AP - Tornado warning sirens chased lawmakers to the statehouse basement, a semitrailer was blown from a roadway and homes and an airport building were damaged as severe storms battered parts of Illinois and Indiana on Friday.

AP - After watching his sister try three times to win the Scripps Nationals Spelling Bee, Sameer Mishra put himself on a mission. "I told my mom I was going to do the bee," Sameer said. "And if I was going to do it, I was going to win it one day. And I guess it happened."

AP - A huge crane that broke apart, smashed into a New York City neighborhood and killed people for the second time in 2 1/2 months has renewed residents' fears about living near construction sites and has prompted beleaguered city officials to call a safety summit.

AP - Parents' hopes of quick reunions with more than 400 children removed from a polygamist sect's ranch were dashed Friday after their attorneys and a judge clashed over proposed restrictions.

AP - For 18 years, Stephen Weir has been in charge of the office that hands out marriage licenses in California's ninth-largest county. And for just as long, Weir has been unable to get a license himself because the love of his life is a man.

AP - The little red-and-white maple leaf flags in the audience didn't wave in triumph one single time Friday. The semifinals of the Scripps Nationals Spelling Bee turned into a major Canadian wipeout.

AP - The 35-story indoor ski mountain would soar over bucolic pine barrens and farms at the twin forks of Long Island.

AP - When Tina Meier's 13-year-old daughter committed suicide after being bullied on the Internet, her grief was so encompassing she felt at times she couldn't breathe. She had trouble being around loved ones who reminded her of her child. Even today, recollections of those first holidays after Megan's death are foggy at best.

AP - A fire destroyed a landmark seafood business on the waterfront early Friday, snarling rush hour traffic and raising fears the building would collapse into the harbor. There were no reports of injuries.

AP - Two former CVS executives were acquitted Friday of bribing a Rhode Island state senator for legislative favors, dealing a blow to the federal government's probe into corruption in the Statehouse.

AP - The reality of rising fuel prices cost students in a Tennessee school district their bus ride to school this week on the last day of the year.

AP - Now, the waiting begins. A Texas Supreme Court ruling paves the way for members of a polygamist sect to get their children out of foster care, but it remains unclear when that might happen or what kind of restrictions might be imposed.

AP - A construction crane collapsed Friday on New York's Upper East Side, smashing into a 23-story apartment building as it fell to the ground, killing two construction workers and seriously injuring another.

AP - Federal investigators at the site of a fatal commuter train crash checked trackside signals Thursday, as well as reports that the trolley driver who was killed may have been on a cell phone.