AP - A somber police motorcade carried a slain deputy's body away from the scene of a bloody rampage Wednesday as investigators tried to determine what set off a shooting and stabbing spree that left six people dead and four wounded.

AP - Organizers called off a boycott of Chicago Public Schools Wednesday, saying they want students to return to class and for Gov. Rod Blagojevich to meet to discuss the state's education funding system.

AP - After months of defiantly holding onto his office, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick appeared ready to give it up as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in a sex-and-misconduct scandal that has embarrassed the nation's 11th-largest city for months.

AP - Coastal residents moved boats and booked inland hotel rooms while National Guard troops prepared to deploy along the Southeastern coast as Tropical Storm Hanna plowed through the Atlantic on a shifting track toward the U.S.

AP - City and state officials tried to hold them off, but New Orleans resident would have none of it. After Hurricane Gustav brushed by the city, they wanted back in, and now.

AP - A federal judge, promising a "horde of witnesses" in his defense, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he fondled a former case manager and tried to force her into a sexual act.

AP - Gov. Jennifer Granholm opened an extraordinary hearing Wednesday to determine whether Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick committed misconduct and should be removed from office in a scandal over steamy text messages and a multimillion-dollar legal settlement.

AP - A shooting rampage in which six people were killed in a series of confrontations from a tiny town to the state's busiest highway ended with the surrender of a troubled man who was recently released from jail, authorities said.

AP - As a stream of traffic queued up on the highways leading back to New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin decided Wednesday to let residents who fled Hurricane Gustav back after all — with a stern warning the city was still vulnerable.

AP - The order for a firefighting air tanker to drop retardant on a blaze in California was canceled about the same time the plane crashed during takeoff at an airport north of Reno, killing three people, officials said Tuesday.

AP - An American Airlines jet carrying nearly 140 people is returning to Los Angeles International Airport after apparently blowing a tire during takeoff for Toronto.