AP - Marcus Schrenker presented himself as a high-flying pilot with the nerves to pull off aerial stunts and as an investment manager with the brains to make portfolios soar.

AP - Even porcupines could get pink slips in the slumping economy as states consider cutting or eliminating funding that supports zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens.

AP - Hurricane Ike was the big storm Texas officials feared would hit the coast. Now comes the hard task of paying for it.

AP - Marcus Schrenker presented himself as a high-flying pilot with the nerves to pull off aerial stunts and as an investment manager with the brains to make portfolios soar.

AP - Residents in the Northern Plains bundled up as a blast of cold air followed on the heels of a fast-moving blizzard, while the Midwest was the latest target of the one-two winter punch.

AP - An actor turns a dilapidated, inner-city mosque into a theater in just a few days. A 20-year-old buckles down on his studies at a historically black college after his mother dies of cancer. A community organizer decides his plan to create thousands of green jobs is too modest and enlarges it twenty-fold.

AP - Federal marshals on Tuesday pressed their search for an investment manager who they believe faked a distress call before parachuting from his plane over Alabama, leaving the aircraft to crash more than 200 miles away in Florida.

AP - An estimated 3.4 million Americans identified themselves as victims of stalking during a one-year span, according to federal crime experts who on Tuesday released the largest-ever survey of the aggravating and often terrifying phenomenon.

AP - Investigators say the bodies of a woman and four young children have been found in a central Oklahoma apartment, and that all five were apparently slain.

AP - Federal marshals on Tuesday pressed their search for an investment manager they believe faked a distress call before parachuting from his plane over Alabama and disappeared on a red motorcycle he had stashed in advance.

AP - Authorities are searching for a 25-year-old man in connection with the killings of an Oklahoma woman and her four young children.

AP - Three deaths associated with a national salmonella outbreak occurred in Virginia and Minnesota, health officials confirmed Tuesday.

AP - Sexually spread diseases — for years on the decline — are on the rise, with reported chlamydia cases setting a record, government health officials said Tuesday.

AP - Senate appointee Roland Burris likely will be sworn into office Thursday, a source close to Burris said, closing a painful and protracted certification process ensnared in the federal investigation of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

AP - On a bone-chilling Christmas Day, a single father set out to drive his two young children to their mother's home, but the trip came to an abrupt halt when his car got stuck in a snowdrift. Then, prosecutors say, the man did the unthinkable: He sent the pair to walk the remaining 10 miles to their mother's alone, leaving them to trudge through the desolate countryside in frigid temperatures.

AP - The Associated Press on Tuesday appealed a federal appeals court ruling that a petition filed by U.S.-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh seeking a reduction in his prison sentence can remain secret.

AP - On one side stood the president-elect, 50 Democratic senators on Capitol Hill and just about every politician in Illinois. On the other side was Gov. Rod Blagojevich, criminal defendant and national punchline.

AP - A woman and her four young children were killed in their central Oklahoma apartment, and authorities were looking to arrest the mother's 25-year-old boyfriend Tuesday.

AP - These twin towers stand 7 feet tall and are made of plastic.

AP - A white man on Texas death row for nearly 30 years could be freed because an appeals court has ruled that prosecutors improperly excluded blacks from his jury in the belief that blacks empathize with defendants.

AP - Republicans in New York's Legislature are pushing for a special election to fill the expected vacancy in the U.S. Senate instead of allowing Democratic Gov. David Paterson to make a unilateral appointment through a secretive process.

AP - The state of Tennessee demanded answers and cooperation Tuesday from the nation's largest public utility in the aftermath of a massive coal ash flood that is costing the utility $1 million a day to mop up.

AP - A fire at a house where an adult and three children were found dead was the work of an arsonist, the Kansas State Fire Marshal's Office said Tuesday.

AP - A judicial panel that once suspended a federal judge accused of sexually abusing court workers said it will reopen its investigation now that new counts have been added to the criminal case.

AP - A flier headlined 'Why I hate Black History Month' that was sent home with St. Louis-area schoolchildren has been tweaked after a slew of complaints.

AP - Democrat Al Franken on Tuesday took a second stab at securing a Senate election certificate, asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to force state officials to issue one.

AP - Senate appointee Roland Burris will be sworn into office Thursday, his office said, closing a painful and protracted certification process ensnared in the federal corruption investigation of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

AP - A California man has been arrested for arranging for his 14-year-old daughter to marry a neighbor in exchange for $16,000, 100 cases of beer and several cases of meat, police said.

AP - A Japanese businessman who hanged himself in his jail cell while facing trial in his wife's death killed another woman 30 years ago before withdrawing thousands of dollars from her bank account, police said Tuesday.

AP - Four firefighters have been arrested on suspicion of igniting between 15 and 20 fires in western Arizona so they could get paid for fighting them, officials said Tuesday.

AP - A flier headlined 'Why I hate Black History Month' that was sent home with St. Louis-area schoolchildren has been tweaked after a handful of complaints.

AP - A former co-defendant of an ex-state senator charged with corruption testified Tuesday that the once-powerful legislator frantically ordered him to destroy office e-mails amid an FBI investigation.

AP - Washington state law does not bar teachers from having consensual sex with 18-year-old students, an appeals court ruled Tuesday in dismissing a case against a former high school choir teacher.

AP - The U.S. Navy was granted a one-year permit to train with sonar and bombs in Hawaii waters so long as it tries to protect whales and other marine animals from harm.

AP - A Wisconsin lawmaker was formally charged Tuesday with his third drunken driving offense and marijuana possession after a car crash last month.

AP - A man being sought in connection with the deaths of an Oklahoma woman and her four young children was captured in Texas on Tuesday night, authorities said.