CLEMMONS, N.C. Amber Parker watched on television as the storm near her home grew into a tornado threat. Then, when the roaring wind outside suddenly fell silent, she grabbed her two toddlers and rushed to get under the stairwell.

LAS VEGAS Elizabeth Halverson is a judge. But the way courthouse staffers see it, she expects to be treated like a queen.

It used to be called "regular." But there's nothing regular about leaded gasoline these days - good luck even finding a gallon.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. It's a happy Mother's Day for an Arkansas woman - she's pregnant with her 18th child.

BAGHDAD The U.S. military on Friday denied Iraqi government claims that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was captured and said a man with a similar name had been arrested in the northern city of Mosul.

EDDYVILLE, Ky. Marco Allen Chapman is ready to die.

PHILADELPHIA Hundreds of mourners lined up in the pouring rain outside a cathedral Friday to pay their respects to a Philadelphia police officer killed in the line of duty.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. A prosecutor says there's no evidence that one of two Arkansas men who killed a teacher and four students in a school shooting a decade ago has been mistreated while in jail on separate charges.

GREENSBORO, N.C. Authorities began combing through the wreckage Friday caused by a reported tornado that killed one person and injured three others in central North Carolina.

XENIA, Ohio An Ohio woman has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole for killing her roommate with an ice pick through the ear.

TOLEDO, Ohio A man has been found guilty in a wrong-way crash in Toledo, Ohio that killed a mother and four children.

WASHINGTON Depression, teens and marijuana are a dangerous mix that can lead to dependency, mental illness or suicidal thoughts, according to a White House report being released Friday.

BATON ROUGE, La. A construction company owner who lost two homes in Hurricane Katrina claimed a $97 million Powerball prize, a jackpot won off a ticket he bought at a convenience store where he stopped to buy his wife a gallon of milk.

SAN ANTONIO Hand-scrawled records taken from a polygamist sect are helping untangle the spider-web network of family relationships at the Yearning For Zion ranch, where some husbands had more than a dozen wives.

PHILADELPHIA Seven more police officers were taken off street duty Thursday as investigators look into the videotaped police beating of three shooting suspects during a traffic stop.

LAS VEGAS Seventy-seven more people who were treated at a Las Vegas outpatient clinic have been diagnosed with hepatitis C, health officials said.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like "Make the World Go Away" made him one of the most successful country singers in history, died Thursday morning, days short of his 90th birthday.

DALLAS A gorilla recognized as the world's oldest in captivity celebrated her 55th birthday by munching down a four-layer frozen fruit cake and banana leaf wrapped treats.

EL PASO, Texas When he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, Spc. Richard Torres was carrying a small arsenal in his car: an AR-15 assault rifle, a .45-caliber handgun, 171 rounds of ammunition, several cartridges and three knives.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. An American Indian who shot a bald eagle for use in a tribal religious ceremony must stand trial, a federal appeals court has ruled.

INDEPENDENCE, Calif. National Park Service officials say the Death Valley ranch where Charles Manson was arrested will be closed for a second time this year to search for possible human remains.

LUBBOCK, Texas Craig Heinrich and other South Plains cotton producers no longer have to look to the sky and pray - widespread rain arrived just in time for planting.

NEWARK, N.J. A rare international alert seeking a man shown in dozens of raw child porn images quickly led to the arrest of a small-time actor, who painted faces at children's parties and performed as "the best Santa Claus anyone has ever seen."

PEARISBURG, Va. A convicted murderer is suspected of shooting and wounding two men on the Appalachian Trail a few miles from the spot where he killed two hikers in 1981, authorities said.

HOUSTON Three teenagers were arrested after two of them told police they dug up a secluded grave north of Houston, removed the skull from the coffin and converted it into a marijuana bong.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. The family of a man who plunged more than 500 feet in a coal mine's air shaft filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Thursday against a company he helped found that was building the shaft.

BOISE, Idaho Eight Western states on Thursday rejected a company's plan to ship tons of radioactive waste from Italy for disposal in Utah, saying importing foreign loads would violate the group's rules.

CONCORD, N.H. Since they first walked the planet, humans have either buried or burned their dead. Now a new option is generating interest - dissolving bodies in lye and flushing the brownish, syrupy residue down the drain.

NEW YORK Gov. David Paterson pledged to examine undercover police conduct on Thursday, a day after more than 200 people were arrested protesting the acquittal of three detectives involved in the shooting death of an unarmed man.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. Northern Illinois University wants to remodel a building where five students were slain by a suicidal gunman on Valentine's Day, instead of demolishing it, the school president said Thursday.

LEBEC, Calif. A group of environmentalists and the owners of a large stretch of wilderness have reached a deal that would set aside the largest parcel of land for conservation in California history.

HOUSTON An illegal immigrant from Mexico was convicted of capital murder Thursday in the 2006 shooting of a police officer during a traffic stop.

PHOENIX The family of a New York woman who died in police custody at the Phoenix airport sued the city Thursday, accusing officers of using excessive force and contributing to her death.

ELIZABETH, N.J. Former Gov. James E. McGreevey and his estranged wife settled custody issues for their only child on Thursday as they moved closer to dissolving their marriage, their lawyers said.

COLUMBIA, S.C. Emergency crews didn't have enough hoses or adequate water pressure to properly fight a blaze that killed nine Charleston firefighters in a giant furniture store almost a year ago, according to a federal report released late Thursday.

A week from Saturday, 453 new graduates will cross the commencement stage on the lawn of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. Among them: Nokuthula Sikhethiwe Kitikiti, Udochukwu Chinyere Obodo, and Baitnairamdal Otgonshar.

CLAYTON, N.M. A judge reduced the bond of an apocalyptic-sect leader accused of sex crimes against girls who were part of his church, but she rejected his request Thursday to be released on his own recognizance.

SAN DIEGO The suspected leader of a drug trafficking ring was among seven students who pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges stemming from an undercover operation at San Diego State University that netted more than 100 arrests.

BOULDER, Wyo. There isn't anything metropolitan about this tiny unincorporated town in southwest Wyoming, where a few single-family homes and a volunteer fire station stand against a skyline of snowcapped mountains.

DAISETTA, Texas Geologists said a 260-foot-deep sinkhole that grew to the length of three football fields over just two days seemed to be slowing down Thursday, but that it could take months before it's clear whether surrounding areas are stable.

WASHINGTON Hispanic women born in the United States are more likely to have children out of wedlock than women who are immigrant Hispanics or non-Hispanics, according to an analysis released by Pew Hispanic Center Thursday.

NEW YORK The CIA must let a judge view a 2002 memo purportedly including waterboarding among interrogation methods to be used on prisoners in U.S. custody so he can decide whether it should be made public, the judge ruled Thursday.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. About 12 seconds was all it took for two bailiffs to gun down a man who shot at them in a courthouse lobby, and authorities said the swift response helped prevent anyone else from being seriously hurt.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska A former Alaska legislator convicted of taking bribes to push legislation for a major natural gas pipeline was sentenced Thursday to 3 1/2 years in federal prison.

LANSING, Mich. A man suspected of killing several women in this city over several terrifying weeks was convicted Thursday of two of the slayings and of attacking a third woman who survived.

BILLINGS, Mont. A federal judge in Montana has rejected a request by the government to delay a lawsuit seeking to place the gray wolf back on the endangered species list, saying he's "unwilling to risk more deaths."

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. Two school buses carrying sixth-graders to Yosemite National Park collided Thursday, injuring a dozen children and a parent, park officials said.

ON CAPE COD BAY, Mass. A spotter bangs three times on the boat's cabin roof, signaling the captain to cut the throttle - now. In the foggy gray of Cape Cod Bay, the reason for the abrupt stop soon becomes apparent: The research vessel is surrounded by rare North Atlantic right whales, their glossy black heads bobbing just above the surface as they feed on plankton slicks.

OKLAHOMA CITY Experts picked through debris and damage Thursday to determine whether tornadoes touched down after severe storms moved through the state, toppling trees and knocking out power to thousands of people.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. About 12 seconds was all it took for two bailiffs to gun down a man who shot at them in a courthouse lobby, and authorities said the swift response helped prevent anyone else from being seriously hurt.