Wire National News

A Nevada Sheriff says he suspects foul play in the disappearance of the state's chief insurance examiner after evidence of a bloody, violent struggle was uncovered in his apartment.

In Southern California, where urban sprawl meets pristine wilderness, one can stand on a backwoods mountain trail and be so close to the city as to still hear the rumble of traffic and make out a downtown skyline.

A food service company spokesman said Friday it has fired four employees after about two dozen students at a Massachusetts middle school were denied lunches this week because their prepaid meal accounts ran low.

The parents of a teenager who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer last year have settled a wrongful-death claim against the homeowners association of the Florida subdivision where their son was killed.

A slain prosecutor and his wife have been laid to rest in the small Central Texas town where he grew up.

Two women who live near an ExxonMobil pipeline that ruptured last week and spilled thousands of barrels of oil in central Arkansas filed a federal lawsuit against the company on Friday.

A former Credit Suisse executive has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges in New York City after his extradition from the United Kingdom.

A $16 million settlement over the safety recall of Toyota vehicles that were at risk for unintended acceleration and braking issues was announced Friday by Orange County prosecutors and Toyota Motor Corp.

U.S. military officials say the massive Northern Edge exercise held biennially in Alaska has been cancelled this year because of the latest federal budget cuts.

An Alaska man has been sentenced to prison for life in the 2010 shooting deaths of two Hoonah police officers, in a case that rocked the tiny community and galvanized the state's law enforcement community.

Several former Florida A&M band members are pleading not guilty to increased charges of manslaughter related to the death of drum major Robert Champion.

A federal judge on Friday rejected Gov. Jerry Brown's bid to regain state control of inmates' mental health care, citing systematic failures to reduce prison suicides, provide timely care and hire enough staff.

A former South Texas sheriff's deputy who is the latest law enforcement officer in Hidalgo County to be accused of being on an alleged drug trafficker's payroll pleaded not guilty Friday to a federal drug conspiracy charge.

A National Rifle Association representative, relatives of two people killed in a December mall shooting spree and others took part in a passionate gun control debate Friday as Oregon's Legislature began considering bills that would impose new gun restrictions but wouldn't go as far as some lawmakers had hoped.

A northern Illinois woman who admitted leaving a newborn daughter to freeze to death along a rural roadway in 2004 was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison.

Blessed with natural resources but never enough jobs, southern Illinois counties have begun sampling the fruits of a land rush linked to a debated drilling practice that speculators believe can tap elusive oil and natural gas thousands of feet underground.

A man who pleaded guilty to murder in the beheading of his pregnant girlfriend on a New York City rooftop in 1989 was sentenced Friday to 18 years to life in prison.

Rich Products Corp. is now recalling all of its frozen snack foods produced at its Waycross, Ga., plant.

An Alaska man who fell about 80 feet after his snowmobile plunged into a crevasse on a glacier said he had just decided to turn around because of concern about avalanche danger.

For 50 years, Felice Gorordo's grandmother and great uncle did not speak. She fled Cuba after the 1959 communist revolution and never looked back. Her brother fought with the revolutionaries and remained on the island.

Records show an arrest warrant was issued a week after a teen escaped from a juvenile facility - a disclosure that sheds some light on concerns that he might have slipped through the cracks before his arrest in a Nevada drunken driving crash that killed five family members.

Eds: Major scheduled events for the week of April 7-13, 2013. Note that many events are subject to change at the last minute.

Mayor Anthony Foxx, considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, said Friday he would not run for re-election, but he didn't indicate what he planned to do next.

The main suspect in last month's abduction of a 10-year-old girl was recorded on video crossing the border into Mexico, Los Angeles police said Friday.

Casey Anthony is objecting to a proposal that she sell her life story as part of her bankruptcy.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's statistical arm said it would restore some agricultural reports it had suspended because of automatic federal budget cuts after farmers and others in the dairy industry said the information was crucial to their business.

The U.N. says its staff is continuing to work in North Korea while Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon studies a message from North Korea saying the world body should consider evacuating U.N. personnel from the country.

A Southern California doctor has agreed to plead guilty to charges of illegally prescribing drugs to his patients at nightly meetings in Starbucks stores.

Man's best friend is priceless. But a dog gone is worth nothing in Texas.

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is presenting a more cantankerous face his second day of testimony in a breach of contract case in Las Vegas.