AP - The week before the 2004 Democratic National Convention, John Kerry drafted his presidential nomination speech and then set off on a cross-country trip that brought him home to thousands of delegates waiting in Boston.

AP - A man who authorities said kept an arsenal of weaponry and military gear pleaded not guilty Wednesday to threatening to assassinate both President Bush and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

AP - A doctor says U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio is in critical condition and has limited brain function following a hemorrhage.

AP - When a high school senior told her principal that students were taunting her for being a lesbian, he told her homosexuality is wrong, outed her to her parents and ordered her to stay away from children.

AP - Hundreds of central Florida homes flooded Wednesday as Tropical Storm Fay drenched the state for a third consecutive day, and forecasters warned the waters could worsen because the storm had stubbornly stalled.

AP - Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it has begun production of its new subcompact Fiesta at a plant in Germany.

AP - Former Vice President Al Gore and civil rights activist Diane Nash were named Tuesday as recipients of the National Civil Rights Museum's annual Freedom Awards.

AP - Police said Tuesday they hadn't found any connection between slain Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney and a telephone number written with his last name on a Post-It note found in the home of the man who killed him.

AP - Maudie White Hopkins, who grew up during the Depression in the hardscrabble Ozarks and married a Confederate army veteran 67 years her senior, has died. She was 93.