AP - Students at a rural New Mexico school made a unique pledge last winter: Right hands raised, they promised to take care of their Zunes.

AP - Even as a youngster, Rollie looked older and wiser than his years. His white mustache sprouted longer by the month, until it flamed from his cheeks like a German kaiser's. Sometimes, it all but hid his mouth.

AP - The flooding in the Midwest has brought freight traffic on the upper Mississippi to a standstill, stranding more than 100 barges loaded with grain, cement, scrap metal, fertilizer and other products while shippers wait for the water to drop on the Big Muddy.

AP - When Oregon education officials set out to devise a graduation testing requirement for high school students, they looked to other states for inspiration — on what not to do.

AP - If they pay attention to it at all, many people view the water off Manhattan's East Side as a flat, even boring expanse stretching under a series of bridges.

AP - A blistering heat wave blanketing much of the California coast over the past week showed no signs of letting up Saturday as temperatures headed back toward triple digits.

AP - Ray Colbert wanted out after five decades of growing apples, but his son didn't want the farm in northern Washington. No one else did either.

AP - When record flooding ravaged much of the Midwest in 1993, the earthen wall protecting one of the nation's poorest cities stood fast against the Mississippi River.

AP - Amid the battle to hold back the swollen Mississippi River, some towns got an unwelcome surprise Saturday as river levels rose higher than projected.