News For Sunday Sep 7, 2008 News For Sunday Sep 7, 2008

U.S. U.S.

Demand for military bomb techs at all-time high - Added 1 week ago

Many things have gone wrong for Navy Senior Chief Tommy Gura while disarming nearly 200 improvised explosive devices in Iraq. He's been shot at and targeted for mortar attacks. His robots have blown up and he's lost...

Ohio jury convicts mom in microwaved-baby case - Added 1 week ago

A mother was convicted Friday of killing her month-old daughter by burning her in a microwave oven, with jurors rejecting a defense attorney's claims there was evidence that someone else was responsible. China Arnold,...

Source: Petraeus submitted preliminary Iraq report - Added 1 week ago

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, has given his military superiors and Defense Secretary Robert Gates his initial recommendation on when to resume a U.S. troop withdrawal and at what pace, a senior...

Ala. judge's goof could mean prison for ex-soldier - Added 1 week ago

!!-- pobj:ALMOP101-0413061126 -->Patrick Lett returned to south Alabama when he finished an unblemished 17-year Army career, including two tours in Iraq. Then his father died, he couldn't find work to support his two...

NC man charged, accused of threatening Obama - Added 1 week ago

A North Carolina man has been formally indicted on a charge that he threatened to shoot Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert said Friday that 48-year-old Jerry M....

Calif. farmers use guns, poison to safeguard crops - Added 1 week ago

Farmers in "America's Salad Bowl" are turning into hunters _ stalking wild pigs, rabbits and deer _ to keep E. coli and other harmful bacteria out of their fields. It's part of an intense effort to prevent another...

AP News Calendar - Added 1 week ago

Major scheduled events during the week beginning Aug. 31, 2008. Note that many events, especially court appearances, are subject to change at the last minute. The following economic reports will be issued in Washington...

Mourners pay respects to late Ohio congresswoman - Added 1 week ago

Hundreds of mourners filed into a church Friday to pay their respects to the late U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress. Tubbs Jones, 58, died Aug. 20 from a brain...

Court: US can block mad cow testing - Added 1 week ago

The Bush administration can prohibit meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease, a federal appeals court said Friday. The dispute pits the Agriculture Department, which tests about 1 percent of cows...

Ind. driver in ID mix-up crash out of prison - Added 1 week ago

A truck driver was released from prison Friday after serving two years for the traffic deaths of four Taylor University students and a university staff member. The crash received widespread attention because...

Probe to identify bridge collapse cause in Nov. - Added 1 week ago

The National Transportation Safety Board says it will have a draft in November of its final report the deadly Minneapolis bridge collapse last year. The agency said Friday the draft report will identify the probable...

Detroit mayor's political future back in court - Added 1 week ago

A lawyer for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick asked a judge Friday to freeze next week's hearing that could remove him from office, accusing Gov. Jennifer Granholm of being too biased to preside over the case. Dan Webb also said...

SUV kills 2 tots, 2 adults walking on Texas road - Added 1 week ago

A man, woman and two toddlers are dead in Central Texas after they were slammed from behind by a sport-utility vehicle as they walked along a frontage road after their car broke down. The Texas Department of Public...

Some want NYC waterfalls turned off to save plants - Added 1 week ago

Some New York City residents say an art display of four waterfalls near the Brooklyn Bridge is destroying a waterfront garden with salt-water mist. Brooklyn Heights Association President Judy Stanton is asking the city...

Pa. town sued after rejecting pole-dancing studio - Added 1 week ago

A woman has sued a town that refused to allow her to open a dance studio that featured pole-dancing exercise classes on the grounds it was a sexually oriented business. Adams Township officials violated Stephanie...

'Hurricane Hunters' plunge into storm's center - Added 1 week ago

You can feel it when this plane gets close to its destination. It dips, bumps and skips. The chatter on the radio turns from banter to business: barometric pressure, temperature, wind speed. As one of only 10 specially...

Jury acquits former Marine in killing of Iraqis - Added 1 week ago

Jurors wept and embraced former Marine Jose Luis Nazario Jr. after acquitting him of voluntary manslaughter in the killings of unarmed Iraqi detainees during a fierce 2004 battle. Tears rolled down Nazario's cheeks and...

Help-wanted ad for nanny: `My kids are a pain' - Added 1 week ago

It was an unusually honest ad for a live-in nanny, a 1,000-word tome beginning, "My kids are a pain." But it worked, attracting a brave soul who's never been a nanny before. "If you cannot multitask, or communicate...

Man: Jury award in priest-abuse case `good start' - Added 1 week ago

A former altar boy has been awarded $5 million by an Illinois jury that found a Roman Catholic diocese hid the sexual abuses of a priest he alleges molested him dozens of times. A jury St. Clair County, Ill., just east...

San Diego walkway collapse leaves 16 injured - Added 1 week ago

Morris Choo's losing lottery ticket may have been the luckiest of his life. Choo, 35, said he had been chatting with friends at a construction walkway but left to buy the ticket minutes before the block-long wooden...

California prisons prepare for gay weddings - Added 1 week ago

Now that same-sex couples can get married in California, state prison officials are trying to figure out what that means for gay inmates. No prisoners so far have sought to arrange weddings with same-sex partners since...

Pa. sends ID info of 1,200 to wrong addresses - Added 1 week ago

State officials are hoping to contain any worries about identity theft after more than 1,200 mailings containing the Social Security numbers of state welfare recipients were sent to the wrong addresses. The mix-up...

Memorial to drunken driver victims grows in NM - Added 1 week ago

Tears drip on this patch of hardscrabble central New Mexico desert land _ tears in steel, tears in concrete. A mother's tears. This is Sonja Britton's field of shattered dreams _ a unique memorial to victims of drunken...

Wounded war veterans hit the water for ski clinic - Added 1 week ago

Wheelchairs parked and crutches tossed aside, dozens of soldiers wounded in war hit the lake at a theme park in what's believed to be the nation's largest water-skiing clinic for people with physical disabilities. The...

Triathlete dies after bike crash in Santa Barbara - Added 1 week ago

Barbara Warren, one of the world's elite endurance athletes in her age group and one-half of a well-known pair of triathlete twins, has died after breaking her neck in a bike crash at the Santa Barbara Triathlon. She...

Drunken-driving deaths fall in 32 states - Added 1 week ago

Drunken-driving deaths fell in 32 states in 2007, the government reported Thursday, but alcohol-related fatalities increased among motorcycle riders in half the states. Nearly 13,000 people were killed in crashes in...

Today in History - Aug. 29 - Added 1 week ago

Today is Friday, Aug. 29, the 242nd day of 2008. There are 124 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Aug. 29, 1944, 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French...

Federal judge indicted on sex abuse charges - Added 1 week ago

A federal judge accused of fondling a former court employee was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on sexual abuse charges. U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent is charged with two counts of abusive sexual contact...

Former Boeing worker charged with bomb threats - Added 1 week ago

Federal authorities say they found more than 100 guns at the home of a former Boeing Co. worker charged with sending bomb threats to some of the company's top executives. A grand jury returned a 16-count indictment...

Disposable diaper breaks fall, saves child's life - Added 1 week ago

A disposable diaper has saved the life of an 18-month-old boy, breaking his fall from a third-floor apartment window, officials said Thursday. Caua Felipe Massaneiro survived a 30-foot (10-meter) fall because his...

New Orleans asks: Will the rebuilt levees hold? - Added 1 week ago

Just three years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans confronts a new threat from Gustav and a stark question: Will the partially rebuilt levees hold? Despite $2 billion in improvements, including 220 miles of...

Iowa college president steps down after beer photo - Added 1 week ago

An Iowa community college president resigned less than a week after a photo was published appearing to show him pouring beer into a young woman's mouth. The school's board of trustees on Thursday unanimously approved...

Retailers pull Simplicity bassinets off shelves - Added 1 week ago

Six major retailers are pulling from their shelves Simplicity bassinets linked to the deaths of two babies after a company refused to recall the infant beds. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Toys "R" Us Inc., Kmart Corp., Big...

Calif. ex-radio host gets 7 years for child porn - Added 1 week ago

A former San Francisco radio talk show host and former Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to more than seven years in prison Thursday for distributing child pornography. Bernie Ward, 57, pleaded guilty in May to one...

US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 511 - Added 1 week ago

As of Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008, at least 511 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense...

Condemned Ohio inmate's murder claim gets examined - Added 1 week ago

!!-- pobj:CO102-0203051700 -->A claim by an Ohio death row inmate that he committed an unsolved murder more than two decades ago will be investigated, a prosecutor said Thursday. Richard Cooey is scheduled to be...

Author of faked Holocaust book fights publisher - Added 1 week ago

An author who fabricated a best-selling memoir about surviving the Holocaust by living with wolves asked a judge Thursday to affirm a $32.4 million jury award in her favor. Misha Defonseca said her publisher is too...

Nevada Supreme Court won't delay Simpson trial - Added 1 week ago

A request from O.J. Simpson's last remaining co-defendant to delay the Sept. 8 start of the pair's armed robbery and kidnapping trial was rejected Thursday by a divided Nevada Supreme Court panel. In a 2-1 decision,...

Prosecutor: Ohio mother put baby girl in microwave - Added 1 week ago

A mother intentionally put her month-old daughter in a microwave oven and cooked the child to death after a fight with her boyfriend, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday. Defendant China Arnold and her boyfriend had...

'Junior' Gotti pleads not guilty in Tampa - Added 1 week ago

Looking upbeat and waving confidently to his family in a Tampa federal courtroom, John A. "Junior" Gotti entered a not guilty plea to federal racketeering charges that link him to three mob slayings, cocaine...

Mom of missing Fla. girl could return to jail - Added 1 week ago

A bounty hunter who helped free the mother of a missing Florida toddler wants his associates to withdraw her bail. That could force Casey Anthony to return to jail unless she can find another way to cover the $500,000...

Accountant pleads guilty to price fixing in CT, NY - Added 1 week ago

An accountant who worked for a trash hauler at the center of a sweeping federal investigation of mob influence in the industry pleaded guilty Thursday to participating in price fixing for hauling services in Connecticut...

Trying to stop removal hearing, Detroit mayor sues - Added 1 week ago

Lawyers for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick filed a lawsuit Thursday aimed at scuttling a hearing that could lead to his ouster, saying the proceedings would be unfair and presided over by a governor who is biased against him. ...

Help-wanted ad for nanny: `My kids are a pain' - Added 1 week ago

It was an unusually honest ad for a live-in nanny, a 1,000-word tome beginning, "My kids are a pain." But it worked, attracting a brave soul who's never been a nanny before. "If you cannot multitask, or communicate...

Group: Troubled Ga. district loses accreditation - Added 1 week ago

A Georgia school district lost its accreditation Thursday, an unusual move blamed in part on what has been called a "dysfunctional" school board. Southern Association of Colleges and Schools head Mark Elgart said the...

Judges refuse to rehear W. Pa. ex-Nazi guard case - Added 1 week ago

A federal appeals court has refused to rehear the deportation case of a retired western Pennsylvania steelworker who served as a Nazi concentration camp guard during World War II. The only recourse now for Anton...

Man accused in Obama threat uses crutches in court - Added 1 week ago

A Colorado man suspected of making racist threats against Barack Obama limped into federal court on crutches Thursday and was formally advised of a methamphetamine-possession charge against him. Therin Gartrell, 28,...

Sources: US says civilian deaths were overstated - Added 1 week ago

After reviewing a disputed airstrike on a village in Afghanistan, U.S. officials have concluded that the civilian death toll was far lower than claimed by the Afghan government and the U.N., three U.S. defense officials...

Friends: Abramoff a changed man, deserves leniency - Added 1 week ago

It used to be, when Jack Abramoff needed something, he had an address book full of powerful Capitol Hill contacts to call on, people he plied with expensive meals, campaign contributions and golf junkets. Now that the...

New Katrina death tally: Half of victims 75 and up - Added 1 week ago

As New Orleans residents warily track another threatening storm, a new report presents the clearest picture yet of deaths from Katrina in Louisiana. Of the nearly 1,000 who died, almost half were 75 or older, according...