AP - A reputed acting mob boss and eight other suspected gangsters were arrested Wednesday on federal charges accusing them of coast-to-coast Mafia crimes, ranging from gangland hits in New York to a home invasion by police impersonators in Los Angeles, authorities said.

AP - Eric Minshew struggled with mental illness for many years and seemed to get much worse after Hurricane Katrina, according to his brother. Finally, when FEMA workers showed up to inspect his government-issue trailer, he snapped. Police shot and killed Minshew early Wednesday after a nearly 10-hour standoff in one of the neighborhoods hit hardest by the August 2005 hurricane.

AP - The veep sweeps are in full buzz, and there's increasing chatter surrounding two rising Democratic stars — Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, two potential running mates who could help Barack Obama woo female voters.

AP - The polygamist sect raided by authorities two months ago has its children back. But with a criminal investigation under way into allegations of sexual abuse, the splinter group's troubles are not over.

AP - A Bush administration bid to win approval for a national nuclear waste dump outside Las Vegas was challenged Wednesday by the state as too little and six years too late.

AP - Authorities were trying to determine Wednesday whether the remains of a soldier found in the woods of a National Guard training base are of a Kentucky guardsman who went missing before his unit deployed to Iraq.

AP - A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case of a man who stormed into a Jewish center two years ago and shot six women, killing one, as he ranted against Israel and the Iraq war.

AP - A Marine intelligence officer accused of trying to cover up the killings of 24 Iraqis appeared stunned at first when a jury acquitted him of the charges.