AP - He thinks of her every time he gazes at the painting — a blazing orange sun she drew a few years after the tragedy. It is the only splash of color in his tiny K Street office and it gives him great joy, and a stab of sorrow.

AP - For at least a decade, the Supreme Court has declined to rule on the use of lethal injections and whether the death penalty applies to anyone who rapes a child. In its term ending Friday, the high court issued decisions on both, but neither solves the bitter fight over capital punishment.

AP - A heart transplant survivor has added another first to her long string of mountaineering feats since getting a new heart 13 years ago — a dangerous 2 1/2-day climb up the sheer, 2,000-foot face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park's famed granite monolith.

AP - Hundreds of lightning-sparked wildfires have turned the air of Northern California into an unhealthy stew of smoke and ash, forcing the cancellation of athletic events and other outdoor activities.

AP - Move over Dykes on Bikes. Here come the brides — and grooms.

AP - A teenager was decapitated by a roller coaster after he hopped a pair of fences and entered a restricted area Saturday at Six Flags Over Georgia, authorities said.

AP - A makeshift barrier holding back the Mississippi River failed early Saturday, swamping the low-lying part of the small community of Winfield and ending a valiant but ultimately doomed battle against the surging river.

AP - As he prepares to watch his treasured 1940 Howard Hughes Cadillac and hundreds of other meticulously maintained automobiles be driven right out the door, broadcasting pioneer Art Astor is realizing a piece of his heart will be leaving with them.

AP - The owner of a northern New Jersey barbecue restaurant has a lot to say about what's happening in North Korea. That's because he's hosted North Korean diplomats for years — and traveled several times to the restricted nation — to do his part for world peace.

AP - An archbishop who tussled with singer Sheryl Crow, college basketball coach Rick Majerus, and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry over their support for abortion rights has been named as the first American to lead the Vatican supreme court.

AP - In December 2006, protesters angry about campus expansion plans clambered into the branches of a threatened oak grove at the University of California, Berkeley.