AP - Brian Wixom's company has paid the U.S. government hundreds of thousands of dollars for leases to drill for oil and gas on federal lands over the years, only to never put a rig in the ground.

AP - Lucy the Labradoodle scoots along the ground to grab a bone.

AP - D.C.-area transportation officials say a track repairman has been struck and killed by a piece of equipment while he was replacing cross-ties along a Metro rail line.

AP - Jury selection began Monday in the trial of the first of six former employees charged in connection with orchestrated late-night fights among residents at a Texas state facility for the developmentally disabled.

AP - The suburban county just north of New York City agreed Monday to create hundreds of affordable homes in heavily white communities and encourage nonwhites to move in.

AP - A California lawmaker says overcrowding may have contributed to a prison riot that injured 250 inmates, 55 of them seriously.

AP - Perched at the edge of an exam table, Delmira Maravilla is anxious for a check-up — and for a timeline on the president's promise of health care for all Americans.

AP - A state prison remained locked down Monday and more than 1,000 prisoners were being moved after a weekend riot that burned a wooden dormitory and left 175 inmates injured.

AP - New Hampshire has become at least the 17th state to enact a law requiring large companies to inform workers and the state before mass layoffs or plant closings.

AP - Continental Airlines is apologizing to passengers who were stuck on the tarmac for six hours when a Houston-to-Minneapolis flight was diverted because of bad weather.

AP - Edward Williams is the definition of lucky after winning the lottery for a second time in less than a year.

AP - A Liberian teenager charged as an adult in the gang rape of an 8-year-old girl from the same country pleaded not guilty on Monday.

AP - Forty-seven passengers were forced to sit in a cramped, smelly plane on an airport tarmac for six hours after their flight was diverted because of bad weather.

AP - Prosecutors told jurors on Monday that a Texas woman accused of cutting off her infant son's genitals two years ago was a drug abuser who showed no remorse or concern for her child as he was on the verge of death.

AP - A seventh suspect from North Carolina who is accused of plotting terrorism overseas is being held until trial after a judge said he was a flight risk and a danger to the community.

AP - Fewer civilians were killed by airstrikes in Afghanistan last month even as U.S. and NATO forces pushed deep into Taliban territory, driving clashes and Western casualties sharply higher.

AP - It was a perfect summer day when Steven Altman set out from a suburban airstrip in his single-engine plane, heading up to northern New Jersey to pick up his brother and nephew and take them to the beach.

AP - Police say a 14-year-old girl spent 10 days in the Dallas County Jail after lying about her age.

AP - Lawmakers retraced the steps of two convicted murders who escaped an Arkansas prison wearing guard uniforms, questioning corrections officials Monday over a perceived culture of complacency at the state's lockups.

AP - Last year's marathon presidential campaign should have sated even the most intense political junkies, but in Iowa and New Hampshire some are already looking ahead to 2012.

AP - A federal appeals court in Virginia has upheld the conviction of the first American civilian found guilty of mistreating a detainee during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

AP - Hundreds of Americans in eight cities are lining up for experimental swine flu shots in a race to get a vaccine out in case the new flu virus regains strength this fall and winter.

AP - What should have been a 2 1/2-hour trip from Houston to Minneapolis had moved into its ninth hour, and the 47 passengers on board had burned through the free pretzels and drinks handed out early in their Friday night flight from Houston.

AP - Advocates of international adoption are furious over a new federal policy related to tuberculosis testing that could disrupt plans for families adopting children from China and Ethiopia.

AP - Lawyers for rapper Corey 'C-Murder' Miller said in closing arguments Monday that testimony by two prosecution witnesses wasn't strong enough to overcome the lack of physical evidence linking the entertainer to the slaying of a teenage fan.

AP - A prison inmate was sentenced Monday to 38 years in prison for torturing and mutilating an acquaintance while on probation for a bar stabbing.

AP - A national prison expert warned nearly two years ago of dangers at the Chino prison where a violent weekend riot occurred.

AP - Pope Benedict XVI is praying for former President John F. Kennedy's sister Eunice Kennedy Shiver as she remains in critical condition at a Massachusetts hospital.

AP - A political rookie who was a top aide to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced Monday that she intends to run for the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama.

AP - The collision of a sightseeing helicopter and a small plane over New York's Hudson River has intensified pressure to tighten the rules governing one of the world's most crowded air corridors — a largely unregulated airspace some pilots compare to the Wild West.

AP - A mother of six from Ohio has pleaded guilty to conning friends and family out of more than $800,000 by claiming her husband suffered from cancer.

AP - The wife of a doctor accused of illegally owning high-explosive grenades was released from jail Monday pending her trial for allegedly hindering the investigation.

AP - Authorities in California's Central Valley have offered counseling to the officer involved in a weekend police chase that ended when a stolen car smashed into a pickup, killing five young children from the same family and three others, police said Monday.

AP - Odds are rising that in the coming years, the priest at the neighborhood parish will have roots in Mexico or Vietnam and the sister working at the local health clinic will be dressed in a habit.