News For Monday Oct 13, 2008 News For Monday Oct 13, 2008

U.S. U.S.

Fire burns 2,000 acres northeast of Los Angeles - Added 8 minutes ago

Fire officials prepared late Sunday for rapid growth of a wildfire blazing 20 miles north of downtown with the expected arrival of strong, dry wind gusts overnight. "There's been no open flames for hours. It's just...

Today in History - Oct. 13 - Added 40 minutes ago

Today is Monday, Oct. 13, the 287th day of 2008. There are 79 days left in the year. This is the Columbus Day holiday in the United States, as well as Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Today's Highlight in History: On Oct....

Eating champ delivers top pizza performance in NY - Added 1 hour ago

Chowdown champ Joey Chestnut has done it again _ this time proving he's a pizza powerhouse. He downed 45 slices in 10 minutes Sunday to win the first Famous Famiglia World Pizza Eating Championship in New York's Times...

Ex-Minn. legislator Allan Spear, gay pioneer, dies - Added 2 hours ago

Allan H. Spear, a former Minnesota state senator who was one of the nation's first openly gay legislators, has died. He was 71. He died Saturday of complications after heart surgery performed Thursday, said Don...

Obituaries in the news - Added 2 hours ago

Robert W. Plaster LEBANON, Mo. (AP) _ Robert W. Plaster, a Missouri business leader who was accused in the 1970s of plotting to bomb a competitor's truck in an effort to dominate the propane business, died Saturday. He...

Lost manatee rescued in Mass. dies on trip to Fla. - Added 3 hours ago

An animal welfare official says a wayward manatee that was rescued from cold Cape Cod waters died on the way home to Florida. Chris Cutter of the International Fund for Animal Welfare says the juvenile male manatee...

Chicago cop once jailed in Iowa celebrates release - Added 3 hours ago

A Chicago policeman went for his first motorcycle ride since being released from an Iowa prison, only to be pulled over _ by officers who wanted to congratulate him. Michael Mette, 31, related the tale Sunday at a...

Soros slams US, EU leaders for 'slow' response - Added 4 hours ago

Outspoken billionaire investor George Soros on Sunday criticized U.S. and European officials for taking too long to effectively address the financial crisis. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was "very slow" to react...

NY grave of 1st Ellis Island immigrant gets marker - Added 5 hours ago

The New York grave of an Irish woman who was the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island has been marked with a Celtic cross. Clergy members joined Annie Moore's descendants and admirers Saturday in a Queens...

World Bank to protect vulnerable countries - Added 7 hours ago

The World Bank agreed Sunday to help developing countries strengthen their economies, bolster their financial systems and protect the poor against the financial turmoil in international markets. Robert Zoellick, the...

NYC Council speaker supports term-limit law change - Added 7 hours ago

The speaker of the New York City Council says she supports Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his bid to stay in office for a third term. Christine Quinn said Sunday that voters should have the choice of keeping the current...

Forecasters: Tropical Storm Nana forms in Atlantic - Added 7 hours ago

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say Tropical Storm Nana has formed in the eastern Atlantic, but predict it will weaken to a tropical depression by Monday. The storm is packing 40-mph winds about...

MISSING TITLE - Added 7 hours ago

National Hurricane Center: Tropical Storm Nana forms in eastern Atlantic, but likely to weaken. ...

Atlanta Jews remember 'bomb that healed' - Added 8 hours ago

The bombing of a prominent Atlanta synagogue in 1958 claimed no lives, but the community outrage that it prompted helped galvanize the city's nervous Jewish community to embrace the civil rights movement. Members of...

Debt clock draws confused looks, anger or nothing - Added 8 hours ago

A watched clock never moves _ unless it's the National Debt Clock. In fact, the digital counter has been moving so much that it recently ran out of digits to display the ballooning figure: $10,150,603,734,720, or...

Holocaust survivors tell love story - Added 9 hours ago

In the beginning, there was a boy, a girl and an apple. He was a teenager in a concentration camp in Nazi-controlled Germany. She was a bit younger, living free in the village, her family posing as Christians. Their...

Yale celebrates Noah Webster's 250th birthday - Added 9 hours ago

!!-- pobj:HF106-1009081327 -->!!-- pobj:HF103-1010081048 -->!!-- pobj:HF104-1010081050 -->!!-- pobj:HF105-1009081106 -->!!-- pobj:HF107-1009081125 -->NEW HAVEN, Conn. _ The announcement came in 1800 in the back of a...

Recovery, ruin visible in Texas a month after Ike - Added 9 hours ago

A month later, piles of Sheetrock, appliances, furniture and family mementos dot most streets in this island town. Electronic road signs in southeast Texas flash, "Watch for cows next 20 miles," a reminder that few...

Ohio shooting puts face on foreclosure crisis - Added 10 hours ago

By the time deputies came to escort Addie Polk out of her home of 38 years, the 90-year-old had taken out her life insurance policy and placed it next to her pocketbook and keys in the neatly kept house. She shot...

Blighted San Francisco district touts its history - Added 11 hours ago

In the Tenderloin, corner stores sell more alcohol than food, drug-addled pan handlers shake paper cups at passers-by and churches vie for real estate with strip clubs. Now, the federal government is on the verge of...

All is forgiven; McCain returning to Letterman - Added 13 hours ago

David Letterman and Sen. John McCain will get a chance to make up. The Republican presidential candidate is scheduled to appear on Letterman's "Late Show" on Thursday. It will be McCain's 13th visit to the CBS program...

Counting cards: NY collection includes 6,356 decks - Added 13 hours ago

The collection spans 50 countries and four centuries and touches on subjects ranging from beer marketing to 19th-century Portuguese politics. Columbia University has a collection of playing cards that is among the...

Santas coming early to Indiana town to sign oath - Added 14 hours ago

The grandsons of Santa Claus are coming to town. The descendants of two of the more famous men to don Santa Claus suits plan to meet Sunday in Santa Claus, Ind., to sign a new oath for other jolly gift-givers. Charles...

Balloon pilots somber at NM festival after death - Added 14 hours ago

Pilots of hot air balloons on Saturday mourned the loss of one of their own in a fiery crash at Albuquerque's famous festival, even as they said another pilot fighting for his life after the accident would want them to...

Efforts on global warming chilled by economic woes - Added 14 hours ago

The economic free fall gripping the nation may bring down one of the main environmental objectives: capping the greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming. Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate, and...

Residents get OK to return after Pa. chemical leak - Added 16 hours ago

About 2,500 people who fled when a corrosive liquid overflowed from a tank at a chemical plant and evaporated were allowed to return home Sunday after authorities determined that no toxins remained in the air. A...

Chief says Chicago police are supported, motivated - Added 18 hours ago

Chicago's police superintendent is denying a news report that officers in his command are working the streets less aggressively out of fear of being second-guessed by him. Jody Weis told reporters Saturday that despite...

Attorney: Marine fighting extradition from Mexico - Added 18 hours ago

The attorney for a Marine accused of killing a pregnant colleague says his client is fighting extradition to the United States. Dick McNeil says 21-year-old Cpl. Cesar Laurean has filed an extradition appeal in a...

Tax rebate, food stamp money possible in aid plan - Added 19 hours ago

After consulting with Barack Obama, Democratic leaders are likely to call Congress back to work after the election in hopes of passing legislation that would include extended jobless benefits, money for food stamps and...

Wildfire destroys home, barn in Napa Valley - Added 19 hours ago

!!-- pobj:CASRP105-1011081540 -->!!-- pobj:CASRP103-1011081500 -->!!-- pobj:CASRP106-1011081624 -->!!-- pobj:CASRP104-1011081535 -->Authorities say a rock struck by a car ignited a wildfire in California's Napa Valley...

MISSING TITLE - Added 20 hours ago

US National Hurricane Center says Norbert weakens to tropical storm over Mexico mountains. ...

NKorea off US blacklist after nuke inspection deal - Added 21 hours ago

!!-- AUDIO:130,129,128 -->After North Korea relented on nuclear inspection demands, the U.S. on Saturday erased from a terrorism blacklist the communist country President Bush once branded part of an "axis of evil." ...

Today in History - Oct. 12 - Added 1 day ago

Today is Sunday, Oct 12, the 286th day of 2008. There are 80 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Oct. 12, 1492 (Old Style calendar; Oct. 21 New Style), Christopher Columbus arrived with his...

Mexican marijuana cartels sully US forests, parks - Added 1 day ago

National forests and parks _ long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels _ have become home to some of the most polluted pockets of wilderness in America because of the toxic chemicals needed to eke lucrative...

Obituaries in the news - Added 1 day ago

Alton Ellis LONDON (AP) _ Reggae music pioneer Alton Ellis, who enjoyed a career revival in recent years after a string of hits in the 1960s, died Friday. He was 70. Ellis died peacefully, officials at Hammersmith...

Santas coming early to Indiana town to sign oath - Added 1 day ago

The grandsons of Santa Claus are coming to town. The descendants of two of the more famous men to don Santa Claus suits plan to meet Sunday in Santa Claus, Ind., to sign a new oath for other jolly gift-givers. Charles...

Balloon pilots somber at NM festival after death - Added 1 day ago

Pilots of hot air balloons on Saturday mourned the loss of one of their own in a fiery crash at Albuquerque's famous festival, even as they said another pilot fighting for his life after the accident would want them to...

Murder case ends blocks from where it began in LA - Added 1 day ago

A strange cold case murder story that stretched halfway around the globe and back over a span of nearly 30 years ended this weekend a few blocks from where it began, with the shocking suicide of Japanese businessman...

Faulty eyewitnesses doomed Dallas County suspects - Added 1 day ago

Faulty eyewitness testimony that helped secure wrongful convictions in Dallas County, which leads the nation in DNA exonerations, sent the innocent to prison as police and prosecutors ignored safeguards and built cases...

Attorney: Jailed O.J. believes he was 'railroaded' - Added 1 day ago

O.J. Simpson, locked in jail and pondering his future, feels hopeful he will win a new trial on appeal because he believes jury interviews show "he was absolutely railroaded," his lawyer told The Associated Press. ...

5 killed in Manhattan blaze, including 3 children - Added 1 day ago

A family of five, including three children as young as 15 months, died in a blaze Saturday that filled an apartment with thick black smoke and kept the victims from escaping through the front door, fire officials said. ...

Man gets prison for killing fan after Bonds' 700th - Added 1 day ago

A California man has been sentenced to 16 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing a fellow baseball fan after a San Francisco Giants game four years ago. Rafael Cuevas was sentenced Friday after a jury convicted...

Counting cards: NY collection includes 6,356 decks - Added 1 day ago

The collection spans 50 countries and four centuries and touches on subjects ranging from beer marketing to 19th-century Portuguese politics. Columbia University has a collection of playing cards that is among the...

For Bush, last 100 days to feature 'no letting up' - Added 1 day ago

!!-- pobj:WX205-1007081509 -->So how will it end? President Bush is down to his final 100 days in office as of Sunday. Don't expect a quiet fade into the Texas night. The bleakest economic downturn in decades has...

Boat smashes into dock on Michigan river; 3 killed - Added 1 day ago

Authorities say a jet boat that was spotted zipping across a Michigan river smashed into a dock, killing three people and seriously injuring a fourth. The sheriff's department says two couples from Fair Haven were...

FBI searched long, hard for Jack Anderson sources - Added 1 day ago

In caustic comments on internal FBI memos, bureau director J. Edgar Hoover referred to prominent columnist Jack Anderson with undisguised contempt, calling him "a jackal" as agents combed his articles for errors and...

Washington weighs lethal meds for terminally ill - Added 1 day ago

The emotionally charged battle over end-of-life decisions has taken to the airwaves as Washington state voters decide whether to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients. Recent TV and...

Lost manatee headed to Fla. after Mass. rescue - Added 1 day ago

!!-- pobj:MAHYC501-1008081347 -->!!-- pobj:MAHYC502-1008081003 -->A wayward manatee is headed home to Florida after being pulled from frigid Cape Cod waters in an early morning rescue. The juvenile male manatee...

Monument, Capitol could get company in DC skyline - Added 1 day ago

No skyscrapers jut from this low-lying federal city, allowing iconic buildings like the Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol to dominate the horizon. However, the historically sparse skyline might not stay that way. ...

Marriage ruling not the end of debate in Conn. - Added 1 day ago

Now that the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled same-sex couples have the right to wed, opponents of gay marriage are pinning their hopes on an infrequent ballot question in a longshot bid to block the unions. Every...