Nation News

Even for a nonconformist, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has defied political logic with her sudden, stunning announcement to leave office more than a year early. Read More

A terrified rural South Carolina community hunkered down over the Fourth of July after the sheriff said a serial killer was on the loose, and longtime residents were reminded of a murderer who terrorized the town in the 1960s. Read More

Cynthia Mary Roberson is an unemployed mother who police say led her 12- and 14-year-old sons and their friends to commit at least 20 armed robberies and assaults, including the beating of a teenage boy who had nothing more than an orange lollipop. Read More

Last November, more than 60 percent of voters on the San Francisco Peninsula supported a $9.9 billion bond measure to help pay for a high-speed rail line between San Francisco and the Los Angeles area. Read More

It might take Californians a puff or two to get their heads around an apparent contradiction recently enshrined in state law. The same marijuana smoke that doctors can recommend to ease cancer patients' suffering must soon come with a warning saying it causes the disease. Read More

"Many just accept that lame duck status, and they hit that road. They draw a paycheck. They kind of milk it. And I'm not going to put Alaskans through that." _ Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announcing her resignation effective July 26. Read More

_ 1992-1996 _ Sarah Palin enters public life in Alaska, serving two terms on the Wasilla City Council. Read More

Ed Spaeth was researching his family tree when he discovered an 18th-century ancestor likely was buried in the woods just down the hill from his Hudson Valley home. Read More

The mayor of Detroit is firing the city's police chief, a person familiar with the situation said Friday. Read More

A shuttered mill in northwestern South Carolina has caught fire, spewing clouds of dense, black smoke visible for miles. Read More

Like an old Western boomtown, the makeshift village that sprang up around the gates of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch was vanishing Friday, with visitors and vendors packing up tents, tarps, posters and CDs. Read More

Four Michigan fishermen whose 19-foot boat capsized in western Lake Erie have been rescued. Read More

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she will resign from office July 26; doesn't announce plans Read More

Millions of mosquito eggs laid across southern Texas after Hurricane Ike hit the coast last summer are waiting for the little bit of rain and hot summer days they need to hatch. That's got the man whose job it is to fight the bugs worried _ he's already running out of money. Read More

Galveston officials are investigating the torching of 30 palm trees in the last two months. Read More

A federal appeals court will not reconsider its ruling that overturned a murder conviction. Read More

Corey Carter could hear snippets of music in his head _ a calm and subtle melody that hadn't found its shape. The 19-year-old college student simply needed a hero to visualize before he could finish his composition for wind ensemble. Read More

After a week that offered the world a glimpse into the conflicted mind of philandering South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, his constituents differed Friday on whether he should leave office. Read More

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Read More

Norman Welton, whose 31-year career as a photo editor for The Associated Press included coverage of New York City, the United Nations and four Olympic Games, has died. He was 81. Read More