AP - Three women pleaded not guilty Wednesday to child abuse and other charges involving a 5-year-old boy who was burned, starved and beaten.

AP - The efforts of nearly a dozen states to execute child rapists were derailed Wednesday by a Supreme Court decision that incensed supporters of such punishment. Officials in at least two states said they weren't ready to give up.

AP - Crews laboring to strengthen fortifications along the swollen Mississippi tackled new dirt slides and seepages on a fragile earthen levee Wednesday as forecasters said more heavy rain could cause a second round of big crests.

AP - Mike Lytle, a third-generation fisherman from the coastal village of Cordova, said many residents there were walking around stunned, shaking their heads.

AP - An Air Force colonel was acquitted Wednesday of raping a civilian worker but convicted of indecent assault and other charges involving two other women at Sheppard Air Force Base.

AP - Women and girls in prairie dresses entered a courthouse surrounded by dozens of law enforcement officers in this tiny ranching hamlet Wednesday as a grand jury opened its investigation into a polygamist sect accused of forcing underage girls into marriage and motherhood.

AP - Hundreds of homes in the scenic community of Big Sur were threatened by a wildfire that already had burned 16 residences and was just 3 percent contained Wednesday.

AP - For more than two years, Neil Entwistle told the same story: He came home from running errands and found his wife and baby daughter cuddled in bed, dead from apparent gunshot wounds.

AP - It was swift and chaotic, witnesses said, as the plastics plant worker with a determined look opened fire, killing five co-workers then himself in rural western Kentucky.

AP - Reeling in a 45-pound grouper used to be just an average day on the water in the Florida Keys.

AP - Grundy County sheriff's deputy Shane Tate, a father of five, was making $10.50 an hour when he was gunned down in the line of duty.

AP - Angry politicians vowed to keep writing laws that condemn child rapists to death, despite a Supreme Court decision saying such punishment is unconstitutional.

AP - Dozens of state troopers and sheriff's deputies surrounded the town square in this tiny ranching hamlet as a grand jury opened its investigation into a polygamist sect accused of forcing underage girls into marriage and motherhood.

AP - Sonny Landham carved out a tough-guy reputation in a series of big-screen roles, from roughing up Sylvester Stallone to getting tossed out a window by Carl Weathers. He pulls no punches in his newest role: Libertarian challenger to a man known for political toughness, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.