AP - Neighbors helped neighbors push back the floodwaters seething toward tiny towns along the Mississippi River Thursday as President Bush began his first tour of the damage.

AP - As many as 30 more levees may overflow along the Mississippi River from Burlington, Iowa, down to St. Louis, the government said Wednesday. Twenty levees already have been topped by flood waters this week, the Army Corps of Engineers said. Twenty to 30 other levees could overflow if sandbagging efforts fail to raise the height of the structures.

AP - Two halves of a sparkling new Interstate 35W freeway bridge stretch toward each other over the Mississippi River, separated by a gap of about 200 feet that shrinks with each day as workers toil around the clock.

AP - Luck ran out for about a dozen pigs who escaped their flooded farm, swam through raging floodwaters and scrambled atop a sandbag levee in southeastern Iowa.

AP - The crowd at Tim Russert's funeral Wednesday would have made a great panel on his Sunday morning news show.

AP - A suspected serial killer smiled and proclaimed his innocence Wednesday before being sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole in the violent killings of two women last year.

AP - An Egyptian college student pleaded guilty Wednesday to making a video demonstrating how to build a remote bomb detonator to help terrorists kill enemies including American soldiers.

AP - The floodwaters are gone, but in front of thousands of homes and in much of downtown a new eyesore has taken their place: trash.