Feds in Calif. bust international gambling ring
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Federal authorities have charged 18 people with involvement in an illegal gambling ring they say spanned from California to Peru and used violence against customers with outstanding debts....

As fires rage, feds cut funding on prevention
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- As the West battles one catastrophic wildfire after another, the federal government is spending less and less on its main program for preventing blazes in the first place....

Panel restores some pay for lawmakers, governor
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- The commission that sets the pay for California lawmakers and statewide elected officials such as the governor and attorney general voted Wednesday to restore a 5 percent pay cut it made to salaries last year as state employees faced furloughs....

LA teacher charged with killing wife
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Los Angeles elementary school teacher has been charged with murder in the weekend stabbing of his estranged wife....

One of US FBI's most wanted nabbed in Mexico
CANCUN, Mexico (AP) -- Mexican authorities have arrested a former University of Southern California professor who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in the resort city of Playa del Carmen....

Neighbors: Couple killed waited for order to leave
DENVER (AP) -- Bob and Barbara Schmidt dashed to their home on a dirt road in a heavily wooded area northeast of Colorado Springs as smoke from what would become the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history filled the air....

Miss. AG Hood say he'll subpoena Google on drugs
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Mississippi's attorney general says he still thinks Google has given inadequate responses to allegations that it's not doing enough to prevent illegal online sales of drugs without prescriptions, and says he's sending out subpoenas for company documents to further his investigation....

Hundreds more allowed back home in Calif. wildfire
MARIPOSA, Calif. (AP) -- Hundreds of Northern California residents were allowed to return to their homes, as crews aided by lower temperatures and higher humidity made progress Wednesday against a wildfire near a main route into Yosemite National Park, a fire official said....

LA man pleads to shooting 2 officers in Albany
CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) -- A Los Angeles man has pleaded no contest to attempted murder and assault charges for a shootout in Albany last year that wounded two police officers who are still recovering from their wounds....

Alcatraz escapee's sister returns to robbery scene
COLUMBIA, Ala. (AP) -- Standing in the vault her brothers robbed 55 years ago, Marie Anglin Widner gasped....