AP - The fate of a Missouri mother accused of conspiring in a MySpace hoax that allegedly led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide is now in the hands of a jury.

AP - A woman accused of helping arrange trysts between pricey escorts and their customers has been sentenced to one year of probation for her role in the prostitution scandal that forced Eliot Spitzer to step down as New York's governor.

AP - Police on Tuesday were searching for three young girls missing since their mother was found dead, and said they were concerned for the youngsters' safety.

AP - Authorities are urging residents to consider evacuating areas of Southern California that were stripped by wildfires because an approaching storm could set off mudslides.

AP - Jurors on Tuesday began deliberating whether a Missouri mother conspired with her daughter and an assistant to harass a 13-year-old girl with Internet messages that allegedly prompted the girl's suicide.

AP - A woman convicted of murdering her University of Arizona dorm mate by stabbing her 23 times has been sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

AP - A California man accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife and another man in a New Jersey church Sunday had been renting a room a few miles away for two weeks beforehand, authorities said Tuesday.

AP - A judge on Tuesday overturned a strict Florida law that blocks gay people from adopting children, declaring there was no legal or scientific reason for sexual orientation alone to prohibit anyone from adopting.

AP - The state is investigating the death of a 28-year-old woman who had dwindled to 43 pounds in a state-licensed home for developmentally disabled adults, officials said Tuesday.

AP - Lindsay Pasley is an eager young man in what used to be an older man's game — tobacco farming.

AP - Residents sandbagged around their homes and were urged to leave them Tuesday as a storm approaching from the Pacific brought a threat of floods and mudslides to areas of Southern California scorched bare in recent wildfires.

AP - Child welfare authorities want a judge to order a teenage member of a polygamist sect to let them collect a DNA sample from her newborn so they can identify the father and determine if he's an adult.

AP - More than 6,400 rejected absentee ballots are becoming the focus in Minnesota's contested Senate election, as the state Canvassing Board prepares to decide whether to let some into the recount.

AP - Math can be hard enough, but imagine the difficulty when a teacher is just one chapter ahead of the students. It happens, and it happens more often to poor and minority students. Those children are about twice as likely to have math teachers who don't know their subject, according to a report by the Education Trust, a children's advocacy group.

AP - They canceled their cell phone service and stopped their Social Security benefits. They prepaid their 2008 income taxes, heating and electric bills and left tips for the housekeepers in their Florida vacation home. They even left their attorney stamps to pay the bills.

AP - A former tennis coach who produced videos of himself sexually abusing a young girl — sometimes hiding behind a Mardi Gras-style mask — pleaded guilty Tuesday to being the man behind what prosecutors called one of the most popular child porn series in the world.

AP - A woman convicted of murdering her University of Arizona dorm mate by stabbing her 23 times was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

AP - Advanced DNA testing techniques identified the mother of a dead newborn who was found inside a backpack in a creek more than eight years ago, state police said Tuesday.

AP - Bad news was no news to the battered American economy Tuesday.

AP - It's not just families that are getting together this Thanksgiving week. The three brightest objects in the night sky — Venus, Jupiter and a crescent moon — will crowd around each other for an unusual group shot.

AP - A teenage member of a polygamous sect refused Tuesday to tell a judge where her baby is so authorities can collect a DNA sample and determine whether the father is an adult.

AP - Traces of the industrial chemical melamine have been detected in samples of top-selling U.S. infant formula, but federal regulators insist the products are safe.

AP - Washington state is suing the federal government to seek a faster cleanup of the Hanford nuclear reservation, after nearly 18 months of negotiations failed to produce an agreement.