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DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan on Thursday cleared the way for Koran-burning pastor Terry Jones to lead a protest in front of the nation's largest mosque this weekend, saying efforts by officials in Dearborn, Mich., to essentially force organizers to guarantee the rally would be peaceful were unconstitutional.

BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's lawyer said after a short pretrial hearing Thursday that he expected the presiding judge to soon dismiss defense motions to have the child sexual abuse charges thrown out, but he hoped he would let them be refiled after more ...

International arms dealer Viktor Bout, the so-called "Merchant of Death," was sentenced Thursday in federal court in New York to 25 years in prison following his conviction in a multimillion-dollar conspiracy to finance a fleet of aircraft to arm bloody conflicts and support terrorists worldwide.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ...

God may once again bless the USA at Stall Brook Elementary.

The Bellingham, Mass., school, under fire for changing the lyrics of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" to "We Love the USA" for an upcoming fourth-grade concert, reversed course Thursday after drawing a backlash from parents and hints of ...

OHIO

School OKs gay student's T-shirt for 1 day only

CINCINNATI | A gay student suing his Ohio high school for prohibiting him from wearing a T-shirt designed to urge tolerance will be allowed to wear the shirt for one day.

Maverick Couch's lawsuit charges that Waynesville High School and ...

Pro-life groups often insist that they don't get a fair shake in the media, and now the Vitae Foundation has confirmation.

Both the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Washington News Council have sided with the foundation in its fairness complaint against Seattle's National Public Radio station, KUOW-FM, which ran ...

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 ...