AP - A heroic effort by hundreds of townspeople, volunteers and National Guardsmen to hold back the Mississippi River failed Friday — undone by a burrowing muskrat.

AP - Superstar swimmer Michael Phelps and his Club Wolverine teammates were headed for an afternoon practice for the U.S. Olympic trials when the tornado sirens sounded.

AP - Some in the hometown of a man who opened fire at a plastics plant described him as a "good kid," while others called him a troublemaker and said Thursday that they weren't surprised when he killed himself and five others.

AP - Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, who became one of the wealthiest civil lawsuit attorneys in the country by taking on tobacco, asbestos and insurance companies, was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for conspiring to bribe a judge.

AP - City Councilman Bill Rosendahl drove into a corner gas station with a big grin on his face. He stepped out of a sports utility vehicle, pumped fuel into the tank and declared it "the most joyous moment I've had since being elected to office."

AP - Police officers took aim this week at vehicles zipping down a runway in tests meant to convince judges that laser speed guns — increasingly popular among law enforcement — are as accurate as their radar cousins.

AP - More math, please. A large majority of Americans thinks schools are placing too much emphasis on the wrong subjects, and more than half think they're doing just a fair job in preparing children for the work force or giving them the practical skills they need to survive as adults, according to an Associated Press poll released Friday.

AP - A tropical depression has formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean, but the National Hurricane Center said there is currently no threat to land.

AP - As news spread of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down the handgun ban in Washington, D.C., one thing was clear in Chicago: The city's own ban now faces a challenge as serious as any in its 26-year history.

AP - The steel fence that the U.S. government wants to build along the Mexican border would do more than slice through the University of Texas' Brownsville campus and cut off the golf course from the rest of the school.

AP - With temperatures rising, firefighters dug in Friday for a long battle against flames creeping toward this storied tourist town.