AP - Piles of charred rubble smoldered near California's scenic coastal highway Thursday as a ferocious wildfire descended on the storied tourist town of Big Sur, destroying vacation homes and sending forest creatures running toward the sea for cover.
AP - Arlan Ettinger will never forget the response he got when he took one of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks' hats to a meeting at the Apollo Theater in New York.
AP - A Coast Guard cutter collided with a Block Island Ferry carrying more than 250 passengers in dense fog Wednesday, but no serious injuries were reported, authorities said. -- read full article
AP - A federal jury found a Bahamian fishing boat captain guilty of second-degree murder in the drowning of three illegal immigrants he was trying to smuggle into the United States. -- read full article
AP - A former inspector accused of lying about examining a crane that later collapsed in midtown Manhattan and killed seven people has pleaded not guilty in a New York City court. -- read full article
AP - Now that the multistate manhunt has ended, legal wrangling has begun over an ex-convict suspected in a killing spree that left eight people dead in Illinois and Missouri.
AP - A federal jury on Thursday convicted the former top accountant at the Cleveland Catholic Diocese of tax charges and acquitted him of more serious charges related to alleged kickbacks.
AP - A judge declared a mistrial Thursday in the case of two lawyers charged with defrauding clients of $65 million in a diet-drug settlement after jurors said they could not reach a verdict.
AP - Historian James Heintze can tick off colorful accounts of how the nation has celebrated the Fourth of July over the years: In the 19th century, canons fired, church bells sounded and fireworks exploded.
AP - Federal prosecutors have filed kidnapping charges that carry the death penalty against a Vermont man whose 12-year-old niece was found dead near his home.
