Nation News

Lynn Giese calls Sarah Palin the best thing that's happened to the U.S. in a long time, and the 57-year-old housewife says she'd work tirelessly for the former Alaska governor were she to run for president in 2012. Read More

A unit that lost several soldiers during the shooting rampage at Fort Hood last month is set to deploy to Afghanistan. Read More

Clergy and laypeople voting to replace two retiring assistant bishops in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles will choose Friday from a pool that includes two openly gay candidates. Read More

John Brown, the 19th-century abolitionist who advocated armed violence, is drawing a diverse crowd this week to study how his fight against slavery continues to play in America. Read More

Authorities have charged four people with aiding the man accused of killing four Washington state police officers and plan on indicting two more in what investigators call a network of friends and relatives that helped Maurice Clemmons avoid capture. Read More

The search for the perfect Christmas tree has led Keith and Jennifer Lee on some unexpected adventures but nothing quite like this week's dangerous journey into Oregon's high country. Read More

An Indiana 17-year-old authorities say identified with a television serial killer is set to appear in court on murder charges in his 10-year-old brother's strangling death. Read More

When three federal judges in Illinois upheld local handgun bans this year, blogger Hal Turner went on the offensive. Read More

Lawmakers have wooed seniors skeptical of the health care overhaul by emphasizing the plan would close the "doughnut hole" _ a gap in Medicare drug coverage that can cost thousands of dollars a year. Read More

A storm packing blustery winds and driving rain knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses in the Northeast on Thursday before giving way to sunny skies and record high temperatures _ all in the same morning. Read More

Police say the fatal shooting of a mother and her young daughter may be connected to the deaths of another woman and her child found within hours in the same southern Wisconsin county. Read More

Marine sanctuary officials planned to return to Hawaii waters with modified equipment Friday to try to cut loose a young humpback whale entangled in several hundred yards of heavy plastic rope. Read More

One of two civilian police officers who brought down the Army psychiatrist accused of going on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood said her wounds from the attack will cut short her career as street police officer. Read More

The shopping list includes wind farms, seawalls and even real estate _ new homelands for flooded-out islanders. And poor countries want to present the bill to the rich at next week's climate talks in Copenhagen. Read More

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich would claim his 5th Amendment right against self incrimination if asked to testify in a civil lawsuit spurred by his federal corruption indictment, his lawyer says. Read More

The Coast Guard says a dive team has recovered the body of a 32-year-old crab fisherman who fell from a boat about 10 miles off the mouth of the Columbia River near the Oregon-Washington border. Read More

A judge on Thursday lifted a seal on court records and transcripts that a Southern California man says will prove he was an informant for the FBI. Read More

A registered sex offender accused of killing 11 women pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to all charges Thursday, a plea that will leave the legal system to decide whether a sane person can live for years with 10 bodies and a skull. Read More

Environmental officials say they have found a single Asian carp in a canal leading to Lake Michigan _ the closest any of the giant fish have come to the Great Lakes. Read More

A 44-year-old Texas man was executed Thursday evening for raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl, despite pleas from his attorneys he was too mentally impaired to qualify for capital punishment. Read More