ALL RECENT AP STORIES

John Warhola, the older brother who helped raise pop art icon Andy Warhol and later helped establish the Andy Warhol Museum in their native Pittsburgh, has died. He was 85.

Warhola died on Christmas Eve after battling pneumonia at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, according to his son, Donald Warhola. The hospital is just a few blocks from the museum. Warhola lived in nearby New Sewickley.

He was one of three founding members of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Iran said Monday it will allow relatives to visit two German journalists detained while covering the case of an Iranian woman whose sentence to death by stoning for adultery has caused an international outcry.

It was not immediately clear when the visit would be allowed. Earlier Monday, the German Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to complain that the two were not able to meet with relatives over Christmas, despite earlier promises.

Iranian and German authorities have

A gun-toting man fatally shot by police outside a Mormon Temple on Christmas Day also was carrying a machete, as well as a rifle, shotguns and multiple swords, police said Monday.

West Jordan police said Daniel Pogue, 54, of South Jordan, was chopping up the fence surrounding the building. They said he had tossed the other weapons over a wall that surrounded the Oquirrh Mountain Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Officers arrived Saturday at the temple after

A windy winter storm that dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on New York City also whipped up criticism about how the city responded to it.

Some New Yorkers in the outer boroughs complained that the city took too long to plow their neighborhoods, ignoring them in favor of wealthier Manhattan areas.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the fast pace of snowfall _ 2 to 3 inches per hour at some periods overnight _ and the amount of people who abandoned cars in the road delayed the progress of the

Two men pleaded not guilty Monday to charges they were involved in the shooting death of a veteran police officer who responded to an armed robbery at a department store jewelry counter. One suspect was also killed.

Officer John Maguire was one of several officers who responded to 911 calls about a robbery at Kohl's just before 9 p.m. Sunday in the midst of a snowstorm.

Maguire was chasing two suspects on foot when the gunfire began. Maguire and 57-year-old Dominic Cinelli, whom

A Michigan man blamed for the disappearance of his three sons will go straight to trial on charges of parental kidnapping.

John Skelton waived his right to a hearing to determine if prosecutors had probable cause to charge him. Court officials in Lenawee County say he informed a judge on Monday, which means a hearing set for Tuesday is canceled.

Skelton's sons _ Alexander, Andrew and Tanner _ haven't been seen since Thanksgiving when they were at his home in Morenci, a town on the

A Wyoming coroner says a 5-year-old skier who died in a collision with a snowboarder was wearing a helmet, contrary to officials' earlier reports.

Natrona County Coroner Connie Jacobson says the girl, Elise Johnson, and 23-year-old Craig Shirley died of internal injuries from blunt force trauma.

Witnesses have said Shirley was snowboarding at high speed Friday at Hogadon (HO'-guh-dun) Ski Area when he collided with Elise and her mother. The mother and daughter had stopped in the middle

As Theodore Roosevelt once said: "Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young." But it's not too late for baby boomers who put off retirement planning and haven't saved enough. Here are five key steps:

_ HAVE A PLAN: Educate yourself about your complete financial picture and your options. You don't have to obsess about reaching The Number _ the amount a financial adviser or retirement calculator says you'll need to retire comfortably. But having an

Alvin Greene, the unemployed Army veteran who suggested during his failed U.S. Senate bid that making action figures of himself would help create jobs, is running for office again.

Greene paid the $165 filing fee on Christmas Eve to run in a special election for a South Carolina House seat made vacant by the death this month of Rep. Cathy Harvin.

Cal Land, the chairman of the Clarendon County Democratic Party, said Greene entered the race five minutes after the filing period opened.

Things are looking up for Gov. Mark Sanford as he prepares to leave office on his own terms more than a year after the international affair that derailed his once-promising political career.

He will be replaced by his chosen successor. Tea party supporters across the country have taken up his messages about fiscal responsibility. Friends say his mid-life crisis is over.

Still, the two-term governor says he's not sure what's next and talks vaguely about writing a book or going back

A man started shooting inside a strip club, killing two people and wounding two others, including a topless dancer, before patrons wrestled the gunman to the floor, police said Monday.

Gavin MacFarlane, 28, of Scottsdale, opened fire at the Great Alaskan Bush Company shortly before midnight Sunday before he ran out of ammunition and was tackled, police said.

Police Sgt. Trent Crump said MacFarlane told detectives that he had a "personal agenda" but didn't immediately provide further

Passengers' hours-long ordeal on two New York City subway trains stalled in snow drifts near Kennedy Airport is over.

NYC Transit spokesman Charles Seaton says the trains have been pulled into stations. He says there are no trains stuck anywhere.

He says snow drifts and ice on the third rail had stalled the trains two stops in Queens, north and south of Kennedy Airport.

Christopher Mullen told NY1 cable TV that he took the subway after he couldn't get a car service or taxi out

This year, Floridians learned that burials at sea don't work if the body doesn't sink, giant snail mucus can make you sick and that an underwire bra can stop a lawyer from visiting her client in prison.

Florida lived up to its reputation for being an odd state in 2010, with residents committing stupid crimes, making poor decisions and exhibiting general weirdness.

There was the man pulled over in Manatee County who claimed the crack in his crack wasn't his. Officers found bags of

A judge has ruled out the death penalty in the trial of an Ohio man for a 2005 fire that killed nine people, including eight children at a birthday sleepover.

Federal Judge Solomon Oliver in Cleveland said in a ruling late last week that 27-year-old Antun Lewis is mentally disabled and can't face the death penalty. His trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 5.

The defense has argued that Lewis' records show he had learning disabilities. His mother says he had nothing to do with the fire

There is no word on when Amtrak will resume full train service across New England, but it is making some progress.

Amtrak had to cancel service between Boston and New York City, and from Boston to Portland, Me., because of the major snowstorm socking in the region.

Crews worked through the night to clear tracks with spokesman Cliff Cole saying limited service from Boston to New York's Penn Station resumed Tuesday morning _ but with some delays. Amtrak's Downeaster service between

Japan has been overtaken by China as the world's No. 2 economy. Its flagship company, Toyota, recalled more than 10 million vehicles in an embarrassing safety crisis. Its fourth prime minister resigned in three years, and the government remains unable to jolt an economy entering its third decade of stagnation.

For once-confident Japan, 2010 may well mark a symbolic milestone in its slide from economic giant to what experts see as its likely destiny: a second-tier power with some standout

Iowa City police say a 25-year-old man called 911 to report a drunken driver: himself.

According to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, police say Francisco Castro called the emergency number around 8:30 on Christmas morning. Officers found Castro sitting in the driver's seat of a running vehicle.

Police say Castro told officers that he called 911 because he thought he was too drunk to drive. A follow-up test showed his blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit.

There

A tourist from Massachusetts was killed when he walked in front of a bus at a Walt Disney World resort.

Authorities say 69-year-old Robert Krueger of Yarmouth Port, Mass., stepped in front of a Disney bus traveling through the parking lot at the Port Orleans resort Sunday afternoon. Krueger died at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

The Florida Highway Patrol says the bus driver was 57-year-old Rosemary Kincaid. There were passengers on the bus, but no one aboard was injured.

An

Significant wintry precipitation was expected in New England Monday as a dangerous winter storm in the western Atlantic was forecast to pass just southeast of Nantucket Monday morning. Bands of heavy snow and strong winds of 20 to 30 mph with frequent gusts to 45 mph were expected to persist along the coast of this region through the morning, continuing blizzard conditions with blowing and drifting snow.

Snow totals along the New England coast will likely range from 8 to 16 inches during

A police officer responding to an attempted robbery at a department store the day after Christmas was shot dead, and one of three suspects also was killed, authorities said.

The shootings happened Sunday in Woburn, a city of about 40,000 residents just north of Boston.

The officer was shot dead while responding to a robbery in progress at a Kohl's department store, police and prosecutors said. He was transported to a hospital, where he died.

One suspect was shot dead by responding

In the ballroom of an upscale hotel a short train ride from New York, advertisers, food industry executives and market researchers mingled _ the men in dark suits, the women in headscarves and Western dress. Chocolates made according to Islamic dietary laws were placed at each table.

The setting was the American Muslim Consumer Conference, which aimed to promote Muslims as a new market segment for U.S. companies. While corporations have long catered to Muslim communities in Europe, businesses

Allies of the man who the international community says won Ivory Coast's disputed presidential election called Sunday for a general strike that would last until the incumbent hanging on to power concedes defeat and leaves office.

It was the latest form of pressure to try to force Laurent Gbagbo from the presidency nearly a month after the United Nations said his political rival, Alassane Ouattara, won the runoff vote. Gbagbo has refused to leave despite international calls for his ouster,

Seven tugboats succeeded Sunday in unsticking a 579-foot coal-hauling Great Lakes freighter that was grounded for two days in the Detroit River south of Detroit.

The McKee Sons ran aground Friday near Grosse Ile while trying to dock at a DTE Energy Co. electrical power station.

"They broke it free," said U.S. Guard Lt. Justin Westmiller.

The freighter came from Cleveland with a load of 11,900 tons of coal and a crew of 17. It has a hauling capacity of 29,500 tons.

The

Richard M. Daley on Sunday surpassed his father's tenure, becoming the longest-serving mayor of Chicago.

Daley has served 7,917 days in office, or 21 years and eight months. That's one day more than his father, Richard J. Daley, who died in office in 1976.

Daley announced earlier this year that he would retire and not run for a seventh term.

When he leaves office next spring he will have served about five months longer than his father. Between them, the Daleys have been in charge

Police in a St. Louis suburb have released the emergency call placed from the home of former Anheuser-Busch chief executive August Busch IV to report a woman who was "just not waking up" and who was later found dead at the home.

Frontenac police released the tape Sunday in which a Busch employee told the 911 dispatcher the woman wouldn't wake up. Police said he told the dispatcher he didn't know if she was breathing because it was "dark back there."

Adrienne Nicole Martin, who was

Oklahoma authorities say a small explosion at an oil refinery has shaken the city of Wynnewood but no one was injured.

Thick smoke poured into the sky from a fire that followed the blast about 6:50 a.m. Sunday.

Garvin County Sheriff Larry Rhodes says some roads in the area of the Wynnewood Refining Co. were closed after the explosion but reopened within about an hour and a half.

Wynnewood Refining is owned by Denver-based Gary-Williams Energy.

The refinery processes about

Santiago Malave has worked law enforcement jobs in Connecticut for more than four decades, but as a Puerto Rican, he says he cannot drive through his own town without worrying about police harassing him.

Malave, a probation officer who works in New Haven, says the racial abuse is so bad that he only crosses the town line into East Haven to go home. He and his wife are now preparing to sell their house and move, joining an exodus of Hispanics who say police have hassled them with traffic

Dozens of majestic bighorn sheep have moved into a Texas state park as part of wildlife restoration efforts aimed at returning the sheep to their historic range.

Twelve curly-horned rams and 34 ewes plucked by helicopter from one rugged area of West Texas now call the Bofecillos Mountains along the Rio Grande in Big Bend Ranch State Park home. The capture and release days before Christmas was the latest step in a decades-long restoration project to bring the mountain sheep

It's not on a par with how Chicagoans used to keep voting after they died. Or with the curious case of the man in the 1980s whose signature wound up on a local ballot application _ twice_ even though he had no fingers or thumbs.

But the race for Chicago mayor is providing fresh evidence that the city's storied history for election shenanigans lives on. With Mayor Richard M. Daley's retirement opening up the office for the first time in 21 years, Illinois authorities find themselves investigating

The manager for Hogadon (HO'-guh-dun) Ski Area says none of the three people involved in a Christmas Eve skiing collision that killed two of them was wearing a helmet.

Officials say a 22-year-old man was snowboarding at a high speed Friday afternoon when he collided with a 5-year-old girl and her mother who were stopped in the middle of the black diamond Dreadnaught run, which is rated difficult. The man and girl died.

Ski area manager Gary Vantrease said Sunday the girl's mother

New York state contributed 448,000 troops and $150 million to the Union cause during the Civil War, not to mention untold tons of supplies, food, guns and munitions.

But with the 150th anniversary of the war's start just months away, New York state government has so far failed to scrounge up a single Yankee dollar to commemorate a conflict it played such a major role in winning.

New York isn't alone. Other states saddled with similar budget woes are unable or unwilling to set aside

Both U.S. coasts are confronting storm systems Sunday. Out West, the Pacific front that pushed ashore Christmas Day was continuing an eastward trek as it unleashed rain and mountain snow from the coast to the Rockies.

Another round of moderate to heavy rainfall was expected starting Sunday afternoon from the Pacific Northwest down to northwestern California, as another cold front pushes ashore. Scattered precipitation should fall mainly in the Northwest and Northern Rockies on Monday, as

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn says confidence in the country's economy and currency will be "undermined significantly" in the next several years if the government doesn't find a way to cut federal spending.

Coburn says the U.S. must begin to chip away at the country's huge debt and slash hundreds of billions from the budget in wasteful spending or face the kind of severe fiscal crisis that has plagued Ireland and Greece.

The Oklahoma Republican offered his grim view on the country's

U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who has largely avoided the public eye of late, said in a rare interview Saturday that he is a public servant, not a perfect one, and didn't rule out a future run at higher office.

Jackson, who has been dogged by links to the corruption case against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and questions about his own relationship with a female "social acquaintance," told The Associated Press that he continually struggles with his "personal shortcomings."

That

Officials in the Wisconsin village of Kimberly want to commemorate the community's 100th anniversary by digging up a time capsule that was buried 25 years ago. There's just one problem: No one knows where it is.

The time capsule held coins, news clippings and a bottle of New Coke in a 2-foot-long piece of white PVC pipe. It was buried near the municipal building in 1985.

However, the capsule had to be dug up in 1997 when the building complex was remodeled. Kimberly street commissioner

Funeral services have been set for two Chicago firefighters who died while battling a fire at a vacant building on the city's South Side.

Visitation for Corey Ankum is Wednesday at Apostolic Church of God in Chicago. Funeral services are the following morning at the church.

Visitation for Edward Stringer is Monday at Blake Lamb Funeral Home in Oak Lawn. Funeral mass will be held 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Rita of Cascia Chapel in Chicago.

The firefighters died Wednesday after a

Officials in the Wisconsin village of Kimberly want to commemorate the community's 100th anniversary by digging up a time capsule that was buried 25 years ago. There's just one problem: No one knows where it is.

The time capsule held coins, news clippings and a bottle of New Coke in a 2-foot-long piece of white PVC pipe. It was buried near the municipal building in 1985.

However, the capsule had to be dug up in 1997 when the building complex was remodeled. Kimberly street commissioner

The man who refuses to leave Ivory Coast's presidency faced new threats to his grasp on power after regional leaders threatened to remove him by force if necessary.

Meanwhile, the U.N.'s refugee agency said Saturday that at least 14,000 Ivorians have fled the chaos of their homeland, trekking for days to reach safety in Liberia.

Diplomatic pressure and sanctions have left Laurent Gbagbo increasingly isolated though he has been able to maintain his rule nearly a month after the disputed

Iraqi Christians celebrated a somber Christmas in a Baghdad cathedral stained with dried blood, while Pope Benedict XVI exhorted Chinese Catholics to stay loyal despite restrictions on them in a holiday address laced with worry for the world's Christian minorities.

Saturday's grim news seemed to highlight the pope's concern for his flock's welfare.

In northern Nigeria, attacks on two churches by Muslim sect members claimed six lives, while bombings in central Nigeria, a region plagued

A man armed with a shotgun outside a Mormon temple near Salt Lake City was shot and killed by police Christmas Day, a television station reported Saturday.

The man had been in an altercation with another man in the parking lot outside the Oquirrh Mountain Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Jordan, Fox13 said.

The confrontation began about 12:30 p.m. Police arrived shortly afterward and repeatedly ordered the shotgun-toting man to drop the weapon, South

The former Republican leader of the New York Senate has asked an appeals court to stop prosecutors from filing new charges once his fraud conviction is overturned.

Joseph Bruno's lawyers made the request Thursday with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan. The 81-year-old Bruno was sentenced in May to two years in prison for his conviction on two federal fraud counts. He has remained free pending appeal.

A recent Supreme Court decision led prosecutors to tell Bruno's

Pope on Christmas Day urged Catholics in China, Iraq to have courage when facing persecution

VATICAN CITY (AP) _ Iraqi Christians celebrated a somber Christmas in a Baghdad cathedral stained with dried blood, while Pope Benedict XVI exhorted Chinese Catholics to stay loyal despite restrictions on them in a holiday address laced with worry for the world's Christian minorities.

Saturday's grim news seemed to highlight the pope's concern for his flock's welfare.

In northern Nigeria,

Police in the Denver suburb of Englewood say 10 unexploded homemade bombs were found in a cell phone store after they were thrown through the windows.

Police say the bombs were found in the CTG Wireless store in a strip mall on Friday. No injuries were reported.

The Denver Post reports that nearby stores were evacuated while the Arapahoe County bomb squad gathered the devices.

Authorities declined to release details about the explosives, citing the ongoing investigation.

Englewood

Authorities say two people have died and one is injured after a man on a snowboard collided with a woman and her daughter on skis at a Wyoming ski area.

The Casper Star-Tribune reports that the 22-year-old man and the 5-year-old girl were pronounced dead at a Casper hospital after the collision Friday at the Hogadon Ski Area. The mother has been hospitalized but her condition and injuries weren't available.

No names have been released.

Natrona County sheriff's Lt. Mark Sellers

Efforts to free a nearly 600-foot coal-carrying freighter stuck in the Detroit River were suspended Saturday because not enough crew members were available on Christmas to operate tugboats needed to dislodge it, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Justin Westmiller said.

Westmiller said efforts to free the 579-foot McKee Sons were expected to resume Sunday.

"The company that owns the ship was unable to crew all five tugboats, so they decided there was no rush and chose not to continue," he said.

Five

Maintenance crews will inspect a Southwest Airlines jet that made an emergency landing at Oakland International Airport when the pilot received warning of an engine fire.

Southwest Airlines spokesman Brad Hawkins said the Los Angeles-bound flight landed safely in Oakland minutes after taking off from San Francisco International Airport around 9 p.m. Friday.

As the plane was ascending, a warning siren indicated there was a fire in one of the plane's engines. Hawkins said the pilot

Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

___

ABC's "This Week" _ Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli.

___

CBS' "Face the Nation" _ Year-in-review discussion with Washington correspondents.

___

NBC's "Meet the Press" _ White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.

___

CNN's "State of the Union" _ White House press secretary Robert Gibbs; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; former CIA Director Gen. Mike Hayden; the former director

Fewer than 100 residents live in this small burg in the shadow of Los Angeles, surrounded by miles of gritty, occasionally smelly warehouses, meatpacking plants and manufacturing businesses. It is one of the least populated, most nondescript municipalities in the country _ and one of the richest.

With 1,800 businesses providing an annual tax base of $334 million to a town with no parks, one school and only one residential street to maintain, there is plenty of money to go around.

There

Under a towering Christmas tree, 3-year-old Sevil Fletcher giggled in delight amid some not-so-rough roughhousing with his brother and sister.

There were snow drifts outside the comfortable suburban home, and the warmth of a close-knit family inside, as his parents, Brian and Emily Fletcher, recounted how Sevil _ his infancy spent in a faraway orphanage _ came to be their son.

It's a remarkable tale, all the more so because it is shared to a degree by hundreds of other American families

Iran's opposition leaders are barred from leaving the country, a prominent conservative lawmaker said Saturday, hiking up the pressure on the reform movement.

The comments by Mousa Qorbani, a member of the Judicial Committee in parliament, were the first official word of a travel ban on the top opposition figures, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi _ who both ran in the disputed 2009 presidential elections _ as well as former reformist president Mohammad Khatami.

Qorbani also

Iraq's newly appointed oil minister said on Saturday that oil exports from the country's northern self-ruled Kurdish region would soon resume as part of the country's national oil export policy.

The Kurds have sought greater control over oil in their crude-rich region while Baghdad has argued that the oil is a national resource, under the central government's control.

Iraqi Kurds have unilaterally signed more than two dozens oil deals with Western companies that are deemed illegal

The European Union's anti-piracy force says a Thai-owned cargo ship has been hijacked in the Arabian Sea.

The EU force says Somali pirates hijacked the MV Thor Nexus early Saturday about 450 nautical miles northeast of Yemen's island of Socorta.

The MV Thor Nexus was headed to Bangladesh after leaving the United Arab Emirates, the EU force said in a statement. There are 27 crew members, all Thai, on board the ship, it said.

Saturday's hijacking brings to 25 the vessels held

The following recalls have been announced:

_Various packages of curly parsley and cilantro are being voluntarily recalled by J&D Produce Inc. of Edinburg, Texas, following confirmation from regulators of a positive test for salmonella on curly parsley in Quebec and cilantro in Detroit. The items were packed Nov. 30-Dec. 6. There have been no reported illnesses.

Salmonella is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people,

If only Santa was as good with hot air balloons as with reindeer sleighs.

A man in a Santa outfit took a wild ride through Utah skies Christmas Eve when his balloon took off without a pilot.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Santa was tossing candy to kids from the balloon during a Midvalley Elementary School fundraiser when the craft landed too hard and the pilot tumbled out.

That left Santa alone and the lighter balloon shot back into the air.

Police Sgt. Torin Chambers

While much of the country was forecast to remain dry on Saturday, a powerful storm was expected to bring more wet weather to the West Coast from late in the morning through the evening.

Although the rain is not expected to be as intense as that experienced in Southern California last week, areas already saturated could become flooded. Rain was forecast from Southern California through Washington.

High elevation snow from the Cascades through the Sierra Nevadas was expected to add

A pilot who posted videos on YouTube that were critical of security at San Francisco International Airport is now the subject of an investigation, the pilot's attorney says.

The pilot placed several videos on YouTube in late November or early December that showed how ground crew members can enter secure areas by swiping security cards and without undergoing further screening.

The Transportation Security Administration is looking into whether the pilot revealed sensitive information,

A top military official says new warnings about insulated beverage containers are an example of federal officials trying to anticipate terror tactics.

Adm. James Winnefeld told The Associated Press Friday that the Transportation Security Administration is "always trying to think ahead." Winnefeld is the head of the U.S. Northern Command, which is charged with protecting the homeland.

TSA officials had said Thursday that in coming days, passengers flying within and to the U.S. may

Vice President Joe Biden is predicting that the evolution in thinking that will permit gays to soon serve openly in the military eventually will bring about a national consensus for same-sex marriage.

Changes in attitudes by military leaders, those in the service and the public allowed the repeal by Congress of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Biden noted in a nationally broadcast interview on Christmas eve.

"I think the country's evolving," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

The Obama administration took separate actions this week to protect clean air and federal wilderness areas, reaffirming that the White House can pursue its goals without depending on help from an increasingly combative Congress.

In the coming two years, that may become a more popular approach.

In a statement posted on its website late Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it is moving unilaterally to clamp down on power plant and oil refinery greenhouse emissions,

The massive new tax bill signed into law by President Barack Obama is filled with all kinds of holiday stocking stuffers for businesses: tax breaks for producing TV shows, grants for putting up windmills, rum subsidies for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There is even a tax break for people who buy race horses.

Millions of homeowners, however, might feel like they got a lump of coal. Homeowners who don't itemize their deductions will lose a tax break for paying local property

Federal authorities are investigating a pilot who posted videos on YouTube that were critical of security at San Francisco International Airport, the pilot's attorney said Friday.

Don Werno of the Santa Ana-based law firm Werno and Associates said the Transportation Security Administration is looking into whether his client revealed sensitive information.

The pilot remains employed with a major airline, but he has withdrawn from a program that trains flight crew to help prevent hijackings

A man who allegedly sped through a checkpoint near President Barack Obama's vacation home has been charged with multiple criminal counts.

Leon Rodrigues was being held on $6,350 bail. He was charged with two counts of refusing an order to stop and reckless driving.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Friday the 39-year-old was also charged with five contempt of court charges.

Honolulu police were looking for Rodrigues to serve him with warrants for alleged driving violations

A coal-carrying freighter was stubbornly stuck Friday after running aground in the Detroit River, and salvagers could be forced to unload some of its cargo to help tugboats pull the vessel free.

Even with five tugs, crews struggled to dislodge the 579-foot McKee Sons from where the barge sat in the Trenton Channel, south of Detroit, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Justin Westmiller told The Associated Press.

"Our plan is to continue to pull throughout the night," he said.

If that doesn't

A man headed to Cuba has been arrested at Miami International Airport after security screeners said they found a loaded gun in his fanny pack.

Miami-Dade Police arrested 48-year-old Juan Manuel Baldoquin of West Palm Beach on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and grand theft of a firearm. He was being held on $10,000 bond.

Detective Javier Baez says a Transportation Security Administration screener spotted the outline of a gun while X-raying Baldoquin's bag. Police found the

The following recalls have been announced:

_Various lot codes of Publix Bakery Coconut Macaroons (Coquitos) have been recalled voluntarily by South Florida Bakery of Miami. The pre-packaged coconut macaroons were sold in 21-ounce and 12-ounce plastic dome containers exclusively in the retail bakeries of Publix Super Markets throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. The products are being recalled due to an undeclared milk ingredient present in a small amount in

Want to know where Santa is? Just ask Michelle Obama.

The first lady is answering calls from children checking in with the "Tracks Santa" program of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). With the help of NORAD's Santa Route Schedule, Mrs. Obama is telling children Santa's whereabouts as he makes his journey around the world on Christmas Eve.

The NORAD program has been helping children track Santa since 1955.

The Obamas are spending the holidays in Hawaii, the

Fire officials say a blaze that killed two Chicago firefighters earlier this week was caused by wood or rubbish that was started on fire.

The fire at a vacant building on the city's South Side appeared to have been started by an open flame ignition. That's according to the Chicago Tribune.

Fire officials tell the newspaper that they don't know what the intent was of anyone responsible for starting the fire.

The Chicago Police Department's bomb and arson unit is investigating.

Fire

Epilepsy takes as many as 50,000 lives each year _ grim statistics Mike and Mariann Stanton hadn't heard of until their 4-year-old son, Danny, became one of them.

Somehow, that horrible tragedy a year ago transformed a blissfully ordinary Chicago family into extraordinary activists. With zero experience but fueled by wrenching grief, their passionate advocacy has brought widespread attention to a rare, little-understood medical condition called Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy, or SUDEP.

The

Police say a Connecticut man made $18,000 by selling antique cars and other stuff stored in a garage and two barns behind his residence.

The trouble was, the stuff wasn't his. And it was worth $265,000.

Deane Moss is charged with first-degree larceny and 15 counts of third-degree burglary. He was released after his initial court appearance.

Authorities say he rented the 6,500-square-foot Southbury home from the owner a year ago with a lease that expressly barred him from entering

Leslie Constante burst into tears when she saw a red tag slapped on her parents' garage in Highland, deeming it unsafe to enter.

"My mom and dad worked so hard for this," said the 29-year-old pharmacy technician, wearing knee high rubber boots.

She couldn't get inside to see how bad the damage was to Christmas presents and other belongings. Out front, two holiday reindeer were enveloped in mud several feet deep.

Many California residents who endured flooding, mudslides

President Barack Obama has Hawaiian vacation plans for plenty of private time with his family, walks on the beach, rounds of golf and leisure reading.

But a high-speed police chase that went through a security checkpoint near the neighborhood where the president is staying was one more reminder of how hard it is for the president to truly get away from it all.

Officials say the incident was unrelated to the president's visit and never posed a threat to the first family.

Obama

One helped drop an atomic bomb on Japan during World War II. The other survived that bombing and also the second bombing that came only days later.

Morris Jeppson was a weapons test officer aboard the Enola Gay and helped arm the atomic bomb that was dropped over Hiroshima. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was the only person recognized as a survivor of that bombing and the bombing of Nagasaki that came three days after.

They are among the notables who died in 2010.

Plane crashes took the

The massive new tax bill signed into law by President Barack Obama is filled with all kinds of holiday stocking stuffers for businesses: tax breaks for producing TV shows, grants for putting up windmills, rum subsidies for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There is even a tax break for people who buy race horses.

Millions of homeowners, however, might feel like they got a lump of coal. Homeowners who don't itemize their deductions will lose a tax break for paying local property

Authorities said they still didn't know Friday what prompted a man to apparently kill his two young boys and their mother before killing himself at the small eastern Mississippi home they shared, but they were looking into whether the couple had past domestic problems.

Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie said investigators will begin Monday looking into whether the couple had past problems. Courthouses in Mississippi were closed Friday for the Christmas holiday.

"We're going to

Five golden rings have made it home to a western Pennsylvania family in time for Christmas.

Jennifer Maffit and her husband, Raymond, noticed the rings missing Dec. 16 after opening their Jeannette home to a man who had been released from a drug rehabilitation program.

The rings included Jennifer Maffit's engagement ring and her husband's wedding band. The band has special significance for the family because it was the ring the couple slipped onto their son's wrist after he was born

Holiday procrastinators are preparing to zoom through picked-over stores, grabbing discounted sweaters and can't-go-wrong gift cards. If they can get a parking spot, that is. But you won't hear retailers complaining.

For stores, this 11th-hour dash caps the best holiday season since 2007, and possibly the best ever. With Christmas falling on a Saturday this year, Friday is a holiday for most U.S. workers. That allowed shoppers to hit the stores first thing in the morning.

"I'm calling

Santa Claus has been cleared of all charges.

Police in Rhode Island say a report that an armed man dressed as Santa, complete with white beard, robbed an East Providence bar last Sunday was nothing but a hoax.

Now the bartender at the East Providence Yacht Club who made the 911 call is facing charges.

Christal Johnson was released on personal recognizance after turning herself into police on Thursday to answer to a charge of making a false police report. The 37-year-old Johnston

If you are a college student, teacher or resident of a state that has sales taxes but no income tax, the bipartisan tax agreement this month could mean significant benefits next year. And the IRS is adjusting its computers to take in your requests.

That means it will take a little longer for some taxpayers to file their 2010 returns, as the Internal Revenue Service reprograms computers for new college tuition breaks, teachers who buy classroom supplies with their own money, and Americans

Republicans are asking Americans to remember those in the U.S. military serving overseas during the holiday season.

In the GOP's weekly radio address, Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Pitts says this time of year is about humble service, simple acts of kindness, faith and family.

Pitts says the spirit is reflected in "our service members who raise their hands and volunteer for extraordinary tasks in the defense of freedom." He says, "Many of these brave men and women are spending this holiday

As dawn breaks on the Gulf of Mexico, Hans Holbrook and Chris Brantley stomp onto the beach in rubber boots, telescopes and tripods slung over their shoulders, alert for signs of birds.

Grand Isle's annual Christmas bird count has begun _ early, as always.

This year the National Audubon Society's bird count on the Gulf Coast is especially important: It comes eight months after the BP oil spill set off panic in the hearts of ornithologists and bird lovers across the nation. The counts

On Christmas Eve, more rain and snow was expected across the Midwest and wet conditions were forecast to persist across the Pacific Northwest.

A low pressure system and associated cold front would continue moving eastward from the Plains and into the Midwest. The front was expected to extend down the Mississippi River Valley, kicking up a combination of rain and snow showers. Snow may even reach as far south as Tennessee in the late evening hours. Most of the Midwest was forecast to see

Celeste Flores-Narvaez has retraced her younger sister's last known steps for days now, sacrificing rest, food and time with her children in her cross-country search for answers.

No one, it seems, knows where the Las Vegas burlesque dancer is.

Deborah Flores-Narvaez's story has grabbed national headlines since the beautiful dancer went missing more than a week ago. For Celeste, unraveling the mystery has become a mission. She has led her family's desperate pleas for help.

"I've

Increased commodity prices and strong demand have sent prices of farmland skyrocketing, making it more difficult for young and beginning farmers to get established but strengthening the balance sheets for those who own the land.

Across the Corn Belt, the price of farmland was on the rise in 2010. The highest increases were seen in Iowa, where values rose 13 percent and an acre of farmland sold for upward of $7,000 in some areas of the state. Minnesota and Wisconsin also saw double digit

To many in the accounting world, Carl Bass is a hero. Long before Enron became a worldwide symbol of scandal, Bass told his supervisors at Arthur Andersen LLP that something was amiss with the Houston energy giant.

But the Texas state board that licenses accountants sees Bass differently _ as unfit to continue in his profession.

Nearly a decade after Enron collapsed and took Arthur Andersen with it, the work of Bass and another former Andersen partner, Thomas Bauer, as Enron auditors

The U.S. Secret Service says a man fleeing from local police drove through an outer perimeter checkpoint set up near President Barack Obama's Hawaii vacation home.

Photographers took pictures of a Secret Service agent sprinting toward the pickup truck and pointing her gun at the driver.

Spokesman Ed Donovan says the driver wasn't trying to get near Obama or his family and the incident had nothing to do with his Hawaii visit.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports police were chasing

Police went door to door Thursday urging residents to evacuate two mountain hamlets near Las Vegas after three overnight snow slides stirred fears of a disastrous avalanche.

No injuries or structural damage were reported on Mount Charleston after the small to moderate avalanches struck about 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"This is terrible," homeowner Jeff Anderson, 63, said about the snowfall. "It is so wet it keeps packing down."

Anderson was just down the mountain from

A California company has recalled several thousand pounds of frozen capelin because of fears the fish is contaminated with bacteria that could cause life-threatening botulism.

JFC International Inc. of Los Angeles said consumers shouldn't eat the product even if it doesn't look or smell spoiled. The recall affects about 540 cartons of capelin, averaging 8 pounds apiece, that were sold nationwide in restaurants and retail stores between September and December.

Botulism is a potentially

Many California residents who endured flooding, mudslides and evacuations during a weeklong onslaught of rain must now clean up or even rebuild _ and could face the prospect of not being able to spend Christmas at home.

The storm's push across the West left a muddy mess Thursday across Southern California and the threat of avalanches in Nevada, where Clark County officials urged residents of Mount Charleston, near Las Vegas, to leave after snow slides near two mountain hamlets.

Preliminary

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson told his "700 Club" audience that harsh penalties for marijuana possession are costly for the nation and damaging to young people, but a spokesman said Thursday he was not calling for decriminalizing pot.

Robertson, 80, made the comments on the Christian Broadcasting Network in the context of faith-based approaches to treating offenders, the spokesman said.

"Dr. Robertson unequivocally stated that he is against the use of illegal drugs," Chris Roslan

Rahm Emanuel is a resident of Chicago and eligible to run for mayor, city elections officials ruled Thursday, removing the primary obstacle to the former White House chief of staff's bid to lead the nation's third-largest city.

The decision of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners was followed a few hours later by the surprise withdrawal from the race of state Sen. James Meeks, who said the remaining African-American candidates must rally a "divided and splintered" black community

Fred Hargesheimer, a World War II Army pilot whose rescue by Pacific islanders led to a life of giving back as a builder of schools and teacher of children, died Thursday morning. He was 94. Richard Hargesheimer said his father had been suffering from poor health and passed away in Lincoln.

On June 5, 1943, Hargesheimer, a P-38 pilot with the 8th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, was shot down by a Japanese fighter while on a mission over the Japanese-held island of New Britain in the

House Republicans, who take control of the House next month, pledged Thursday to retain a controversial ethics office, post legislation on the Internet prior to votes and require that bills requiring an increase in spending be balanced with cuts elsewhere.

The House Office of Congressional Ethics has irritated several members who were subject to lengthy investigations that criticized their conduct. The office, established by Democrats, is run by a board of people from outside Congress.

The late Sen. Edward Kennedy's dog, Splash, who was the star of a children's book about Capitol Hill, has died.

Kennedy's widow, Vicki, announced his death in an e-mail Thursday. She calls the 13-year-old Portuguese water dog "a world-class fetcher of tennis balls and a meeter and greeter of presidents, senators, congressmen and even foreign dignitaries."

Splash may be best known for the 2006 children's book Kennedy wrote from Splash's point of view, called "My Senator and Me: A Dog's

The politicians who wrangled a last-minute compromise bill giving 9/11 survivors and responders with five more years of health care and billions of dollars in compensation gathered at the World Trade Center site Thursday to declare a patriotic victory, though others disagree over whether the bill goes far enough.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer joined other New York politicians and some ground zero workers beneath the rising construction at the site to celebrate the $4.2

Illinois state Sen. James Meeks withdrew his candidacy for Chicago mayor on Thursday, and he urged other African-American candidates to follow his lead and rally what he called a divided black community around a single candidate.

The surprise Christmas week announcement came a day after he met to discuss the idea of a unity candidate from the city's large African-American community with fellow Democratic candidates U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, both of

In the middle of a House debate, Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky handed the woman in charge of the rules a paper bag. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., peered inside, saw the bottle of Maker's Mark bourbon and laughed.

Indeed, a shot of something strong might help make sense of a prolific Congress that seemed to break the rules of political physics. Democrats were punished by voters for a long list of accomplishments, then rallied with a post-election session that was anything but

Children playing in a ravine south of Seattle this week found the skull of a young mother who vanished nearly three decades ago and has long been thought to be a victim of Green River serial killer Gary Ridgway.

The King County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday that dental records identified the remains as those of 20-year-old Rebecca "Becky" Marrero, who was last seen Dec. 3, 1982, as she left a motel room on Pacific Highway South.

Green River killer Gary Ridgway was arrested

A blast team supervisor is trapped underwater and feared dead after the ground gave way at a central Florida limerock mine.

Authorities say 35-year-old Kenneth Stephens Jr., of Beverly Hills, Fla., approached a lime pit Thursday after a routine blast at the Mazak Mine in Bushnell, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando. He was about 30 feet from the blast area when the ground gave way and he collapsed into the lime pit.

A pontoon boat has been lowered into the pit by a crane but rescue

The U.N. General Assembly has recognized Alassane Ouattara as the winner of the Ivory Coast's presidential election, giving a boost to his bid to unseat Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down.

The 192-nation world body adopted a resolution by consensus Thursday accepting the credentials of Ouattara's choice for ambassador to the United Nations, veteran diplomat Youssouf Bamba.

In doing so, the assembly rescinded the credentials of Ivory Coast's U.N. Ambassador Ilahiri Djedje,