U.S. National News

Gators among those fleeing Fay's Florida deluge

Due to heavy rains, Keira Dreiling, left, Crystal Ellis, center and Greg Meyer make their way down a flooded street during Tropical Storm Fay in Cocoa, Fla., Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008.(AP Photo/John Raoux)
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AP - 32 minutes ago

MELBOURNE, Fla. - As if a fourth straight day of rain from Tropical Storm Fay wasn't enough, weary residents are now dealing with quintessentially Floridian fallout: alligators, snakes and other critters driven from their swampy lairs into flooded streets, backyards and doorsteps.

  • In this Dec. 5, 2007 file photo, a message is posted on a Sequoia Voting Systems' electronic voting machine in San Francisco. Beginning last year, states including California, Ohio and Florida abruptly ordered election officials to mothball their electronic machines. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
    Company acknowledges voting machine error AP - Thu Aug 21, 7:43 PM ET

    COLUMBUS, Ohio - A major voting machine maker has cautioned its customers in 34 states to look out for a programming error that may cause votes to be dropped.

  • Suspect holds authorities at bay in Md. motel AP - Thu Aug 21, 4:17 PM ET

    HANCOCK, Md. - A burglary suspect wanted in four states was holed up Thursday in a western Maryland motel with a woman police believed was his pregnant girlfriend, and doctors were standing by in case she went into labor, authorities said.

  • Texas man gets life for child sex club conviction AP - Thu Aug 21, 7:50 PM ET

    TYLER, Texas - An auto body shop worker was convicted and swiftly sentenced to life in prison Thursday for grooming children as young as 5 to perform in sex shows at a small-town swingers club.

  • Crews rescue 2 teens trapped in Wash. snow field AP - 22 minutes ago

    SNOQUALMIE PASS, Wash. - An ice cave collapsed on two teenage boys Thursday, trapping them for hours until rescuers with chain saws managed to cut through large chunks of compact snow and ice to free them.

  • This image provided by the Byrd Polar Research Center, Columbus, Ohio, taken July 25, 2008, shows a growing giant crack and an 11-square-mile chunk of ice hemorrhaging off a prominent glacier in northern Greenland. The crack, at center, right, is seven miles long and about half a mile wide. It is about half the width of the 500 square mile floating part of the glacier. If the cracking continues, the floating part of the glacier could lose up to one third of its size. (AP Photo/Byrd Polar Research Center)
    At top of Greenland, new worrisome cracks in ice AP - Thu Aug 21, 7:16 PM ET

    WASHINGTON - In northern Greenland, a part of the Arctic that had seemed immune from global warming, new satellite images show a growing giant crack and an 11-square-mile chunk of ice hemorrhaging off a major glacier, scientists said Thursday.

  • In this artist's rendering, Joseph Edward Duncan III listens to opening statements in the sentencing phase of his death penalty case in U.S. District Court in Boise, Idaho on Wednesday Aug. 13, 2008. A jury that will decide whether Duncan, a convicted pedophile should be executed listened Wednesday as a prosecutor graphically described how the man killed members of an Idaho family, abducted two children and abused the youngsters at a campsite before murdering one of them. (AP Photo/Ward Hooper)
    Jurors in Idaho murder case cry at graphic videos AP - Thu Aug 21, 6:22 PM ET

    BOISE, Idaho - Jurors cringed, cried and some desperately looked away as they were shown a series of deeply disturbing and graphic videos taken by a convicted child killer as he tortured, sexually abused and nearly killed a 9-year-old boy.

  • In this Monday Aug. 20, 2007 picture, the Deutsche Bank building in New York is closed for work as investigators continue to look into the cause of a deadly blaze. Manhattan prosecutors are preparing to conclude soon whether the failures before the blaze at the state-owned building were bureaucratic blunders or crimes. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
    Report details fire in NYC tower rife with hazards AP - Thu Aug 21, 6:56 PM ET

    NEW YORK - They had no water, hardly any air and no way out.

  • Aviation Maintenance Tech 2 John Ferrari looks out of the back of a Coast Guard C-130 as he surveys the coast near the village of Kivalina Alaska during a surveillance flight to the Arctic, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008. Part of the Coast Guard's mission is to inspect for coastal erosion along the arctic coast. Ships in the upper right wait to be loaded from the Red Dog copper mine. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)
    Melting Arctic Ocean opens new shipping frontier AP - Thu Aug 21, 3:58 PM ET

    BARROW, Alaska - Rapidly melting ice on Alaska's Arctic is opening up a new navigable ocean in the extreme north, allowing oil tankers, fishing vessels and even cruise ships to venture into a realm once trolled mostly by indigenous hunters.

  • A card and flowers are part of a memorial set up at Grayback firefighting headquarters in White City, Ore., Friday, Aug. 8, 2008, for firefighters killed in a northern California wildfire helicopter crash. Nine were killed in the crash, seven from the Grayback unit. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)
    NTSB: Firefighting chopper lost power before crash AP - Thu Aug 21, 7:56 PM ET

    SAN FRANCISCO - An initial investigation into a deadly helicopter crash that killed nine people in Northern California earlier this month has found that the chopper's main rotor lost power during takeoff.

  • Soldier to plead guilty to lower desertion charge AP - Thu Aug 21, 5:09 PM ET

    FORT CARSON, Colo. - A soldier who fled to Canada when his unit was deployed to Iraq plans to plead guilty Friday to a reduced charge of desertion, his lawyer said.

  • Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin, photographed in his office in Providence, R.I, has called on U.S. immigration authorities in a letter to stop arresting illegal immigrants in mass sweeps in Rhode Island, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)
    RI bishop wants US to halt mass immigration raids AP - Thu Aug 21, 4:37 PM ET

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop is calling on U.S. authorities to halt mass immigration raids and says agents who refuse to participate in such raids on moral grounds deserve to be treated as conscientious objectors.

  • In a handout photo released by Congressman Chris Smith's office, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008, Joseph Evans; left, of Mount Laurel, N.J., is seen in Tbilisi, Georgia Thursday after being reunited with his daughters; he is holding 3-year old Sophia Evans; and Ashley Evans, 7, is seen at bottom left; with U.S. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey. The two girls were trapped by violence in the Republic of Georgia for two weeks. (AP Photo/Mark Milosch via U.S. Rep. Smith's office)
    2 NJ girls trapped in Georgia now safe with Dad AP - Thu Aug 21, 3:56 PM ET

    MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - Two little girls from New Jersey were reunited with their father Thursday and could be returning home within a few days after being trapped by violence in the Republic of Georgia for two weeks.

  • A photograph of Lizzie Borden's father Andrew Borden, right, hangs in the room where he was killed in the infamous 1892 double murder, in Fall River, Mass., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008. The owner of the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast and gift shop in Fall River has filed a federal lawsuit to prevent a new museum and shop in Salem from using the name of the former Sunday school teacher who was accused in the hatchet deaths of her wealthy father and stepmother. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
    Mass. businesses battle over Lizzie Borden legacy AP - Thu Aug 21, 4:18 PM ET

    BOSTON - Two Massachusetts businesses are battling over the macabre legacy of a former Sunday school teacher who was accused in the hatchet deaths of her wealthy father and stepmother more than 110 years ago.

  • Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney is seen in an undated handout photo. (Arkansas Democratic Party/Handout/Reuters)
    Widow of slain Demo chairman to attend convention AP - Thu Aug 21, 3:43 PM ET

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The widow of slain state Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney will fill his spot at the Democratic National Convention in Denver next week, the governor said Thursday.

  • Jump in US measles cases linked to vaccine fears AP - Thu Aug 21, 6:34 PM ET

    ATLANTA - Measles cases in the U.S. are at the highest level in more than a decade, with nearly half of those involving children whose parents rejected vaccination, health officials reported Thursday.

Crimes and Trials News

  • AP - Thu Aug 21, 6:10 PM ET

    ELDORADO, Texas - Texas grand jury issues three new indictments against members of polygamist sect.

  • Texas man gets life for child sex club conviction AP - Thu Aug 21, 7:50 PM ET

    TYLER, Texas - An auto body shop worker was convicted and swiftly sentenced to life in prison Thursday for grooming children as young as 5 to perform in sex shows at a small-town swingers club.

  • David Lee Onstott, 40, is shown in this 2005 jail booking mug originally provided by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Jury selection in Onstott's first-degree murder trial began Monday Aug. 11, 2008 at the Hillsborough County Courthouse in Tampa, Fla. Onstott, a convicted sex offender, is charged with killing 13-year-old Sarah Lunde in April 2005. (AP Photo/Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office)
    Sex offender found guilty of killing Fla. teen AP - Thu Aug 21, 5:51 PM ET

    TAMPA, Fla. - A jury in Florida has convicted a sex offender of second-degree murder in the death of a teenage girl in 2005.

  • Former La. police officer arraigned in Taser death AP - Thu Aug 21, 3:49 PM ET

    NEW ORLEANS - A former police officer accused of repeatedly jolting a handcuffed man with a Taser before he died pleaded not guilty Thursday to a manslaughter charge.

  • Reputed mob boss asks judge for chance to exercise AP - Thu Aug 21, 8:42 AM ET

    BOSTON - The reputed underboss of the New England mafia, awaiting trial on bribery charges, is asking a federal judge to release him from home confinement for two hours a day so he can exercise.