AP - The second record storm that socked the Northeast this month was reduced to drizzle as it began to wind down early Wednesday but the worst of widespread flooding is yet to come, forecasters say.

AP - When Paul Culkin came home to New Mexico after serving with an Army bomb squad in Iraq, he tried counseling and medications offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs to cope with his post traumatic stress disorder.

AP - To the untrained eye, it would seem that tiny Franklin & Marshall College has a disproportionate number of young alumni in Europe and Japan.

AP - A gunman sprayed bullets from a moving vehicle into a crowd in southeastern Washington, killing four and wounding at least five others, before leading police on a chase into a neighboring county.

AP - A senior U.S. official says the Obama administration will pledge $1.15 billion over the next two years to help with Haiti's post-earthquake reconstruction.

AP - Worried that a plot to kill police officers and kick-start a violent revolution against the government could be just weeks away, federal authorities moved to arrest members of a Michigan militia who called themselves 'Christian warriors' as they prepared to battle the Antichrist.

AP - Lawyers representing an alleged victim of sex abuse claim the Vatican instructed church officials in Florida to shelter a priest from Cuba who was later accused of pedophilia.

AP - A Colorado woman who won $42.9 million off a penny bet in a slot machine had her dreams quickly dashed when the casino said the jackpot message was an error.

AP - The cargo ship captain who spent five days as a hostage of Somali pirates says in a new book it was a high-seas double-cross that led to his brutal ordeal in a sweltering lifeboat.

AP - Police in New Jersey's capital city say a 15-year-old sold her 7-year-old stepsister to have sex with as many as seven men and boys at a weekend party near their home.

AP - 'Tony' the Siberian tiger is back on display at the San Francisco Zoo after being shot with tranquilizers and hauled out of a moat where he'd spent four nights.

AP - Firefighters in a Baton Rouge suburb say the blaze that destroyed a chemical warehouse is under control, but the neighborhood remains evacuated.

AP - A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that government investigators illegally wiretapped the phone conversations of an Islamic charity and two American lawyers without a search warrant.

AP - So a scientist walks into a shopping mall to watch people laugh.

AP - Not guilty pleas have been entered in Michigan on behalf of eight of nine members of a Christian militia that prosecutors claim plotted to kill police officers and kick-start a violent revolution.

AP - Lawyers representing an alleged victim of sex abuse claim the Vatican instructed church officials in Florida to shelter a priest from Cuba who was later accused of pedophilia.

AP - A man accused of abusing patients at a pricey Calabasas retirement home jumped on a 78-year-old woman's chest and body-slammed her and encouraged wheelchair-confined residents to fight, jurors were told.

AP - To the untrained eye, it would seem that tiny Franklin & Marshall College has a disproportionate number of young alumni in Europe and Japan.

AP - U.S. authorities have charged 16 people with laundering at least $7 million in drug money by smuggling cash on commercial flights from Puerto Rico to Miami and elsewhere.

AP - A newly released letter to then-Pope Paul VI indicates the Vatican was aware of clergy abuse in the U.S. nearly five decades ago.

AP - Give people their money. It's the rallying cry of lawmakers around the country pushing back against states that are delaying tax refunds to shore up their budgets.

AP - Inmates convicted of violent crimes are among those being freed early from California jails to save money, despite lawmakers' promises that they would exclude most dangerous prisoners and sex offenders.

AP - Thousands of U.S. Census workers have fanned out to soup kitchens, city streets and homeless shelters this week in an attempt to count the nation's homeless, an operation that officials are hoping yields the most accurate count yet.

AP - The crowd of people targeted in a drive-by shooting that killed four and wounded five others had just returned from the funeral of a victim of another recent shooting nearby, a witness said Wednesday.

AP - The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday called on all political parties to respect Iraq's election results and the choices of the Iraqi people.

AP - In a repudiation of the Bush administration's now-defunct Terrorist Surveillance Program, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that government investigators illegally wiretapped the phone conversations of an Islamic charity and two American lawyers without a search warrant.

AP - The man who gunned down one of the few doctors in the U.S. to perform late-term abortions could be sent to prison Thursday for the rest of his life, but he may have gotten what he wanted all along: It is now markedly harder in Kansas to get an abortion.

AP - Gov. Charlie Crist's grand plan to revive the dying Florida Everglades by buying back the land is in jeopardy after a federal judge Wednesday ordered the state to resume construction on a multimillion-dollar restoration project.

AP - An eastern Missouri lawmaker is facing an election challenge from her own husband, whom she accuses him of physical violence. He denies the allegations.

AP - A priest in a town southeast of Paris was hit with sexual assault and child pornography charges after a 22-year-old former choirboy accused him of abuse, and a police search found pictures of a young parishioner in his home, a prosecutor said Friday.

AP - A crowd sprayed with bullets in a drive-by that killed four and wounded five had just returned from the funeral of man slain nearby and a 20-year-old is suspected in both shootings, authorities said Wednesday.

AP - Two immigrants were freed Wednesday from federal detention centers, years after judges put their cases on hold due to serious questions about their mental competence.

AP - A judge has allowed two hospitals to be built to replace ones damaged by Hurricane Katrina despite objections by preservationists that the projects would wipe out a historic New Orleans neighborhood.

AP - The Army officer accused in the Fort Hood shooting rampage is apparently being moved from a hospital to jail.