AP - It was very windy when a Continental Airlines jet was destroyed while trying to take off in Denver last month, leading aviation safety experts to cite crosswinds as a likely factor in the accident.

AP - No one claims to know what happened that summer in 1999 when 11-year-old Adam Herrman disappeared from the mobile home park where he lived with his adoptive parents.

AP - Minnesota's grueling U.S. Senate race, already dragging on two months past Election Day, has now moved even further from the voters — and into the hands of lawyers.

AP - In a dramatic police interview that gripped viewers nationwide, a 9-year-old boy sitting in an overstuffed chair told investigators that he shot his father and another man, then buried his head in his jacket and said, 'I'm going to go to juvie.'

AP - More than 6 feet of snow in the past three weeks has left Spokane residents frustrated. Tempers are so frayed that a man was arrested for shooting at a snow plow operator.

AP - A defense attorney for former Orange County sheriff Michael Carona said the government's sweeping public corruption case against his client is riddled with holes and built on the testimony of witnesses who lied to save themselves.

AP - A federal judge in Texas, indicted last year for allegedly making unwanted sexual advances toward his court case manager, has pleaded innocent to new charges brought by another former employee.

AP - Three New York teenagers have been charged with federal civil rights charges in connection with election night racial violence in which attackers shouted 'Obama.'

AP - Snow, sleet and freezing rain have made roads hazardous across the Great Lakes into New England and closed hundreds of schools.

AP - Former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell has been laid to rest in his hometown in south Georgia, with friends and family looking on.

AP - Six veterans who claim they were unwittingly exposed to dangerous chemicals and germs during government-sponsored Cold War experiments have sued the CIA, Department of Defense and other agencies.

AP - Black women face special challenges in their efforts to reach the top levels of corporate America, according to a new study.

AP - Joe The Plumber is putting down his wrenches and picking up a reporter's notebook.

AP - Here comes the bride, all dressed in green.

AP - One of Gov. Bill Richardson's longtime friends and political advisers worked as a consultant for the California firm at the center a federal pay-to-play investigation that derailed the Democratic governor's appointment as commerce secretary.

AP - As the only prisoner of war held on U.S. soil, inmate No. 38699-079 gets annual visits from the Red Cross and can wear his military uniform and insignia when he goes to court.

AP - A Los Angeles airport spokesman says a man who allegedly made a threat aboard a jetliner as it was landing was subdued by passengers and is being questioned.

AP - The office of Jack Kemp says the former housing secretary, congressman and Buffalo Bills quarterback has been diagnosed with cancer.

AP - Sharecropper's grandson Terrance Carroll was chosen Wednesday as speaker of Colorado's House of Representatives, making the state the first in the nation where blacks lead both chambers of its Legislature.

AP - Texas authorities are seeking permanent custody of an 14-year-old girl who was allegedly married to jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, a step toward severing her parents' rights altogether.

AP - A Baltimore City Councilwoman is accused of taking a bribe from a prominent developer, and both have been indicted on state charges.

AP - A man who allegedly claimed to have a bomb aboard a jetliner and lunged for a door after it landed in Los Angeles was tackled by other passengers and held for questioning Wednesday, authorities said.

AP - Three white New Yorkers, riled by Barack Obama's victory, spent election night hunting down black people to beat up and yelling insults about the president-elect, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

AP - More than two-thirds of the 16 bottlenose dolphins inhabiting New Jersey rivers since summer have died or disappeared, federal officials say.

AP - Rain and high winds lashed Washington state Wednesday, causing widespread avalanches, mudslides, flooding and road closures as the heavy snowfall that has buried parts of the state began to rapidly melt.

AP - Watch out, Las Vegas: New York City wants to become the new No. 1 place to tie the knot.

AP - Two wind-driven wildfires swept across Boulder County grasslands Wednesday, prompting authorities to call for evacuations of threatened residential areas.

AP - The search for the remains of a Jersey City baby apparently thrown in the trash by a hospital has moved to Kentucky, but police fear the corpse has already been incinerated.

AP - Six veterans who say they were exposed to dangerous chemicals, germs and mind-altering drugs during Cold War-era experiments filed a federal lawsuit against the CIA, Department of Defense and other agencies Wednesday.

AP - A grand jury indicted a Baltimore councilwoman and a prominent developer Wednesday, the first public corruption charges in a three-year probe of city finances that has targeted the mayor.

AP - The tab for a toxin-laden ash flood at a coal-fired power plant in Tennessee could reach hundreds of millions of dollars, and ratepayers for the nation's largest public utility will probably be stuck with the bill.

AP - Lawyers for a former Orange County sheriff blasted federal prosecutors Wednesday for failing to call one of his ex-assistants as a key witness in his corruption trial.

AP - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that he'll restart stalled budget talks with legislative leaders in hopes of getting a quick deficit-cutting agreement that would save the state from having to issue IOUs to vendors and taxpayers expecting refunds.

AP - Outgoing Gov. Matt Blunt's troubles over deleted e-mails and the firing of a staff attorney have cost Missouri taxpayers about $1.5 million.

AP - A 16-year-old girl suspected of drowning an infant boy in a toilet and throwing the body in the trash was charged with murder Wednesday.

AP - Wind-driven wildfires swept across Boulder County grasslands Wednesday, destroying at least four structures and prompting mandatory evacuations of at least 500 homes.

AP - A national environmental group recommended Wednesday that California overhaul its water-delivery system by building a canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

AP - Firefighters say they have found three young siblings dead in an apartment building that caught fire on Chicago's southeast side.

AP - Galveston officials pleaded with state lawmakers Wednesday for help in rescuing their island city from the dire financial straits it finds itself in nearly four months after the devastation of Hurricane Ike.