AP - Paddlings, swats, licks. A quarter of a million schoolchildren got them last year — and blacks, American Indians and kids with disabilities got a disproportionate share of the punishment, according to a study by a human rights group.

AP - Tropical Storm Fay continued its erratic path Wednesday reaching the coast and headed for the Atlantic Ocean, where it could strengthen and curve back toward Florida — possibly as a hurricane.

AP - Students entering college this fall have lived their whole lives in a digital world — where GPS has always been available, phones have always had caller ID and tax returns could always be filed online.

AP - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick won a small but much-needed legal victory when a judge ruled the Detroit City Council doesn't have the authority to force him from office.

AP - Amid the verdant lawn and leafy trees of the tidy Jefferson Senior High School campus, a police officer patrols the grounds and a sign warns that guns are illegal.

AP - Eighteen hospitals in California were fined for state health code violations in which patients received shoddy care that in some cases led to deaths.

AP - The funeral for slain Arkansas Democratic Party chairman Bill Gwatney was marked by humor as former President Clinton and others remembered the man who had touched their lives.

AP - Authorities say they have accounted for a handful of hikers who were missing after flooding struck a remote part of the Grand Canyon.

AP - A Texas judge has ordered a 14-year-old girl who was allegedly married to jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs to be placed in foster care.