AP - A fire crew supervisor who admitted lying to investigators about the deaths of four wildland firefighters during a central Washington blaze in 2001 was sentenced to three months of work release Wednesday.

AP - The Amish are expanding their presence in states far beyond Pennsylvania Dutch country as they search for affordable farmland to accommodate a population that has nearly doubled in the past 16 years, a new study found.

AP - California, the nation's leader in heat-related deaths among farmworkers, sought to turn that trend around three years ago with a new law aimed at ensuring people toiling in sweltering fields had such basics as a water break and an umbrella for shade.

AP - Bye bye, Boardwalk. The Quebec metropolis of Montreal snagged the most expensive spot on a new global version of Monopoly, unseating the Atlantic City fixture as the board game's most prestigious property.

AP - RALEIGH, N.C. (AP — China is hoping that American college students watching the Summer Olympics will want to travel there, providing a bump similar to what Australia and Greece enjoyed in 2000 and 2004.

AP - A man convicted of causing a deadly commuter rail crash that he blamed on an attempt to commit suicide was sentenced Wednesday to 11 consecutive life terms by a judge who denounced him as a remorseless killer.

AP - A tourist from Nevada was killed Wednesday when a stretch of oceanside bluff at the Torrey Pines State Beach collapses, authorities said.

AP - A bondsman posted bail Wednesday for the Florida mother of a missing toddler and said he hoped her release would help lead investigators to the girl, officials said.

AP - President Bush said Wednesday that "hope is coming back" to New Orleans with the help of $126 billion in disaster aid poured into the Gulf Coast region over three years after Hurricane Katrina.

AP - Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday after a brain hemorrhage, a hospital spokeswoman said.

AP - It may be four weeks until tourists can return to stare as towering waterfalls cascade into blue-green pools near an American Indian village in a canyon miles west of Grand Canyon National Park headquarters.

AP - In a city where the mayor holds the same job his father once did, politics can seem little different from the years of the legendary Democratic Machine. But the faces of political privilege — long dominated by white ethnic groups — have changed as powerful black politicians use their clout to build new dynasties.

AP - Two-year community colleges are seeing record enrollment as families squeezed by tough economic times steer high school graduates away from more expensive four-year universities.