AP - California's day of reckoning has finally come for three decades of tough-on-crime policies that led to overcrowded prisons and unconstitutional conditions for inmates.

AP - The meeting appeared routine — a businessman and politician stopped at a sandwich shop to chat about plans to develop a nearby parcel of land.

AP - An independent report on American higher education flunks all but one state when it comes to affordability — an embarrassing verdict that is unlikely to improve as the economy contracts.

AP - A chartered bus carrying students collided with a semitrailer Wednesday night on icy roads in north-central Illinois, sending at least 18 people to the hospital, authorities said. None of the injuries appeared life-threatening.

AP - O.J. Simpson is going to prison; the question is for how long.

AP - A moderate earthquake struck a sparsely populated area of California's Mojave Desert on Friday night. The shaking was felt from Southern California to the fringes of Nevada and Arizona, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

AP - Authorities scoured a swath of upstate New York on Saturday in hopes of finding a woman last seen leaving a trendy Manhattan club with a registered sex offender.

AP - It's all there in black and white: a poet's pain, her suffering, her emotional distress. Turn the page and find secrecy, shock and disappointment. But don't expect passionate verse. These are lawsuits, not poems.

AP - At least three of the four former co-defendants who took plea deals and testified against O.J. Simpson in his kidnapping and armed robbery trial could get probation at sentencing Tuesday, their lawyers said.

AP - Gov. Rod Blagojevich's arrest was surprising and the charges unexpected, but it's no shock that he's in legal trouble. The Chicago Democrat has faced allegations of misconduct and ethical violations almost since the day he was elected on a promise to clean up Illinois government.

AP - Jubilant workers, cheering and chanting 'Yes We Can,' celebrated outside a Chicago factory after approving a $1.75 million agreement to end their six-day sit-in, which had become a nationwide symbol of the plight of labor.

AP - Planned Parenthood of Indiana has fired a health center aide who was caught on video telling a woman who claimed to be a pregnant teen to lie about the age of the father.

AP - Gunfire erupted during a funeral service at a church on the north side of Portland on Friday, gravely wounding a 31-year-old man with a history of gang activity and sending mourners fleeing.

AP - In many ways, Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn and Attorney General Lisa Madigan couldn't be more different: He has carefully promoted his image as an outsider and reformer; she comes from a powerful political family.

AP - President George W. Bush wrapped up a whirlwind trip to two war zones Monday after a secrecy-shrouded tour that in many ways was a victory lap without a clear victory. A signature event occurred when an Iraqi reporter hurled two shoes at Bush, declaring: 'This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.'

AP - Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano once boasted he could bend the law to help his rich and famous clients get out of trouble.

AP - The father of a Salem man accused of killing two Oregon law enforcement officers in a bank explosion was arrested and charged Tuesday, authorities said.

AP - Democrats were trying to break a weekslong impasse over California's multibillion-dollar deficit by making an end run around Republicans, offering a complicated mix of revenue cuts and increases that they said would raise billions without requiring two-thirds majority typically needed to raise taxes.

AP - Exposed by erosion at the edge of a crumbling bluff, the pit discovered beneath 2 feet of sandy dirt at first appeared to be a grave just long and deep enough to bury a human body.

AP - A mother and her two young children were found shot to death Friday, possibly by the mother who may have also staged a series of attacks on the family over the last two weeks, police said.

AP - A New York City councilman accused of intentionally slashing his girlfriend in the face with a broken glass called it an 'unfortunate accident' on Saturday.

AP - Jury deliberations resumed Monday in the trial of five men accused of plotting an attack on Fort Dix.

AP - Muslim leaders reacted with frustration after five Muslim immigrants were convicted of scheming to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama gathered with family and friends on Tuesday for a private memorial service for the beloved grandmother who helped raise him.

AP - A former Utah state trooper suspected in a series of Dallas-area roadway shootings died on Christmas Eve, a day after police said he turned a gun on himself following a brief standoff.

AP - There's holiday joy and post-holiday blues, but for the nation's retailers it's all been one big downer.

AP - A fire in a home without smoke detectors killed seven people, most of whom were found huddled together in the basement, firefighters said.

AP - The skies were expected to clear in the Midwest on Sunday as the residents surveyed the damage from summerlike storms that a day earlier pounded the region with hail, high winds and even funnel clouds.

AP - The lead attorney for Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he plans to submit President-elect Barack Obama's internal report on contacts with the scandal-plagued governor to the Illinois House committee weighing impeachment.

AP - Federal prosecutors are asking a court to allow lawmakers investigating Gov. Rod Blagojevich to hear tapes of four potentially incriminating phone calls the governor had with a lobbyist.

AP - Rep. Bobby Rush says he doesn't think any U.S. senator would be caught turning a black man away from serving alongside them.