AP - The man accused of a courthouse shooting rampage that left four people dead pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Thursday as his trial began amid high security, more than three years after prosecutors say he confessed in the killings.
AP - The buzz of an outboard motor sends pelicans skyward as Charlie Hopkins' skiff glides along the Ohio River to paddlefish nets placed beneath the murky surface.
AP - Four locomotives pulling a freight train derailed Wednesday into the Mississippi River after an apparent landslide and were leaking oil and fuel, officials said. -- read full article
AP - Laurel Ranticelli considered driving 40 miles round-trip to take education classes at the University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst. Then she realized she could take the same courses from her computer at home and save on fuel costs.
AP - Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, battling a brain tumor, walked through a wall of applause and into the Senate on Wednesday and cast a dramatic, decisive vote on long-stalled Medicare legislation.
AP - Barack Obama stoked vice presidential speculation Wednesday with an unannounced stop at the Washington law firm of a search team member and then flying on his campaign jet to New York fundraisers with potential pick Hillary Rodham Clinton and a second vetter.
AP - The New York Times ran a lengthy correction Wednesday after the newspaper learned that a recent front-page photo of a crying Zimbabwean baby with casts on his feet misrepresented the boy's injuries. -- read full article
AP - A federal report says the cause of the fire at a South Carolina furniture store which claimed the lives of nine Charleston firefighters remains unknown. -- read full article
AP - A self-proclaimed expert on al-Qaida climbed part-way up the New York Times' 52-story building early Wednesday to publicize his activism against the terrorist organization, citing two previous climbers as inspiration.
AP - A teenager suspected of delivering drug-laced cookies to a dozen police stations in north Texas was fulfilling court-ordered community service work for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the organization said Wednesday.
AP - A 46-year-old man abducted two men in their 20s, chained them up at his rural house and sexually assaulted them before one managed to escape and get help, according to court documents filed Wednesday. -- read full article
AP - Tracey Johnson wields a chain saw, tosses branches and rakes brush under the punishing sun and a heavy pack as smoke from a raging wildfire looms over the mountains nearby.
AP - New Orleans was the fastest-growing large city in the nation last year, but its population is still about half what it was before Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.
