AP - When a mysterious visitor showed up last fall at Jerry Damman's Iowa farm, there wasn't any reason for him to suspect it was the toddler son who long ago vanished from a stroller in front of a New York bakery.

AP - In public, ophthalmologist Dr. Philip Gabriele was a 'blessing' to patients who counted on him to help them see, an award-winning ballroom dancer and a champion for better eye care.

AP - The aged maple floorboards are scuffed and creaky, worn thin and smooth by thousands of youngsters over the years in the Hancock Village School. Banks of tall windows, a dozen panes over a dozen panes each, flood a pair of classrooms with sunlight.

AP - FedEx says it posted a bigger fiscal fourth-quarter loss, weighed down by hefty one-time charges, but adjusted results came in well above expectations on Wall Street.

AP - The trucks have come again to haul away soaked sofas and waterlogged mattresses. Cars that weren't moved soon enough have been towed away, their engines and interiors fouled.

AP - FedEx Corp. on Wednesday warned it expects 'extremely difficult' conditions in the next two quarters, after the nation's second largest package shipper posted a bigger fiscal fourth-quarter loss due to hefty one-time charges and lower revenue.

AP - The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday voted to give judges authority over how witnesses dress in court after a Muslim woman refused to remove her veil while testifying in a small claims case.

AP - The American Medical Association has declined to take a firm position on President Barack Obama's proposal to create a public health insurance program.

AP - A teenager accused of killing of more than a dozen cats in South Florida does not pose a danger to himself or the community and can be released from jail on bond, a judge ruled Wednesday.

AP - A near-record spring dry spell in Seattle is boosting the threat of wildfires in western Washington state.

AP - A Michigan man said Wednesday that pictures he found online led him to believe he could be the 2-year-old boy who vanished more than a half-century ago from a bakery on New York's Long Island.

AP - An Arkansas father has been convicted of felony battery and sentenced to six years in prison for disciplining his young son by biting his toes.

AP - California's Chinese immigrants helped build ships, levees, irrigation systems and the transcontinental railroad. They worked in farm fields and mines and helped develop the abalone and shrimp industries.

AP - Some residents of a Texas community had to spend the night away from their homes while crews contained hazardous chemicals from a derailed train.

AP - FedEx, the nation's second largest package shipper, lost more money in the last quarter, as consumers and businesses downsized shipments and the company took over $1 billion in one-time charges.

AP - NASA plans to launch an unmanned rocket to the moon Thursday, the first such mission in a decade.

AP - Tens of thousands of jubilant Los Angeles Lakers fans flooded downtown Wednesday, creating a tidal wave of purple and gold as they celebrated the storied franchise's 15th NBA title with a high-energy parade and rally paid for by the city's movers and shakers.

AP - The reflecting pool cradling the crypt where Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife are buried is being fixed.

AP - The Obama administration has released criteria for $8 billion in stimulus money for high-speed rail that appear to give front-runner status to projects in the Midwest and California.

AP - Eight participants in a federal program aimed at helping ex-convicts stay off drugs will be honored by their friends and families at a graduation ceremony with a special guest: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr.

AP - In the glare of a corruption investigation, City Council member Monica Conyers tended to home repairs and chaired a meeting on strip clubs Wednesday but said nothing publicly about an alleged scheme to trade votes for money.

AP - The unsettling little secret of Zicam Cold Remedy finally spilled out this week. Though widely sold for years as a drug for colds, it was never tested by federal regulators for safety like other drugs. And that was perfectly legal — until scores of consumers lost their sense of smell. One little word on Zicam's label explains all this: 'homeopathic.'

AP - He was like millions of other consumers who sometimes take vitamins or echinacea, hoping to build up his immunity or ward off a cold. He figured alternative remedies were as safe as a spoonful of honey.

AP - Officials in Yellowstone National Park are searching for a man they believe committed suicide by jumping into a river and going over a 300-foot waterfall.

AP - The mother of an 8-year-old girl who was put on the wrong plane while traveling unaccompanied blames the mix-up on 'total incompetence and a lack of caring' by Continental Airlines.

AP - Ronald Soza celebrated his 10th birthday Wednesday with cake and a serenade by more than 100 other children and their parents.

AP - After retiring from a 27-year career as a D.C. police officer, Harry Weeks thought working security at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum would provide a quieter way to make a living. A typical day involved greeting visitors and analyzing images of handbags as they passed through a magnetometer.

AP - A 14-year-old girl and her boyfriend were arrested Wednesday as suspects in the murder of the girl's mother, who was found stabbed in her northern California home, authorities said.

AP - An inventory of deadly germs and toxins at an Army biodefense lab in Frederick found more than 9,200 vials of material that was unaccounted for in laboratory records, Fort Detrick officials said Wednesday.

AP - California's Chinese immigrants helped build ships, levees, irrigation systems and the transcontinental railroad. They worked in farm fields and mines and helped develop the abalone and shrimp industries.

AP - A witness in the bribery trial of a former Louisiana congressman says he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the congressman's wife in bribes described as 'consulting fees.'

AP - Accommodating weather and a boost in the number of maple trees tapped are being credited for a bumper 2009 maple syrup crop.

AP - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday fired off a warning to Democratic lawmakers who are considering raising taxes to solve California's budget problems: Don't even try.

AP - High-speed rail plans in the Midwest and California appear to be front runners in the race for $8 billion in stimulus cash based on federal criteria released Wednesday that favor projects with established revenue sources and multistate cooperation.

AP - A Connecticut legislator will not be charged in the death of woman who fled from his car barefoot on a frigid January night and then died of hypothermia.

AP - Here's a sampling of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in homeopathic remedies, but in highly diluted amounts. The homeopathic name is listed first along with its recommended homeopathic use, then the conventional name for the same drug, and a recommended conventional use.

AP - Four bull bison that migrated out of Yellowstone National Park were killed by state livestock agents Wednesday — the first the government has killed this year under a contentious policy to contain disease.

AP - The same chubby cheeks. The same round face and bright, blue eyes. And, most important, the faint scar on his chin.

AP - Environmental regulators in Montana are allowing a gravel pit next to Glacier National Park to expand its operations, with restrictions to limit its noise and dust.

AP - The nation's largest group of doctors began their annual meeting as a potential obstacle to President Obama's health care overhaul. After a big pep talk from Obama himself, they ended it Wednesday by signaling they won't close the door on one of his key proposals, a public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers.

AP - A Kentucky businessman testified Wednesday he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in 'consulting fees' to the wife of a former Louisiana congressman that were nothing but thinly veiled bribes.