House may vote to raise minimum wage

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republican leaders, giving in to political reality, plan a vote to raise the $5.15 minimum wage before leaving Washington this weekend for a five-week recess.

Socialite's son denies abuse claims

NEW YORK (AP) -- The son of philanthropist Brooke Astor said he was stunned by allegations that he abused his ailing 104-year-old mother.

Floods force 100 from northeast Ohio homes

EASTLAKE, Ohio (AP) -- Police rescued children from a flooding day care center and helped dozens of people evacuate homes after 9 inches of rain filled rivers and flooded streets in northeast Ohio.

Killer heat to back off

FRESNO, California (AP) -- A long-awaited cooldown began to set in Friday as the number of deaths blamed on California's record-breaking heat wave approached 100.

Brownie on lawmaker: 'He can bite me'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A congressman hit back at former disaster agency chief Michael Brown after the former FEMA director described him as "that little twerp."

Lactivists: Where is it OK to breastfeed?

NEW YORK (AP) -- "I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one person wrote. "I immediately turned the magazine face down," wrote another. "Gross," said a third.

Prisoner says he killed 48 across U.S.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) -- A Colorado man serving a life sentence for murdering a teenage girl has claimed responsibility for up to 48 slayings across the country, authorities said Thursday.

Station changes format from God to sex

KINGSBURG, California (AP) -- KFYE-FM hasn't budged from the Fresno-area dial, but it's about as far as you can get from the Christian music, sermons and Bible stories it was broadcasting until about a week ago.

Socialite hospitalized after abuse claim

NEW YORK (AP) -- Millionaire socialite Brooke Astor, whose well-being is at the center of a legal battle between her son and grandson, has been admitted to a hospital, where her condition is improving, her doctor said.

Death toll at 81 in California heat wave

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- There have been so many deaths from California's lingering heat wave that authorities in one county began stacking bodies two to a gurney.

Dozens of migrants rescued from flooded tunnel

NOGALES, Arizona (AP) -- Nearly three dozen illegal immigrants clinging to the sides of a flooded drainage tunnel were rescued Thursday morning by U.S. Border Patrol agents and police, but at least two others are believed to have been swept away, officials said.

Green-card holders face fingerprint checks

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. residents with green cards, parolees and some Canadians will have their fingerprints checked every time they re-enter the U.S. by air or sea.

Killer's photos included slain woman, police say

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A flood of telephone calls and e-mails have provided sheriff's investigators with numerous tips on the identities of 50 women photographed decades ago by a double murderer who implied to a jury he had killed others.

West Nile kills endagered condor chicks

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Efforts to save the critically endangered California condor suffered a minor setback last week when four 3-month-old chicks died of the West Nile virus, biologists said.

Seattle stunned by 'bizarre' killings

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- A 3-year-old boy and his family are killed while the father serves in Iraq. A librarian and her daughter are found shot to death along a trail. Three young men are gunned down.

Chief of Boston's Big Dig resigns

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman, under fire since 12 tons of falling ceiling panels killed a motorist in a Big Dig highway tunnel, agreed Thursday to resign after weeks of pressure from the governor.

Jury: Yates not guilty, insane

(CNN) -- A jury on Wednesday found Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity of drowning her five children in a bathtub five years ago.

Two cities eliminated for 2016 Olympics

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- The U.S. Olympic Committee on Wednesday eliminated Houston, Texas, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as candidate cities for the 2016 Olympics.

Chicago requires big-box stores to pay 'living wage'

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Brushing aside warnings from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., City Council approved an ordinance Wednesday that makes Chicago the biggest city in the nation to require big-box retailers to pay a "living wage."

Elderly widow accused of killing 4

STATESVILLE, North Carolina (AP) -- A 65-year-old woman with no known criminal record was ordered held without bond Wednesday, accused of killing two couples who owned convenience stores.