AP - The World War II aircraft carrier Intrepid, powered by tugs and accompanied by a festive Hudson River traffic jam, was returned Thursday to the Manhattan pier where it has served for 24 years as a military and space museum.

AP - Alarmed by the financial meltdown, stores nationwide are slapping sale signs on everything from fall sweaters to furniture — frantically trying to attract shoppers who are cutting back.

AP - Houston has joined Los Angeles to become the second place in the nation classified as having a severe smog problem, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.

AP - The owners of the World Trade Center site announced a delay in the completion of a multibillion-dollar transit hub Thursday but pledged to open a nearly finished Sept. 11 memorial by the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

AP - Internationally known radio/TV evangelist John Hagee is recovering from open heart surgery at a San Antonio hospital. A spokeswoman for Hagee's Cornerstone Church says the successful procedure was performed Thursday.

AP - Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Thursday that he's pushing for changes that would allow him to seek a third term leading the nation's largest city, saying he wants to handle unfinished business including the "unprecedented challenges" brought on by the recent financial crisis.

AP - The world's longest undeveloped barrier island now looks as if people have been living — and dumping — on it for decades.

AP - Fear of the government in some communities after the Sept. 11 attacks and years of debate over immigration policy could create problems in getting an accurate count of the U.S. population in 2010, the director of the Census Bureau said Thursday.

AP - The Navy has confirmed the wreckage of a sunken vessel found last year off the Aleutians Islands is that of the USS Grunion, which disappeared during World War II.

AP - Federal regulators issued an emergency order Thursday banning use of cell phones and other electronic devices by rail workers, a day after investigators said a commuter-train engineer was text messaging moments before a deadly crash last month.

AP - O.J. Simpson's lawyer told jurors Thursday that the former football star's effort to get items back from two sports memorabilia dealers was a mistake but not a crime, saying that "being stupid, and being frustrated is not being a criminal."

AP - Steve Fossett chose a small single-engine airplane to scout a site for his next big adventure. But the crash that authorities say almost certainly claimed his life was as epic as the life the millionaire thrill-seeker tried to live.