US News

AP - A 73-year-old gunman entangled in a love triangle shot and killed the treasurer of a remote-controlled airplane club who police said was having an affair with the estranged wife of the attacker.

AP - A jury convicted a former University of Virginia lacrosse player Wednesday of second-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend in a drunken, jealous rage, rejecting a first-degree murder verdict and a possible life sentence.

AP - At a doublewide trailer along a dirt road in rural Alabama, authorities say 9-year-old Savannah Hardin was forced to run for three hours as punishment for having lied to her grandmother about eating candy bars. The severely dehydrated girl had a seizure and her death days later was ruled a homicide.

Reuters - A man shot and wounded by an Oakland police officer last weekend was a cousin of Oscar Grant, whose shooting death by a Bay Area transit officer sparked violent demonstrations in 2010, his attorney said on Wednesday.

AP - A former District of Columbia police commander whose division provided a police escort to actor Charlie Sheen last April has given notice that he intends to file a whistleblower lawsuit against the city, saying he was demoted because he testified to the D.C. Council that such escorts for celebrities were commonplace.

AP - A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that the U.S. government cannot deny health benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee by relying on the 1996 law that bars government recognition of same-sex unions.

Time.com - The greatest threat to any long-term investor is inflation. It not only erodes the value of stocks and bonds, but also depresses economic growth and misleads policymakers

Time.com - As part of an extended celebration of his 70th birthday, the ailing legend appears at a massive fundraiser to benefit brain research

Reuters - Virginia's Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell on Wednesday abruptly shifted his stance on a hotly-contested bill requiring women seeking abortions to have an ultrasound, asking lawmakers to revise the legislation just before a scheduled vote.

AP - An 8-year-old girl was in critical condition Wednesday after she was shot in the abdomen at her elementary school near Seattle, and one of her classmates was detained, authorities said Wednesday.

AP - The mayor and police director of New Jersey's largest city said Wednesday the New York Police Department misled their city and never told them it was conducting a widespread spying operation on Newark's Muslim neighborhoods. Had they known, they said, they never would have allowed it.

AP - Last weekend, 14-year-old Ashley Long told her parents she was going to a slumber party. But instead of spending the night watching videos and eating popcorn two blocks away, she piled into a car with a bunch of her friends and rode to a condo in Medford, Ore., where police say the big sister of one of her friends was throwing a party with booze and marijuana.

AP - Billy Wright plunked down dime after dime for comic books while growing up in the late 1930s and early 1940s, caring for the collection he started around the age of 9 until his death more than half a century later. On Wednesday, most of that collection sold for a whopping $3.5 million.

Reuters - An alleged al Qaeda operative from Maryland held at Guantanamo Bay has entered into a plea agreement with U.S. military prosecutors that calls for him to testify against other detainees, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

AP - Troy James Knapp is a wanted man, a mountain recluse authorities say is responsible for more than two dozen cabin burglaries in the remote southern Utah wilderness. He's considered armed and dangerous, a ticking time bomb.

AP - President Barack Obama signed the payroll tax cut extension into law Wednesday, notching an election-year victory and rare bipartisan agreement in the continuing partisan battle over jobs, taxes and debt.

Reuters - Nearly 1,200 people lined up at a downtown Miami conference center on Wednesday, holding onto mortgage documents and income statements in the hope of saving the homes they are struggling to pay for.

AP - A Texas man who kidnapped his former neighbor and tortured her while holding her captive nearly two weeks was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.

AP - Washington state cannot force pharmacies to sell Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, saying the state's true goal was to suppress religious objections by druggists — not to promote timely access to the medicines for people who need them.

AP - President Barack Obama is reaping political benefits from the country's brighter economic mood. A new poll shows that Republicans and Democrats alike are increasingly saying the nation is heading in the right direction and most independents now approve the way he's addressing the nation's post-recession period.