AP - Colleen LaRose spent long days caring for her boyfriend's father in a second-floor apartment in Pennsburg, a small town north of Philadelphia.

AP - A 7-year-old boy who called 911 from a locked bathroom while armed robbers threatened his parents hugged and high-fived on Wednesday the sheriff's dispatcher who took his call.

AP - Governors and education leaders on Wednesday proposed sweeping new school standards that could lead to students across the country using the same math and English textbooks and taking the same tests, replacing a patchwork of state and local systems in an attempt to raise student achievement nationwide.

AP - The Kansas City school board narrowly approved a plan Wednesday night to close nearly half of the district's schools in a desperate bid to avoid a potential bankruptcy.

AP - Democrats claimed momentum Wednesday in their drive to enact the sweeping health care legislation sought by President Barack Obama, citing near agreement on crucial issues despite persistent Republican efforts to knock them off stride.

AP - House GOP leaders are pushing rank-and-file Republicans to break their addiction to pet projects by going cold turkey and giving up the long-cherished practice of directing federal dollars to their home districts.

AP - An open diplomatic row during the visit of Vice President Joe Biden has shined a spotlight on the U.S. failure to rein in Israeli settlement ambitions and deepened Palestinian suspicions that the United States is too weak to broker a deal.

AP - They flew planes during World War II but weren't considered real military pilots. No flags were draped over their coffins when they died on duty. And when their service ended, they had to pay their own bus fare home.

AP - Reports of sudden acceleration in the Toyota Prius have spiked across the country. But that doesn't mean there's an epidemic of bad gas pedals in the popular hybrid.

AP - Colleen LaRose spent long days caring for her boyfriend's father in a second-floor apartment in Pennsburg, a small town north of Philadelphia.

Six years after he was traded away for the final pieces of Boston's World Series puzzle, Nomar Garciaparra finally got a friendly farewell from the Red Sox. The rookie of the year, batting champion and All-Star whose trade began a bitter back-and-forth in Boston and, for Garciaparra, an inglorious slide into irrelevance, signed a ceremonial one-day contract with the Red Sox on Wednesday for...

The stick and glove Sidney Crosby used to give Canada its Olympic gold medal are back where they belong. Crosby's missing gear was on its way to the Pittsburgh Penguins star on Wednesday. Hockey Canada says the gear was misplaced rather than stolen, with both items ending up in the wrong place in the process of packing and shipping equipment after the Olympic final.