AP - A Louisiana man shot by Lee Boyd Malvo before the criminal spree that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area in 2002 has received a letter of apology from the convicted sniper.

AP - San Francisco wears its environmental consciousness like a green badge of honor. Residents separate and recycle their food scraps. Streets close to cars so people can walk and bike them. A city department even gives away 'high-quality, nutrient-rich, organic bio-solids compost' to any and all takers.

AP - Bizarre allegations of rape, incest and bestiality in western Missouri led to the arrests of six family members last fall and unleashed public scorn over the unthinkable acts they are accused of committing two decades ago.

AP - Kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard, held captive for 18 years in a ramshackle backyard compound, is seen cooking with her sister and mother and riding horses in recently shot home videos set to air on ABC Friday.

AP - Anger over rising tuition and school budget cuts boiled over as students across the country staged rowdy demonstrations that led to clashes with police and the rush-hour shutdown of a major freeway in California.

AP - The father of a 17-year-old girl whose body was believed found in a shallow lakeside grave is keeping quiet on shortcomings about how authorities track sex offenders, at least for now.

AP - The Interior Department plans to announce whether it will pursue endangered species protection for sage grouse, a decision with major ramifications for the West's renewable energy and oil and gas industries.

AP - An Ohio jury has convicted a doctor of the cyanide poisoning death of his wife.

AP - The Transportation Security Administration on Friday announced nine more U.S. airports that will receive body-scanning technology, as the U.S. heightens its effort to detect hidden explosives and contraband amid a threat highlighted by an attempted bombing on Christmas Day.

AP - The National Weather Service says there's a high risk for major flooding along North Dakota's Red River in the same area where residents held off record high waters last year.

AP - North Carolina's attorney general has ordered an independent review of the state's crime lab following revelations about practices there that led to the exoneration of a man wrongly accused of murder.

AP - Anger over increasing tuition and school budget cuts boiled over as students across the country staged rowdy demonstrations that led to clashes with police and the rush-hour shutdown of a major freeway in California.

AP - The campaign manager for former U.S. Rep. Chris Shays plans to plead guilty to charges of embezzling campaign funds.

AP - New York Gov. David Paterson says he expects to clear his name soon in two scandals threatening his administration.

AP - A racially charged debate over school busing in North Carolina has turned even uglier after an education official referred to proponents of a diversity program as 'animals out of the cages.'

AP - More than a year after a Tennessee coal ash spill created one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in U.S. history, the problem is seeping into several other states.

AP - Salesmen in Fargo are hawking products with names like the Muscle Wall and the Sandbagging Buddy. Emergency workers in Keokuk, Iowa, are planning to barricade the water treatment plant with limestone boulders. The farmers' cooperative in Quincy, Ill., is moving grain inland to keep it dry.

AP - The Academy Awards have a tiresome habit of calling the annual Oscar telecast 'Hollywood's biggest night.'

AP - The investigation that could bring down New York Gov. David Paterson is being led by the man widely considered the favorite to replace him.

AP - Prosecutors say the owner of an apartment building in a Chicago suburb had his maintenance man set it on fire, killing seven people, because he wanted to collect the insurance money.

AP - At last, the unemployment crisis seems to be easing. That's the good news.

AP - A witness to a shooting outside the Pentagon says he heard a 'pop' and hit the ground as a gunman exchanged fire with guards.

AP - A Texas judge in the county that sends more inmates to death row than any other in the nation is apparently taking a stand.

AP - At last, the unemployment crisis seems to be easing. That's the good news.

AP - The principal of a South Los Angeles elementary school has apologized after some children carried photos of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul and Dennis Rodman in a parade celebrating Black History Month.

AP - The top U.S. diplomat in Pakistan said Friday that the Obama administration does not know how many Americans might have disappeared overseas to train with al-Qaida or other terrorist groups, but the number is not thought to be large.

AP - Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, desperate to stop a judge from forcing him to come up with $320,000 in special restitution payments, struck out Friday with a higher court and now faces a hearing on whether he violated probation.

AP - A new federal indictment implicates a Kansas doctor and his wife in nine additional patient deaths, bringing to 68 the number of fatal overdoses the government contends are linked to illegal prescription writing and a moneymaking conspiracy at their clinic.

AP - Her mother shot and dying in a Detroit home, an 8-year-old girl desperately pleaded to a 911 dispatcher for help. But Monica Botello's daughter didn't know where she was or how to tell police to get there.