AP - Ryan Jenkins had it made.

AP - Authorities say firefighters have put out the blaze at a Detroit chemical factory that had forced employees and nearby businesses to evacuate.

AP - Workers at four youth detention centers in New York caused dozens of serious injuries, including broken bones and teeth, when they routinely used force as a primary way to restrain juveniles and not just as a last resort, according to federal investigators.

AP - When Matt Hobbs first showed up at Camp Our Time a year ago, he barely spoke. Even surrounded by other young stutterers, maybe it didn't make sense for a teen with as severe an impediment as his to attend a camp focused on the performing arts.

AP - Three people have been found dead inside a barn in rural northeastern Tennessee following an overnight standoff with police.

AP - One young man attended secret meetings in Minneapolis. Another got a phone call, urging him to leave Minnesota and go to Somalia to fight. Terrorist training videos featuring English speakers pepper YouTube, calling others to the cause.

AP - Average scores on the SAT college entrance exam dipped slightly for the high school class of 2009, while gender, race and income gaps widened, according to figures released Tuesday by the College Board.

AP - A jury has convicted a Kentucky man of first-degree murder in the brutal carjacking, rape and killing of a Tennessee couple.

AP - A deal has evaporated that would have ended the property dispute involving George W. Bush's presidential library at Southern Methodist University, attorneys on both sides of the case said Tuesday.

AP - Two hikers have been rescued in the Alaska wilderness after visiting the bus made famous in the Sean Penn-directed movie 'Into the Wild.'

AP - Three transients hopped aboard a locomotive on a train hauling hazardous materials and triggered the brakes, bringing it to a halt in a western Colorado canyon, authorities said.

AP - Sen. Mark Begich says he'll host four other senators on a 'climate change' tour this weekend in Alaska.

AP - Authorities say the mother of a Florida girl suffocated by a pet python last month has been charged in the child's death.

AP - Colorado abortion foes are launching another campaign to amend the state constitution to give legal protections to human embryos.

AP - An aide at a Grand Junction nursing home has been arrested on charges of using a pillow to silence a screaming patient.

AP - The world will soon find out who bought the winning ticket in last week's $260 million Powerball drawing.

AP - For nearly four hours before she gave birth, Venita Pinckney had a chain wrapped around her swollen abdomen. Her ankles and hands were shackled.

AP - 'Take my mother-in-law — please,' isn't a joke you're likely to hear often these days from Sunda Croonquist. The veteran comic is being sued by her mother-in-law after making her the punchline of too many jokes.

AP - A Kentucky man was convicted Tuesday of murder in the brutal carjacking, rape and murder of a young Tennessee couple who were snatched while they were on a date in 2007.

AP - The nation's top military officer says he welcomes debate about the war in Afghanistan on the heels of a recent poll showing diminishing support for the conflict.

AP - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is looking into how many veterans received erroneous letters saying they had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.

AP - A small plane made an emergency landing in a New Jersey mall parking lot Tuesday, slightly injuring the instructor and student inside but apparently hurting no one on the ground.

AP - Three transients hopped aboard a locomotive hauling hazardous materials and went on a dangerous joyride in Colorado, authorities said.

AP - Latino voters celebrated a federal court ruling Tuesday that came down against the Texas Democratic Party and could put the complicated 'Texas Two-step' presidential delegate system in jeopardy.

AP - When rail cars idle on side tracks in Mexico to be loaded with legitimate cargo and shipped to the United States, drug smugglers scan for places to hide their own loot — and if no good place is apparent, they make one.

AP - Evelyn Santos began her quest for a green card nearly two decades ago, hoping someday she and her family could leave the Philippines and start a better life in the United States.

AP - Circumcision, which has helped prevent AIDS among heterosexual men in Africa, doesn't help protect gay men from the virus, according to the largest U.S. study to look at the question.

AP - Education Secretary Arne Duncan is offering to pull some strings to get construction started on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial planned for the National Mall.

AP - The world's only naturally migrating whooping cranes, and the species' best chance for survival, died at about twice their normal rate last year and will likely see an overall drop in their numbers, a worrying sign for the once near-extinct bird that has been making a comeback.

AP - The Americans have stuck to a pretty tight script at the Solheim Cup this week: They talk about how much fun they're having, how honored they are to represent their country and rave about what great shape the golf course is in.

AP - The commander of the U.S. Central Command warned Tuesday that growing numbers of American soldiers sent to Afghanistan will encounter tough fighting, but said improving civilians' lives is as important to winning the war as defeating militants.

AP - A North Carolina man named as the ringleader of an aspiring terrorism group sold most of the weapons he purchased and wanted to make sure his children were familiar with guns, one of the sons told federal agents in a report released Tuesday.

AP - A small plane made an emergency landing in a mall's parking lot on Tuesday, stunning back-to-school shoppers, and the pilot and a passenger emerged with only minor injuries.

AP - Two families lined opposite sides of a small-town street and hurled rocks, tools and pieces of wood at each other in a riot that had its roots in a disagreement that began years ago with schoolchildren.

AP - A North Carolina man named as the ringleader of an aspiring terrorism group sold most of the weapons he purchased and wanted to make sure his children were familiar with guns, one of the sons told federal agents in a report released Tuesday.

AP - A patient at a Minnesota nursing home who fell and later died was neglected by two health care workers there, according to a report from state health officials in what appears to be an investigation into the death of a chaplain who had been injured in Iraq.