AP - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won't be criminally charged in a yearlong federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor's large political donors, someone familiar with the case said.

AP - Two months after admitting to an affair, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said 'folks who were never fans' won't push him out of office early, including his second in command who said the state cannot solve critical problems under his leadership.

AP - Phil Saviano spent years fighting for the victims of clergy abuse, an effort spurred by his own bitter experience at the hands of a priest.

AP - The mostly bird-free skies above Lake Huron's Thunder Bay during the recent Brown Trout Festival were a welcome sight to anglers who have spent years competing — often unfavorably — with double-crested cormorants for their catch.

AP - Microsoft Corp. is slashing the price of the high-end Xbox 360 console by $100, matching Sony's $100 price cut for the PlayStation 3 last week.

AP - A seething Rick Pitino said he could stay on the sidelines no longer.

AP - The world remembers Sen. Edward Kennedy for his passionate liberalism, legislative skill and stewardship of a political dynasty.

AP - For decades, Edward Kennedy was considered the most powerful voice in the Senate for gay rights as a strong supporter of HIV/AIDS funding, hate crimes legislation and same-sex marriage.

AP - Police in Oklahoma say authorities are reviewing video surveillance tapes for clues in the brutal killing of a pastor inside her church.

AP - Firefighters in Southern California braced for another day of hot, extremely dry weather as they battled two wildfires in the Angeles National Forest northeast of Los Angeles, while crews worked to contain another blaze in a rural area of Northern California that consumed a mobile home.

AP - Swine flu was four times more likely to send blacks and Hispanics to the hospital than whites, according to a study in Chicago that offers one of the first looks at how the virus has affected different racial groups.

AP - A former drifter accused of killing two high school sweethearts nearly 30 years ago told detectives he had sex with the woman and then watched a group of men stomp the couple to death, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

AP - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says a lawmaker shouldn't single him out by investigating his travels when other governors used pricey travel options for years.

AP - Two wildfires in the Angeles National Forest northeast of Los Angeles continue to burn as fire crews face another day of high heat.

AP - A fire has broken out at a chemical plant near Detroit, sending flames and black smoke hundreds of feet into the air.

AP - Some prominent performers are saying thank you to the people who have answered President Barack Obama's call to volunteer and to people connected to 9/11 — relatives of victims, recovery workers and those who served tours in the military after the attacks.

AP - Toy-makers, clothing manufacturers and other companies selling products for young children are submitting samples to independent laboratories for safety tests. But the nation's largest toy maker, Mattel, isn't being required to do the same.

AP - U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins told a recent gathering in northeast Kansas that the Republican Party is looking for a 'great white hope' to help stop President Barack Obama's political agenda.

AP - Authorities say the body of a pastor killed inside her small Oklahoma church was 'staged,' meaning it was moved into an unnatural position, after the slaying.

AP - A fire that started Thursday near a rail tanker car at a chemical plant spread quickly to silos holding gasoline, causing an inferno that sent huge plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky above Detroit and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people from the area.

AP - A Florida couple known for adopting special needs children struggled with armed intruders before they were led away to be gunned down, surveillance video shows.

AP - A California firefighter pulled a trapped driver from his disabled pickup just seconds before a commuter train slammed into the truck Thursday morning.

AP - Whoever killed a pastor inside her small Oklahoma church 'staged' the body, authorities said Thursday, meaning it was moved into an unnatural position after the slaying.

AP - NASA will try to launch space shuttle Discovery to the international space station late Friday night, after back-to-back delays caused by bad weather and fuel valve trouble.

AP - A freshman Republican congresswoman apologized Thursday for telling a gathering in her district that the GOP was still searching for a 'great white hope' to stop President Barack Obama's political agenda.

AP - As they've done every August for 35 years, the players on Aplington-Parkersburg High's football team are throwing themselves into the familiar, sweaty grind of Coach Ed Thomas' brutal, two-a-day summer workouts.

AP - Momentum is building for Congress to pass the first major civil rights act protecting gays and transsexuals, supporters say, and one of the stars in the debate is a barrier-breaking transgender staffer on Capitol Hill.

AP - A former Texas sheriff was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison Thursday for helping Mexican smugglers move drugs through his county on the U.S.-Mexico border in exchange for thousands of dollars in bribes.

AP - Colleges across the country are seeing spikes in the number of students with suspected cases of swine flu as dorms fill up and classes begin for the fall semester.

AP - For young Americans unfamiliar with terms like Chappaquiddick, Ted Kennedy was always a rotund, grandfatherly figure, a living link to the storied family they knew only from history books and tales from their parents.

AP - People close to the case against an accused computer hacker charged with stealing millions of credit and debit card numbers say he is in plea talks with the federal government.

AP - A military contractor under investigation on allegations he overbilled and did faulty repair work on Navy and Army aircraft has been charged with threatening to kill witnesses in the case, according to a complaint unsealed Thursday.

AP - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs now estimates that more than 600 veterans erroneously received letters telling them they had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts said Thursday.

AP - Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who has been hailed as a hero since he was beaten while coming to the aid of a grandmother calling for help, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he isn't ruling out a run for governor.

AP - A transgender teenager is lending his voice to a movement in Vermont to require the state's middle and high schools to offer genderless bathrooms.

AP - A drug test conducted on the driver involved in the Texas charter bus crash that killed 17 passengers last year showed he had recently used cocaine but was apparently not under its influence at the time of the wreck, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

AP - Researchers say a Texas-sized garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean is possibly killing marine life and birds that are ingesting the trash.

AP - Tropical Storm Danny has weakened a little in the Atlantic as it moves toward land while Ignacio has been downgraded to a tropical depression far out in the Pacific.

AP - A fire that started Thursday near a rail tanker car at a chemical plant spread quickly to silos holding gasoline, causing an inferno that sent huge plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky above Detroit and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people from the area.

AP - California firefighters working in withering heat battled wildfires Thursday in rugged mountains above the foothill suburbs of Los Angeles, in the central coast region and on the outskirts of Yosemite National Park.

AP - On the quiet street where she spent the last few years of her life, Emily Errico might as well have been a ghost.

AP - The Obama administration on Thursday put new restrictions on searches of laptops at U.S. borders to address concerns that federal agents have been rummaging through travelers' personal information.

AP - A dark cloud over Gov. Bill Richardson's political future has lifted after the federal government's decision against indictments in a pay-to-play investigation that prompted the governor to withdraw his nomination as U.S. commerce secretary earlier this year.

AP - School officials say a shirtless man hijacked an Atlanta public school bus with about a dozen students on board and then jumped out, letting it crash into a ditch.

AP - Score one for Jeremy Piven.

AP - The Obama administration on Thursday put new restrictions on searches of laptops at U.S. borders to address concerns that federal agents have been rummaging through travelers' personal information.

AP - A tawny stuffed puppy bobs in cold sea water, his four stiff legs tangled in the green net of some nameless fisherman.

AP - Police said Thursday they found blood and evidence of a violent struggle inside a car belonging to an ex-model whose brutal slaying prompted a manhunt for a reality TV contestant that ended in his suicide.

AP - Thirteen-year-old David Rojas didn't tell his mother how terribly he missed her while she was on Navy deployments to the Middle East, because he worried it would upset her.