AP - A group of cars hit by a commuter train at a suburban Chicago crossing had 54 seconds from the time the gates were activated until the train came barreling through but they couldn't escape, an official with the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.

AP - The two sisters injured because of an unwieldy giant balloon in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade are "doing just fine," and the family doesn't plan to sue over the incident, their father said.

AP - France has offered to fly over some of the city's musicians and provide them with rent-free residences and monthly stipends for up to three months, in hopes of compensating for concerts canceled after Hurricane Katrina.

AP - The garish, red paisley carpeting is here, as are the red-leather bar stools and the shuffle board table. The names of the past are here, too, engraved in wood by the Filipino artists who, over the years, recorded the exploits and humor of some of the U.S. Navy's most celebrated pilots.

AP - Ricky Bridges stared in disbelief at his brother's dining room on Thanksgiving Day. He wasn't just awed by the homemade desserts placed on a card table that was fast running out of space for food.

AP - Animal-rights activist Heidi Prescott stands before a room full of hunters, baiting them with questions that convey the Humane Society's position on their favorite pastime.

AP - Tropical Storm Delta weakened slightly Friday in the central Atlantic and posed no threat to land, forecasters said.

AP - Blacks have a complicated love affair with the South. Their ancestors were enslaved in the region for generations, then Jim Crow laws pushed them to the back of the bus. From inner-city slums to old plantation counties, being black too often still means a second-class existence.

AP - Agents had to use a 20-foot truck to cart away the evidence from a suspect's house — mountains of Lego bricks.

AP - Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and three other governors personally thanked their troops serving in the Middle East on Thursday, and they brought Thanksgiving dinner with them.

AP - When U.S. soldiers need to penetrate a tank's armor from a mile away, they count on a weapon that evolved from the garage tinkering of a former wedding photographer.

AP - A man accused of killing a Denver police officer can be extradited to the United States, the Consulate General of Mexico said.

AP - Tropical Storm Delta weakened and became less organized in the central Atlantic on Friday, posing no threat to land and almost no chance of developing into a hurricane, forecasters said.

AP - After years of quietly working to reinvent its downtown and shed its image as bombing victim, Oklahoma City has started screaming for attention.

AP - Federal authorities arrested an Islamic religious leader Friday as they began the process of deporting him for lying about ties to terrorist groups.

AP - A gay man charged with helping his lover loot a wealthy school district has asked a judge to rule that state law protecting spouses from having to testify against each other also applies to same-sex partners.

AP - With the death of Rosa Parks, the 50th anniversary of her arrest and the historic bus boycott it sparked will focus on the protest's lesser-known foot soldiers.

AP - A federal judge has awarded $60.9 million to a couple whose son suffered severe brain damage when he was born in a Navy hospital two years ago.

AP - City streets are getting darker because thieves, some disguised as utility crews, are stealing 30-foot light poles, authorities said.

AP - The jukebox at the bar Brian Toro manages isn't gathering dust just yet — but it may only be a matter of time.

AP - Missouri Roman Catholics who attend Mass Sunday can expect to hear a homily against embryonic stem cell research and a statewide petition drive for a voter initiative that would protect such work.

AP - Massachusetts' attorney general is launching an investigation into several supermarkets that opened on Thanksgiving in defiance of the state's Puritan-era Blue Laws.

AP - The Albany sisters struck by a falling street lamp knocked loose by a wayward balloon accepted an offer Friday to attend the 2006 Thanksgiving parade and sit in the VIP section.

AP - Anti-war demonstrators, back in Crawford to protest during President Bush's holiday vacation, unveiled a stone monument Friday with the words "Sheehan's Stand" in honor of the woman who inspired their efforts.

AP - An ice-skating trip at a small pond ended tragically Friday when a young girl fell through the ice and her father plunged in trying to save her. Authorities searching with divers and boats recovered their bodies.

AP - Anti-war demonstrators, back in Crawford to protest during President Bush's holiday vacation, unveiled a stone monument Friday with the words "Sheehan's Stand" in honor of the woman who inspired their efforts.

AP - A fire erupted in a downtown candy store and quickly spread through three buildings in a shopping district full of holiday revelers Friday evening.

AP - Massachusetts' attorney general is launching an investigation into several supermarkets that opened on Thanksgiving in defiance of the state's Puritan-era Blue Laws.

AP - Thousands of people, some in tears, streamed into the Audubon Zoo on Friday, the first day it was open since Hurricane Katrina.

AP - With the death of Rosa Parks, the 50th anniversary of her arrest and the historic bus boycott it sparked will focus on the protest's lesser-known foot soldiers.