U.S. National News

Wildfire chases July 4th visitors from Big Sur

A firefighter watches a wild fire burn uncontrolled in Big Sur, Calif., Thursday, July 3, 2008. The blaze near Big Sur was one of more than 1,700 wildfires, most ignited by lightning, that have scorched more than 770 square miles and destroyed 64 structures across northern and central California since June 20, according to state officials. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
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AP - 1 hour, 27 minutes ago

BIG SUR, Calif. - Independence Day is normally a booming time for tourism here, with visitors settling into cliffside vacation homes or trekking out to campgrounds nestled among the redwoods. But this year, the only out-of-towners in Big Sur are firefighters working around the clock to save the storied community from flames.

  • This undated photo provided by New York City auction house Guernsey's, shows a hat believed to have been worn by Rosa Parks the day in December 1955 she refused to give up her seat to a white man on an Alabama bus. Guernsey's has been asked by a Wayne County, Mich., probate court judge in Detroit to find a buyer, preferably a museum, university or other institution for thousands of Parks' personal items. Among them are her presidential and congressional medals, a post card from Martin Luther King Jr., and the hat shown. (AP Photo/Guernsey's, ho)
    Auction house seeks to sell Rosa Parks collection AP - 55 minutes ago

    LANSING, Mich. - Arlan Ettinger will never forget the response he got when he took one of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks' hats to a meeting at the Apollo Theater in New York.

  • Michael Stephen Jacques, 42, of Randolph Center appears Monday, June 30, 2008 in Chelsea District Court in Chelsea, Vt. for his arraignment for aggravated sexual assault on a minor.Police unearthed Brooke Bennett's body Wednesday July 2, 2008 from a makeshift grave about a mile from her uncle's house, ending a weeklong search for the subject of Vermont's first Amber Alert. (AP Photo/Pool, Times Argus, Stefan Hard)
    Prosecutors: Deception ran deep in Vt. kidnapping AP - Fri Jul 4, 3:29 AM ET

    BURLINGTON, Vt. - A Vermont man whose 12-year-old niece was found dead near his home carefully orchestrated events and e-mails to make it appear she had gone to see someone she met online, prosecutors said Thursday as they charged him with kidnapping.

  • A booking photo released July 3, 2008, by the Posen Police Department in Posen, Ill., shows Ricardo Gonzalez, 35, of Midlothian, Ill. Gonzalez was arrested after officials say a woman spotted him pushing a child's hands back into a cage at a gas station in Posen on Monday, June 30, 2008. Police say Gonzalez admitted he locked his girls, ages 2 and 5, in a cage to control them. He faces charges of misdemeanor child endangerment. (AP Photo/Posen Police Department)
    Father without baby sitter accused of caging kids AP - Fri Jul 4, 1:47 AM ET

    POSEN, Ill. - A suburban Chicago man locked his two young daughters in a wire cage hidden in the back of his pickup truck because he didn't have a baby sitter, officials said Thursday.

  • In this Tuesday, March 25, 2008 file picture, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom addresses the Sacramento Press Club in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom, a Democrat best known for challenging California's ban on same-sex marriage early in his first term, filed papers on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 to form an exploratory committee so he can start raising money and conducting polls for a possible gubernatorial campaign. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
    Young offenders in SF illegally get no more break AP - Fri Jul 4, 1:17 AM ET

    SAN FRANCISCO - Minors who commit crimes while in the United States illegally will be turned over to federal immigration officials, a reversal of a nearly 20-year-old San Francisco policy, Mayor Gavin Newsom said Thursday.

  • Federal judge orders 2 Marines released from jail AP - Fri Jul 4, 2:46 AM ET

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A federal judge in Riverside, Calif., has ordered two Marines released from jail despite their refusal to testify before a grand jury investigating the alleged killing of Iraqi detainees in 2004.

  • The Innocence Project board of director member John Stickels, right, look on as DNA exonoree Patrick Waller, reacts to the announcement in court that his conviction of a crime that sent him to jail for more than 15 years was being overturned in Criminal Court District 2 at the Frank Crowley Courts Building, Thursday, July 3, 2008, in Dallas. Waller is the 19th man in Dallas County since 2001 shown by DNA evidence to be innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. The Innocence Project in New York says that's a national high. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
    Texas man freed by DNA after 15 years in prison AP - Thu Jul 3, 6:29 PM ET

    DALLAS - A Texas man who spent more than 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of kidnapping and robbery raised both arms skyward and collapsed in his mother's embrace Thursday after being told he was a free man.

  • Knox County authorities escort Nicholas Sheley into the Knox County Courthouse, Thursday July 3, 2008 in Galesburg, Ill.. Nicholas Sheley appeared in circuit court Thursday in Galesburg, where he's charged in the beating death of 65-year-old Ronald Randall. Sheley waived his right to a public defender, indicating he'd hire his own attorney. (AP Photo/The Register-Mail, Bill Gaither)
    Details emerge in capture of killing spree suspect AP - Fri Jul 4, 3:31 AM ET

    CHICAGO - As the hunt wound down for the man suspected in a killing spree that left eight people dead in two states, a disheveled Nicholas T. Sheley walked calmly into a Subway restaurant in suburban St. Louis, asked to use the phone and called his lawyer — all but ensuring his capture.

  • Mayor Glenn Barrow, 55, conducts business in the town's city hall building Tuesday, July 1, 2008, in Hooper City, Utah. Barrow's regular job is with the Utah Department of Human Services. With the governor mandating that state employees must work a four-day week to cut expenses, Barrow's part-time job as mayor may not be possible due to a conflict in work hours. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)
    Utah going to 4-day workweek to reduce energy costs AP - Thu Jul 3, 2:15 PM ET

    SALT LAKE CITY - Starting next month, it will be "TGIT" for Utah state employees. As in: "Thank God It's Thursday."

  • Fugitive investor Samuel Israel leaves U.S. District Court in Springfield, Mass., after turning himself to authorities on Wednesday, July 2, 2008. Israel walked into the police station in Southwick, Mass., Wednesday morning and said he was a fugitive wanted by the federal government, officials said. Israel disappeared June 9 just hours before he was to report to prison in Massachusetts to begin serving a 20-year sentence handed down in April for his role in the collapse of the Bayou hedge funds. (AP Photo/The Springfield Republican, Christopher Evans)
    Judge in NY scolds hedge fund scammer who ran away AP - Thu Jul 3, 5:45 PM ET

    NEW YORK - A hedge fund cheat who tried to fake his own death and spent nearly a month as a fugitive told a judge Thursday that he really did try to commit suicide while on the run, saying he thought it would be better to do himself in than turn himself in.

  • Tropical Storm Bertha is seen near western Africa in a NOAA satellite photo taken July 3, 2008. (NOAA/Handout/Reuters)
    Tropical Storm Bertha forms in the Atlantic AP - Fri Jul 4, 1:20 AM ET

    MIAMI - Tropical Storm Bertha has formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa.

  • Boaters look on as dolphins swim in the Shrewsbury River Wednesday, July 2, 2008, in Sea Bright, N.J. The group of 15 dolphins who have taken up residence in a river near the Jersey Shore will be allowed to stay there through the July Fourth holiday weekend, even though a nearby fireworks display draws heavy boat traffic. Patrols will enforce a perimeter around the dolphins throughout the holiday weekend, state police Sgt. Stephen Jones said. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
    July 4th boaters: Steer clear of NJ dolphin family AP - Fri Jul 4, 12:57 AM ET

    SEA BRIGHT, N.J. - Authorities protecting a dolphin family in a New Jersey river are stepping up enforcement over the July Fourth holiday.

  • 3 burned by steam in Louisiana refinery accident AP - Thu Jul 3, 7:11 PM ET

    JESUIT BEND, La. - Louisiana authorities say three people are being treated for burns after a steam accident at a ConocoPhillips Co. refinery.

  • Minn. teen charged with offering his vote on eBay AP - Thu Jul 3, 10:59 PM ET

    MINNEAPOLIS - A college student claimed it was all a joke when he put his vote in this fall's presidential election up for sale on the Web auction site eBay. But prosecutors didn't see the humor.

  • In this still photo taken from video provided by the New York Civil Liberties Union, Esmin Green lies face down on the floor in the psychiatric ward of the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., Thursday, June 19, 2008. Green, 49, had been waiting in the emergency room for nearly 24 hours when she toppled from her chair at 5:32 a.m. and lay writhing, face down on the floor. Security guards and a member of the hospital's staff appeared to notice her prone body, but made no visible attempt to see if she needed help. Within an hour she was dead. (AP Photo/New York Civil Liberties Union)
    Some psych patients wait days in hospital ERs AP - Thu Jul 3, 5:09 PM ET

    NEW YORK - When staffers at a Brooklyn hospital spotted a middle-aged woman lying face-down on a waiting room floor last month, it hardly seemed like cause for alarm.

  • A passenger aircraft waits on a taxiway as another takes off from a farther runway at Newark Liberty International Airport, Friday, June 27, 2008, in Newark, N.J. At Newark Liberty International Airport, where three runways intersect at the northeast corner of the airport, planes often have to be sent around when two of them approach intersecting runways at the same time. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
    AP IMPACT: 'Go-arounds' are possible safety hazard AP - Thu Jul 3, 7:43 AM ET

    NEWARK, N.J. - A United Airlines jetliner was coming in for a landing at the Las Vegas airport in 2006 when the tower radioed that a smaller plane was still crossing the runway.

Crimes and Trials News

  • Assistant U.S. Attorney John Siegel walks down the steps from the federal courthouse in Cleveland, Thursday, July 3, 2008. A federal jury on Thursday convicted the former top accountant at the Cleveland Catholic Diocese of tax charges and acquitted him of more serious charges related to alleged kickbacks. Joseph H. Smith was convicted of six tax-related charges, including conspiracy to defraud the IRS, making a false tax return and obstructing an IRS investigation. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
    Former top Cleveland church accountant convicted AP - Thu Jul 3, 8:19 PM ET

    CLEVELAND - A federal jury on Thursday convicted the former top accountant at the Cleveland Catholic Diocese of tax charges and acquitted him of more serious charges related to alleged kickbacks.

  • A screenshot of YouTube.com, taken on July 3, 2008. (www.youtube.com/Reuters)
    Court order on YouTube user data fans privacy fears Reuters - Thu Jul 3, 7:34 PM ET

    NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge's order to Google Inc to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom Inc sparked an outcry on Thursday from privacy advocates in the midst of a legal showdown over video piracy.

  • Former 100-meter world record holder Tim Montgomery looks back at the scoreboard after running in a 100 meters quarter-final heat at the U.S. Olympic team trials in Track and Field, in Sacramento, California, in this July 10, 2004 file photo. (Gary Hershorn/Reuters)
    Sprinter Montgomery pleads guilty to heroin charge Reuters - Thu Jul 3, 7:28 PM ET

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. sprinter Tim Montgomery, an Olympic gold medalist now banned from the sport, pleaded guilty on Thursday to distributing heroin.