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 - A southeast Missouri man who drew widespread attention for his documentary about how methamphetamine ravaged his body has died, but was optimistic at the end that his film would others from the highly addictive stimulant.

AP - A man cheered as a hero for jumping onto a subway track to rescue a stranger has sued a lawyer he claims manipulated him into an unfair contract meant to profit on his fame.

AP - Prosecutors cast engineer Chi Mak as a secret foreign agent who used his position at a U.S. defense contractor to steal military secrets for China. Defense attorneys say Mak is a devoted American who would never harm his adopted country. Those two portrayals will be presented to a jury as Mak's federal trial starts Tuesday.

AP - Colorado's largest Episcopal congregation was left in turmoil after leaders voted to leave the denomination and the bishop responded by dismissing the parish's leadership.

AP - Four police officers in a resort town on Fire Island were ordered to surrender Tuesday to face criminal charges, one week after five fired colleagues sued for wrongful dismissal by a department they said was run 'like a fraternity house.'

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 - New Mexico officials have set the ground work to lease part of its commercial spaceport to Virgin Galactic as a base for its space tourism company.

AP - An elected coroner has been ordered to stand trial after a newspaper reporter testified that the coroner, trying to keep reporters from calling him, gave her the password to a confidential government Web site.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A five-story building under construction in New York City's East Harlem district collapsed on Tuesday, injuring at least one person, WNBC television reported.

EDWARDSVILLE, Illinois (Reuters) - An Illinois jury on Tuesday found Merck & Co. Inc.'s withdrawn arthritis drug Vioxx did not cause a 52-year-old woman's fatal heart attack and awarded no damages in the case.

AP - A former trucker whose documentary chronicled an agonizing descent as methamphetamine ravaged his body has died, optimistic to the end that his story would keep others from the highly addictive stimulant.

AP - A suburban Atlanta couple was sentenced Tuesday to life plus 30 years in prison in the beating death of their 8-year-old son, a case that prompted authorities to raid the family's church because it supports corporal punishment.

AP - Jurors Tuesday spared the life of a former 911 dispatcher convicted of poisoning her boyfriend with antifreeze — the same way she had killed her husband six years earlier.

AP - Authorities seized a flock of sheep that had wandered away from a downtown home to graze on floral arrangements in the town cemetery.

AP - The acting police chief and three officers in a small resort town on Fire Island were indicted Tuesday on charges that they beat a vacationer accused of littering, injuring him so severely he was hospitalized for 10 days.

AP - Prosecutors dropped a misdemeanor count Tuesday against a police officer accused of beating a female bartender in an attack videotaped by a surveillance camera, leaving him still facing a felony charge.

AP - Police brass are going back on patrol to help increase police presence in high crime neighborhoods as the city's homicide rate climbs.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A six-floor building under renovation partially collapsed in New York City's East Harlem district on Tuesday, causing one minor injury, fire officials said.

DALLAS (Reuters) - A Texas death row inmate slated for execution this week has given up a hunger strike he staged to protest prison conditions, officials said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bombarded by spam, e-mail users are eager for tools like a 'report fraud' button that would help weed out unwanted messages that litter inboxes, according to a survey by the Email Sender and Provider Coalition released on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A growing number of state housing agencies are developing or considering issuing bonds to assist subprime mortgage holders to refinance their obligations at fixed rates, officials at housing agencies said on Tuesday.

AP - They are called the Twin Cities, but Minneapolis has been more like St. Paul's bigger, more glamorous brother for generations.

AP - Businesses checking customers' names against a Treasury Department terrorist watch list are sometimes denying services to innocent people, according to a report released Tuesday by civil rights lawyers.

AP - A 90-year-old woman whose mobile home was flattened when tornadoes swept through the state over the weekend died of her injuries Tuesday, becoming the storm's only known fatality.

AP - Parents accused of killing their 4-year-old daughter with an overdose of prescription drugs had concocted symptoms of mental illnesses to in a bid to qualify the girl for government benefits, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

AP - A state senator was charged Tuesday with improperly storing a handgun and then lying about it to authorities after a 14-year-old neighbor used the gun to kill himself.

AP - A suburban Atlanta couple was sentenced Tuesday to life plus 30 years in prison in the beating death of their 8-year-old son, a case that prompted authorities to raid the family's church because it supports corporal punishment.

AP - Don Yost, harbormaster in Coos Bay for the past 18 years, was handed a list of seven salmon fishermen and instructed to seize their boats because they had fallen months behind in paying their mooring fees.

AP - The head of the Arizona Department of Veterans' Services resigned in the wake of an inspection that found shortcomings in care provided by the state's nursing home for military veterans, Gov. Janet Napolitano said Tuesday.

AP - A husband charged with killing his wife's teenage lover got a rifle two weeks before the boy was shot to death outside his home, investigators testified Tuesday.

AP - Jury selection began Tuesday in the federal trial of a former top engineer at a major U.S. defense contractor accused of stealing military secrets for the Chinese.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the 2008 race for the White House, the most personal details of a candidate's life -- from divorce to drug use to disease -- can become public issues and campaign-trail fodder.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Jim Webb said on Tuesday he felt the need to carry a gun to protect himself, a day after an aide was arrested for taking a loaded weapon belonging to the lawmaker into a Senate office building.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A growing number of state housing agencies are developing or considering issuing bonds to assist subprime mortgage holders to refinance their obligations at fixed rates, officials at housing agencies said on Tuesday.

AP - Don Yost, harbormaster in Coos Bay for the past 18 years, was handed a list of seven salmon fishermen and instructed to seize their boats because they had fallen months behind in paying their mooring fees.

AP - The Naval Academy said Tuesday it is investigating allegations of lewd behavior and heavy drinking by a group of midshipmen on a spring break Caribbean cruise.

AP - A SWAT team poured into an office building across from a bank robbery scene Tuesday after a caller threatened to start shooting people if a suspect arrested at the bank wasn't released.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More tools than ever are available to help patients like White House press secretary Tony Snow whose colon cancer has spread, but his situation is extremely serious, doctors said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. presidential aide and movie ratings creator Jack Valenti has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke last week, two of his friends said on Tuesday.

AP - The family of Harry Houdini's widow wants to block a plan to exhume the escape artist's remains, saying a disinterment to determine whether he was murdered smacks of sensationalism.

AP - A grand jury charged the acting chief and three others in what a prosecutor called a rampaging police force Tuesday with the severe beating of a tourist accused of littering.

AP - At least 471 cases of pet kidney failure have been reported in the 10 days since a nationwide recall of dog and cat food and about a fifth of those pets have died, a veterinarians' information service said Tuesday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. newspaper executives who bought community newspapers from Hollinger International Inc. testified on Tuesday they unwittingly agreed to divert some of the proceeds to a Canadian holding company that enriched media magnate Conrad Black, who is on trial for fraud.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Authorities on Tuesday said rights to O.J. Simpson's aborted book 'If I Did It' would be auctioned on April 17, putting his quasi-confessional tome one step closer to finally being published.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In the latest in a string of setbacks, the Los Angeles Times said on Tuesday it would investigate suggestions of undue influence in its opinion pages, less than a week after a senior editor quit over accusations of favoritism toward a Hollywood movie producer.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. presidential aide and movie ratings creator Jack Valenti has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke last week, his friends said on Tuesday.

AP - A woman with a history of drug abuse says she woke up from a nap to find her miniature dachshund had torn off her baby boy's genitals. Authorities have doubts about her story, but exactly how the newborn was maimed is still a mystery.

AP - Job applicants with missing limbs and severe burns arrived on crutches and in wheelchairs Tuesday at a job fair designed to help veterans rebuild their lives after being severely wounded in Iraq.

AP - Pat Tillman's mother said Tuesday that her greatest disappointment in the latest investigations into her son's death in Afghanistan was that 'horrific' acts by the Army Rangers who shot him were not adequately acknowledged or punished.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco's city council voted on Tuesday to become the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets to help promote recycling.

AP - A judge ruled Tuesday he would only move the trial of a polygamous-sect leader to Salt Lake City if he cannot seat a fair-minded jury. Judge James Shumate said the trial of Warren Jeffs will stay in southern Utah, but pledged to move it 'immediately' if too many prospective jurors can't be impartial.

AP - No fare! A driver for a popular bus service refused to take 13 preschoolers who she said did not pay to board. Usually, children 5 and under ride free, making the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority buses popular with preschools taking summer and spring outings.

AP - City leaders approved a ban on plastic grocery bags after weeks of lobbying on both sides from environmentalists and a supermarket trade group. If Mayor Gavin Newsom signs the ban as expected, San Francisco would be the first U.S. city to adopt such a rule.

AP - A teenager has been jailed for more than a year for shoving a teacher's aide at her high school, a case that has sparked anger and heightened racial tensions in rural East Texas.

AP - Volatile weather swept through Southern California on Tuesday, delivering downpours, hail, snow, and fierce winds that capsized boats and toppled power lines and trees. Nearly 160,000 customers lost power.