AP - When Texas child welfare authorities released statistics showing nearly 60 percent of the teen girls taken from a polygamist sect's ranch were pregnant or had children, they seemed to prove what was alleged all along: The sect commonly pushed girls into marriage and sex.

AP - Jennifer Marsh was sick of paying high gas prices and bothered by the abandoned gas station that was an eyesore on the drive to her studio each day. So the aspiring artist and inspired activist came up with an idea — to cover the gas station with a colossal handmade blanket in a way that would bring greater attention to the world's dependency on oil.

AP - Olympian Tim Montgomery had everything he ever wanted.

AP - The giant Texas sinkhole that formed last week is now a lake big enough to become the home of an alligator.

AP - Hours before the California Supreme Court issued its decision on gay marriage, Mayor Gavin Newsom heard rumblings that the justices would uphold the state's ban.

AP - Severe storms with damaging winds and possible tornadoes pounded the South, killing at least one person in Louisiana and shattering windows at the Texas Capitol.

AP - A jury convicted a city firefighter Thursday of fatally shooting three people and wounding two others during a late-night Fourth of July celebration, rejecting defense claims that he was angered by the noise and snapped.

AP - Two military helicopters were vandalized on the production line at a Boeing factory near Philadelphia, the Defense Department said Thursday as it offered a reward.