Hoping for a new trial, an ex-cop hatched a plan to get money from his ailing grandmother's California house. FBI files say the goal was to bribe a judge. He could work the deal -- with a little help.

Many in the state welcome California's Supreme Court ruling this week.

In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers.

Two rail cars have jumped the track and overturned in southern Louisiana, leaking hydrochloric acid and forcing police to evacuate thousands of residents within a 1-mile of the accident.

A day after the president's 'appeasement' comments, Obama accuses the Republicans of strengthening America's enemies in the Middle East and using 'fear-mongering' to silence critics.

Controversial language is added to the proposal. Opponents of bioengineered food say the White House wants U.S. agribusiness to reap rewards.

Many 'gunnies' at the group's conference remain suspicious that he will not advance their agenda; some predict the Republican will not win an endorsement.

With the recent passing of Charlton Heston, the National Rifle Assn. lost its biggest media gun. But rocker Ted Nugent -- the man known for once performing in a loincloth and for greeting concertgoers from the back of a bison named Chief -- is prepared to fill in for the elder statesman as popular culture's most outspoken proponent of the 2nd Amendment.

Actor Dennis Quaid told Congress today of a harrowing, near-fatal drug mixup in which his newborn twins were administered 1,000 times the normal dose of a blood thinner.

They say tribunal legal advisor Thomas Hartmann -- who's been barred from a case against Osama bin Laden's driver -- acted unfairly and illegally to get KSM and his alleged co-conspirators prosecuted.

Researchers speculate that calm conditions in the Pacific altered the route of his ships, which became the first to circle the globe.

His assets were worth as much as $7.35 million at the end of 2007, an FEC filing shows. Even so, he is the least wealthy of the three major presidential candidates.

The baby stellar blast happened around 1868, astronomers say. Radio and X-ray techniques are combined to pinpoint the object.

Democrats had objected to the Bush nominee's Justice tenure overseeing voting rights matters.

Megan Meier, 13, hanged herself in 2006. A neighbor's mother was indicted in Los Angeles on Thursday in the case.

The utility wants the energy commission to consider a transmission line between Phoenix and Palm Springs. Legislation recently established 'national interest' energy corridors.

Huckabee later apologizes for the ad-lib, which followed a sharp noise offstage. He'd said the noise was Obama ducking for cover from someone aiming a gun.

Parts of big island are under health alert over "vog."

Critics assail logging of old-growth stands.

Report says archaeological sites deteriorating.

The Bush administration is on the verge of implementing new air quality rules that will make it easier to build power plants near national parks and wilderness areas, according to rank-and-file agency scientists and park managers who oppose the plan.

Patients with deficient levels at the time of diagnosis are more likely to have their cancer metastasize and turn deadly, researchers say. But experts caution against treating cancer with supplements.

Republicans, protesting a Democratic procedure, block it for now. The $166 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to be approved later.

The VA has repudiated the memo, but outraged veterans see a reluctance from the government to support their disability.

The finding is based on radar images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which show seven distinct layers of ice and dust.

Reward set for culprit who shot animal in Grand Teton area.

Over-exertion while in traps said to be a factor.

Analysts are forced to defend their controversial Iran report, which was intended as a symbol of change.

The animal, whose habitat has been shrinking with the melting of Arctic sea ice, is the first to be designated as threatened with extinction mainly because of global warming.

Federal agencies are accused of ignoring the dangers of bisphenol A, which some experts think may harm the development of children's brains.

Paul Clement, who will leave in June, defended Guantanamo policies before the high court.

But five other suspects, including the alleged mastermind, face the death penalty at the troubled Guantanamo Bay tribunal.

The legislation passes with overwhelming support in defiance of President Bush, underscoring the potency of fuel costs as a campaign issue. Motorists could save as much as 5 cents a gallon.

He says Pentagon planners are guilty of 'next-war-itis' and advocating conventional systems that may not be suited for nontraditional conflicts.

In what is reportedly his first interview with online news organizations, he concedes intelligence was 'flawed,' but he doesn't think anyone lied to him.

Starting in 2009, states will be required to offer 'Jane Doe rape kits,' which will be used to collect evidence but will be sealed until a victim decides whether to contact police.

The post, which had been in Republican hands for 14 years, is that party's third big loss in the chamber this year.

Experts see telltale markings of personality in penmanship samples from the presidential candidates.

With the weekend devastation in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia, this year to date has seen the most deaths in a decade. The nation has had 654 twisters so far in 2008.

The onetime lawmaker from Georgia says he wants to end out-of-control government spending. Some political analysts see his campaign as a threat to John McCain.

Gov. Charlie Crist declares a state of emergency. Arson is suspected in as many as nine fires in Palm Bay.

Inspired partly by the 50-shot killing of groom Sean Bell, it considers nationwide changes.

Scholar and philosopher Jean Houston reflects on where the first viable woman presidential candidate may have gone wrong.

As more Americans are watched, fewer cases are made. The trend concerns civil liberties groups as well as some lawmakers and legal experts.

Rural Newton County in Missouri and a near-abandoned Oklahoma town called Picher are hit hardest.

Interstate 95 and other major roads are closed because of blazes in Volusia County and Brevard County. Palm Bay officials are suspicious about brush fires there.

Forget the Democratic Party -- what's the campaign doing to households split between the two candidates?

Despite efforts to keep the U.S. Bowling Congress in town, it's moving to Texas.

Two contenders -- Cablevision Systems and media owner Mortimer Zuckerman -- remain for Tribune Co.'s Long Island newspaper after News Corp. withdraws its $580-million offer.

A tornado strikes the border, and emergency officials say the death toll could rise.

A century ago, Anna Jarvis devised a tribute to her mom and those everywhere. This isn't what she had in mind.

OK, we weren't there at the family ranch near Crawford, Texas, either. But we do know what song she and President Bush danced to, at least.

A judge for the Guantanamo tribunal says Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann lacked independence and must be replaced before Salim Ahmed Hamdan is prosecuted.

Almost all postal service prices rise Monday. Although it's just a penny increase for a first-class stamp, it's being felt at a time when prices for most things are soaring.

The Pentagon responds after learning that a crematorium handling the remains of humans -- including fallen soldiers -- also handles pets. A spokesman says there is no evidence that human and animal re

The Office National Drug Control Policy says smoking pot increases risk of mental disorders, but critics contend that the report stretches the evidence.

The inland settlement, about 14,000 years old, predates the Southwestern Clovis sites by about a millennium and coincides with findings at Paisley Cave in Oregon, researchers say.

Foreign visitors are accused of paying U.S. citizens to wed. At least 46 are arrested.

Great tits adjust their breeding season so that chicks hatch when winter moth caterpillars -- their main food source -- are most plentiful, long-term research shows.

The centerpiece for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the National Mall has drawn criticism from a federal arts panel, which says the proposed statue looks "confrontational" and resembles the head of a socialist state more than a civil rights leader.

It helps to improve sensitivity to the hormone insulin, which regulates blood sugar, researchers find.