issue Thursday.

It's not clear yet how the two bills - the Senate version contains provisions ...

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana teacher who says she was fired from a Roman Catholic school for using in vitro fertilization to try to get pregnant is suing in a case that could set up a legal showdown over reproductive and religious rights.

Emily Herx's lawsuit accuses the Diocese of Fort ...

MADISON, WIS. — Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is showing signs of pulling ahead of the Democratic competition in the race to determine who faces Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election that has become a nationally watched battle over union rights.

Polls show Mr. Barrett with a lead ...

CUMMING, GA. — The government wants you to install solar panels at your house, and will even give you a tax break to do it. But your neighbors? Maybe not.

It's a lesson Angel and David Dobs discovered when their homeowners association north of Atlanta denied their request to install ...

CALIFORNIA

SAN FRANCISCO — A survivor of the fatal grounding of a racing yacht on rocky islands west of San Francisco is calling on the sailing community to make safety a higher priority.

Bryan Chong is one of three crew members who survived after the sailboat Low Speed Chase wrecked ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The agency that enforces the federal job discrimination laws has ruled for the first time that transgender people are protected from bias in the workplace.

In a groundbreaking decision late last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said a refusal to hire or otherwise discriminate on the ...