AP - Oakland's police chief, facing criticism over chronic violent crime and turmoil in the department, resigned as city leaders prepared to call for a vote of no-confidence.

AP - The parents of a foreign exchange student from Italy critically wounded in a downtown shooting rampage haven't let the tragedy sour them on America and want her to complete her studies here.

AP - Mississippi might seem like an unlikely place to honor Ulysses S. Grant.

AP - One of five Muslim immigrants convicted of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel based at New Jersey's Fort Dix says he lied to an FBI informant.

AP - One of five teenagers accused in the videotaped beating of a Florida girl has accepted a plea deal.

AP - An agreement paving the way for the first oil drilling off the California coast in nearly 40 years has run into unexpected opposition that may sink it altogether Thursday.

AP - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and State Attorney General Jerry Brown are planning to ask a federal court to a stop an $8 billion spending plan for prison medical facilities.

AP - The mayor of a Mississippi city devastated by Hurricane Katrina pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he lied to get disaster assistance to repair his damaged beachfront home.

AP - Gov. Rod Blagojevich's impeachment trial turned Wednesday to issues that had nothing to do with allegations he tried to sell President Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat — instead focusing on accusations he broke hiring laws, wasted taxpayer money and illegally defied the state Legislature.

AP - Five of the octuplets born to a Southern California woman have begun bottle feeding on formula.

AP - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and State Attorney General Jerry Brown are planning to ask a federal court to a stop an $8 billion spending plan for prison medical facilities.

AP - A former Alabama police supervisor accused of stealing evidence money, faking his abduction and flying off to Las Vegas plans to plead not guilty to federal charges, his attorney said Wednesday.

AP - With health care costs high on the national agenda, advocates of home births are challenging the medical and political establishments to give midwives a larger role in maternity care and to ease the state laws that limit their out-of-hospital practice.

AP - An aerial acrobat has died after falling 15 to 20 feet and landing headfirst during a performance in Scottsdale, Ariz.

AP - The $1 million that Georgia schools Superintendent Kathy Cox won for charity on a game show last fall could end up in the hands of her creditors because of her personal bankruptcy filing.

AP - A co-pilot who helped to safely crash-land a passenger plane into the Hudson River hopes to fly again in a few weeks and praised everyone involved in the rescue.

AP - Billy the elephant is staying put, and Bob Barker isn't happy about it.

AP - Alaska's congressional delegation says the Secretary of the Army has decided to use emergency funds to supplement retirement payments for veterans of a largely Native militia that were reduced because of a technicality in a federal law.

AP - Gov. Rod Blagojevich has asked to make a statement at the impeachment trial he has so far avoided, but still refuses to answer questions from the lawmakers who will decide whether to remove him from office, the Illinois Senate president announced Wednesday.

AP - With Gov. Rod Blagojevich entering what could be his final hours in office, some politicians are watching closely to see whether he attempts some last-minute mischief by spending state money, issuing executive orders or granting pardons.

AP - A fight over California's prison health care system escalated Wednesday as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sought to throw out an $8 billion spending plan for inmate medical facilities, saying it's illegal and too costly.

AP - A spokesman for the Los Alamos National Laboratory said Wednesday that employees and visitors have a low risk of becoming sickened by a contamination of beryllium, a substance that can cause lung disease.

AP - A California woman captured last year after escaping from a Michigan prison 33 years ago and living on the lam as a suburban mother has been granted probation, a state parole board ruled Wednesday.

AP - The nation's second set of live-born octuplets were all breathing on their own Wednesday, 48 hours after a woman gave birth to the surprising bunch in Southern California.

AP - Oral Roberts University has a new president more than a year after the evangelical school's former leader and son of its namesake founder stepped down amid a spending scandal.

AP - Seven teenagers already accused in the racially motivated stabbing death of an Ecuadorean immigrant were charged Wednesday with taking part in attacks on eight other Hispanics over 14 months.

AP - A Phoenix police officer says an out-of-control school bus crashed into several cars, injuring 26 people in a mile-long accident scene.

AP - Texas executed a former Houston security guard Wednesday for gunning down four people, including his ex-girlfriend and her two small children, during an October 1996 shooting frenzy.

AP - Offshore fish farming would be allowed in the Gulf of Mexico under a plan approved Wednesday by the agency that sets the body of water's fishing rules.

AP - Federal prosecutors are investigating Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and other officials of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles over their handling of alleged clergy child molestation cases, according to reports published Wednesday.

AP - A 71-foot-long piece of Coney Island history will be part of a new entertainment complex in development for a boardwalk in New York City, officials announced Wednesday.