AP - With backing from Al Gore, Current TV was launched four years ago as a mix of traditional journalism and viewer-produced content meant to create an open exchange with its audience.

AP - The undercover police officer paid $60 to enter the Midori Spa just blocks from Providence city hall. A massage therapist rubbed the officer's back, then simulated a sex act with her right hand.

AP - A state judge on Thursday ordered former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy to pay nearly $2.9 billion to shareholders who sued over a massive accounting fraud that nearly sent the rehabilitation chain into bankruptcy.

AP - Financially strapped states that have announced a freeze on all but essential hiring have made thousands of exceptions for zookeepers, dog wardens, golf-course groundskeepers, boxing inspectors, state fair workers and the like, an Associated Press review of hiring records has found.

AP - The pilot of a Continental Airlines flight from Brussels to Newark died over the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, but the jet landed safely with two co-pilots at the controls.

AP - The father of a Michigan man who believes he was snatched from his real parents in New York half a century ago called the speculation "a bunch of foolishness."

AP - The reflecting pool cradling the crypt where Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife are buried will be fixed by Thursday, which would have been the couple's 56th wedding anniversary.

AP - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday fired off a warning to Democratic lawmakers who are considering raising taxes to solve California's budget problems: Don't even try.

AP - Accommodating weather and a boost in the number of maple trees tapped are being credited for a bumper 2009 maple syrup crop.

AP - Tens of thousands of jubilant Los Angeles Lakers fans flooded downtown Wednesday, creating a tidal wave of purple and gold while celebrating the storied franchise's 15th NBA title with a high-energy parade and rally paid for by the city's movers and shakers.

AP - A Kentucky businessman testified Wednesday he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in "consulting fees" to the wife of a former Louisiana congressman that were nothing but thinly veiled bribes.