AP - Authorities count hundreds of Amber Alert cases across the country as success stories when they start explaining why the media-friendly and politically popular bulletins are so important.

AP - Tina Meier often sat with her daughter while she was online to ensure nothing fishy was happening. Lori Drew wanted to find out what kind of nasty rumors were being spread about her daughter.

AP - A judge denied bail on Thursday for a woman accused of killing an FBI agent during a drug raid that led to her husband's arrest on cocaine-dealing charges.

AP - State health officials and a northeastern Oklahoma restaurant at the center of this summer's deadly E. coli outbreak have signed an agreement to reopen the eatery, even though officials have never pinpointed the source of the contamination.

AP - Alarm in the aviation industry over a projected 10 percent drop in domestic flights this winter hasn't derailed plans to open multimillion-dollar runways at three U.S. airports Thursday.

AP - A Manhattan jury has convicted a wealthy arms dealer of conspiring to sell weapons to informants who supposedly were supplying terrorists willing to kill Americans.

AP - A man convicted of killing and beheading a 3-year-old girl known as 'Precious Doe' has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

AP - City and state police have closed their investigations into last summer's shooting of Arkansas' Democratic Party chairman without offering an explanation of why the attack occurred.

AP - In 2006, Alaska desperately needed cash to complete a museum featuring a mummified bison and other natural wonders of the frozen north. So the state dipped into its share of the landmark 1998 tobacco settlement.

AP - Police in Southern California say a Metrolink commuter train and a freight train have collided in San Bernardino County but there appear to be no serious injuries.

AP - The Army has set a date for its first execution in nearly 50 years.

AP - Cookie Smith was surprised to learn the fake lawn that earned her a home-beautification award violated a city ban on artificial grass.

AP - The cost of public transit in New York City would skyrocket next year — even as bus and subway service is reduced — under a plan unveiled Thursday by the nation's largest public transit system.

AP - Ohio's government watchdog says an agency director improperly used state computers to find personal information on the man who became known as 'Joe the Plumber' during the presidential campaign.

AP - A wealthy arms dealer long suspected of aiding militants in some of the world's bloodiest conflicts was convicted Thursday of conspiring to sell weapons to informants who posed as arms suppliers for terrorists willing to kill Americans.

AP - A commuter train collided with a freight train Thursday in Southern California, producing no serious injuries but bringing back memories of a deadly commuter-train wreck in the region just two months ago.

AP - A former Army cook convicted of multiple rapes and murders is set to die next month in what would be the U.S. military's first execution in nearly 50 years.

AP - A man convicted of killing and beheading his then-girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter and dumping her body in the woods was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

AP - City and state police have closed their investigations into last summer's shooting of Arkansas' Democratic Party chairman without offering an explanation of why the attack occurred.

AP - Retired Dallas police detective Jim Leavelle still gets letters from strangers because of that 1963 photo of him standing next to Lee Harvey Oswald.

AP - Water regulators have voted to ban septic tanks in the heart of Malibu, Calif., after a prolonged battle over bacterial pollution leaching into the ocean at some of the state's most popular beaches.

AP - The mother of a Missouri girl who committed suicide after being targeted by an Internet hoax testified Thursday that she was unaware that her daughter had posed as an 18-year-old while allegedly trying to chat online with boys.

AP - Spacewalking astronauts performed more repair work on a jammed joint at the international space station on Thursday, keeping a tight grip on all their tools so nothing would get away this time.

AP - Planes began taking off from new multimillion-dollar runways at three U.S. airports on Thursday with aviation officials heralding the increased capacity as crucial to reducing delays, even in the face of a slumping economy and a projected decline in domestic flights this winter.

AP - A Federal Aviation Administration employee from Southern California took illegal perks from his job — including a plane, yachts and heavy-duty trucks — and an investigation continues into how widespread the practice was, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

AP - The killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant by seven high school students was part of a spree in which the teenagers tormented other immigrants while armed with knives and BB guns, prosecutors said.

AP - A Metrolink commuter train sideswiped a freight train Thursday, causing no serious injuries but bringing back still-vivid memories of a deadly train wreck in the region just two months ago.

AP - Spacewalking astronauts performed more repair work on a jammed joint at the international space station on Thursday, keeping a tight grip on all their tools so nothing would get away this time.

AP - Water regulators have taken a step toward banning septic tanks in the heart of Malibu, Calif., after a battle over bacterial pollution at popular beaches.