LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The singer with defunct punk rock band Mest was jailed on suspicion of murder in Los Angeles on Sunday after police said he confessed to stabbing his ex-girlfriend's new lover.

AP - Iain Macpherson cares so deeply about teaching civics that the 61-year-old Scottish immigrant turned himself into a show-and-tell project.

AP - The creaky van rattled past Pakistani food stores, the Principe Azul disco and stores with saris in the window, giving the Daramay clan a 45-mph view of their new hometown's diversity.

AP - Youngsters who had quality child care before kindergarten had better vocabulary scores by fifth grade, but the more time they spent in child care, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report problem behaviors.

AP - Minor natural gas leaks that are no threat to people can still cause harm: They can kill public shade trees by choking off the oxygen at their roots.

AP - West Virginia may not be among the nation's top farm states, but it's likely the only place where anyone would pay $10,000 for a dozen eggs.

CHOWCHILLA, Calif (Reuters) - Beverly Lewis got down to a game of hopscotch in the prison playroom with Armon, 3, the mischievous grandson she had never seen.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Gabriellee Cunningham had fallen behind on the mortgage on her modest suburban Miami home and was mired in debt when she was approached in June by a door-to-door 'mortgage lender' who promised to help her.

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - The search for 'deadbeat' parents now has a delivery option: three pizzerias in Ohio have put wanted posters on their pizza boxes to help catch parents who don't pay their child support.

AP - Princess Cruises is investigating how two passengers tumbled off a cruise ship cabin balcony and into the Gulf of Mexico, trigging a four-hour rescue effort.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush wants market-based solutions for boosting alternative fuel use in the U.S. automobile industry, not new government regulations, Detroit-based automakers said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide whether a federal law prohibiting child pornography illegally infringes on free-speech or other rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

AP - The more time that children spent in child care, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report problem behavior.

AP - Fire in a crowded house sent people climbing out windows to safety early Monday, and killed one child and injured 13 other people, fire officials said.

AP - An argument at an after-hours party erupted in gunfire, killing a woman and prompting the mayor to call for an end to the late-night parties.

AP - A cruise line and the captain of a boat that capsized on Lake George, killing 20 elderly tourists, pleaded guilty Monday to a misdemeanor charge.

AP - The head of the city's teachers union said it won't take down 'Stop the killings' billboards despite complaints from business owners and the new mayor that they're driving away business.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush wants market-based solutions for boosting alternative fuel use in the U.S. automobile industry, not new regulation, Detroit-based automakers said on Monday.

NEW ORLEANS/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc.'s abandoned experimental heart drug, torcetrapib, failed to arrest clogging of arteries and was linked to a jump in blood pressure and serious cardiac events, even as it sharply raised 'good' HDL cholesterol in a trio of clinical trials.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of new U.S. homes unexpectedly fell 3.9 percent in February to the lowest rate in nearly seven years while the number of new homes on the market grew, according to a government report on Monday that showed more signs of weakness in the housing sector.

AP - It took seven years after the fighting had ended for the nation to dedicate the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. This time around, Americans aren't waiting for the shooting to stop.

AP - Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced Monday he had vetoed five bills that would have expanded the crimes punishable by death in Virginia, the state second only to Texas in executions.

AP - Two new wildfires began Monday, adding to an outbreak of more than a dozen blazes in eastern Tennessee that included 10 suspected as arson.

AP - The major seminary and flagship institution of Conservative Judaism said Monday it will start accepting openly gay and lesbian students, after scholars who interpret Jewish law for the movement voted to allow it.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - An executive who paid more than $500 million to buy dozens of small U.S. newspapers from former media magnate Conrad Black's company testified on Monday at Black's fraud trial that he balked when asked at one point to wire $9.5 million directly to Black and his associates.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Conservative Jewish seminary in New York has agreed to admit gays and lesbians who want to become rabbis, but declined to take a stand on whether rabbis should officiate at same-sex unions.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - New Jersey drivers who insist on sending text messages on their cell phones or personal digital assistants may find themselves on the wrong side of the law if legislators approve a new bill.

AP - The laboratory that identified the poison believed to be responsible for the death of pets around the country has started testing individual components of the tainted pet food to determine which ingredient was contaminated, officials said Monday.

AP - The head of the city's teachers union said it won't take down 'Stop the killings' billboards despite complaints from business owners and the new mayor that they're driving away business.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and U.S. auto executives on Monday promoted alternative fuels but did not discuss in any meaningful way their major point of disagreement, government fuel efficiency requirements.

ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - The captain of a New York tour boat that capsized in October 2005 and killed 20 elderly passengers pleaded guilty on Monday to a maritime offense.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pentagon watchdog on Monday found fault with nine officers for investigations and incorrect accounts of the death of U.S. Army Ranger and former professional football star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum and research body, resigned after criticism of his 'champagne lifestyle' threatened its funding, board members said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. average retail gasoline price rose for the eighth week in a row, surpassing $2.60 a gallon for the first time since September, the government said on Monday.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - America's national emblem is nesting in Philadelphia for the first time in more than 200 years but it may be on a collision course with developers.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It's the junk food junkie's wildest dream come true -- pizza as health food.

AP - A man who fell about 50 feet from a cruise ship was released from the ship's medical center Monday, and a woman who also fell plans to have follow-up testing on land, the cruise line said.

AP - A fire in a crowded house sent people climbing out windows to safety early Monday, and killed two young girls and injured 11 other people, fire officials said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pentagon watchdog on Monday found fault with four generals and five other officers for mistakes following the death of U.S. Army Ranger and former professional football star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Several passengers who fell ill aboard a Continental Airlines plane from Hong Kong that landed at Newark Airport in New Jersey on Monday have been diagnosed with seasonal influenza, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Civil liberties activists demanded on Monday that New York police release details of surveillance operations, suspecting they violated rules when monitoring groups planning protests at a Republican convention.

AP - The seminary considered the flagship institution of Conservative Judaism said Monday it will start accepting gay and lesbian applicants, after scholars who guide the movement lifted the ban on gay ordination.

AP - Members of a gay rights group were arrested Monday after staging a sit-in at a Baptist seminary whose president is drawing criticism for his comments on prenatal treatments that would influence a child's sexual orientation.

AP - A man who fell about 50 feet from a cruise ship was released from the ship's medical center Monday, and a woman who also fell plans to have follow-up testing on land, the cruise line said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pentagon watchdog on Monday found fault with four generals and five other officers for mistakes following the death of U.S. Army Ranger and former professional football star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan.