WASHINGTON Florida banking regulators have shut down Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida, marking the 124th U.S. bank to succumb this year to the struggling economy and rising loan defaults.

WASHINGTON The Senate is poised to approve on Saturday the start of a historic debate over health care legislation aimed at making coverage easier, less expensive to obtain and harder to lose.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. The Alabama Supreme Court says a woman who thought she had hit a jackpot worth almost $42 million at the Victoryland electronic bingo center will end up empty handed. The court ruled Friday that an electronic bingo machine that showed Sherry Knowles had won $41.8 million obviously malfunctioned and that she was actually due no more than $2 from the operation in Macon County.

GENEVA Scientists circulated beams of protons in the world's largest atom smasher Friday night for the first time after a year of repairs caused by a spectacular failure after the $10 billion machine was heavily damaged by a simple electrical fault.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. Asian carp may have breached an electronic barrier designed to prevent the giant invaders from upsetting the ecosystem in the Great Lakes and jeopardizing a $7 billion sport fishery, officials said Friday.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. Jimmie Johnson will go for his fourth straight Cup title from the pole.

WASHINGTON The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, prosecutors said in court documents Friday.

MIAMI The ringleader of a group described by prosecutors as plotting terror attacks on Chicago's Sears Tower and FBI offices in hopes of sparking an anti-government insurrection was sentenced Friday to 13 1/2 years in prison by a federal judge.

Several doctors groups and advocacy groups set guidelines for cancer screening, and they update that advice periodically as new information emerges. Sometimes they agree, sometimes they don't. Last year, a number of groups got together and issued consensus guidelines for colon cancer.

SCRANTON, Pa. Two former Pennsylvania judges accused of taking kickbacks to supply private detention facilities with juveniles have been granted partial immunity from civil liability.

SAN FRANCISCO The decision to move Johannes Mehserle's trial to Los Angeles County is a setback for the former transit officer charged with killing an unarmed man on New Year's Day.

ATLANTA UPS Inc., the world's largest shipping carrier, is hiking 2010 rates for ground packages by an average of 4.9 percent.

BRUNSWICK, Maine The rumble of Navy patrol aircraft flying overhead will soon be a thing of the past as the remaining P-3 Orions depart from Brunswick Naval Air Station.

BOSTON JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Friday it is dropping a clause from its credit card contracts that required disputes with customers to be handled through binding arbitration, a move that could lead to consumers filing class-action and other lawsuits.

The NFL Players Association opposes commissioner Roger Goodell's call for players to tell their teams' medical staffs if they think a teammate shows symptoms of a concussion.

COLUMBUS, Ohio An attorney for a condemned killer says Ohio's new lethal-injection plan is so untested it would amount to human experimentation if used for the first time next month.

WASHINGTON A retired State Department worker and his wife accused of a three-decade-long plot to spy for Cuba have pleaded guilty in federal court.

SAN ANTONIO An attorney for the Army psychiatrist charged in the mass shooting at Fort Hood says his client will have his first court hearing in his hospital room on Saturday.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. An independent panel says the United States can extend the life of aging nuclear weapons for decades with existing programs, a finding that activists contend means there's no need for the nation to design replacements for the nuclear arsenal.

PHILADELPHIA A Pennsylvania university's requirement that overweight undergraduates take a fitness course to receive their degrees has raised the hackles of students and the eyebrows of health and legal experts.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Gani Lawal had 18 points and 14 rebounds to lead No. 21 Georgia Tech to a 70-62 victory over George Mason on Friday in the consolation round of the O'Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off.

WICHITA, Kan. Wichita police arrested a pregnant woman after she allegedly robbed homes after asking residents for help. Police said the woman, who is eight months pregnant, had been telling people in west Wichita that her car broke down and she needed to call someone for a ride.

NEW YORK Whether he's planning another run for the White House or a bid for senator or governor, or he just misses the spotlight, Rudy Giuliani is suddenly back and talking about the topic that made him a national star - Sept. 11.

MERCER, Pa. A western Pennsylvania woman has been ordered to stand trial on charges she passed a drug-filled balloon to a state prison inmate while kissing him. State police said guards at the State Correctional Institution-Mercer became suspicious when an inmate appeared to swallow something after a prolonged kiss with a visitor on Oct. 19.

RALEIGH, N.C. A North Carolina doctor could lose his medical license after a patient complained he made cutting criticisms, including telling her she was fat. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported the North Carolina Medical Board will decide if Dr. Earl Sunderhaus of Asheville overstepped the bounds of professional decency.

SAN DIEGO A 17-year-old pleaded guilty Friday to murdering a Border Patrol agent who was shot eight times in head, neck and torso in the mountains east of San Diego.

CHARLESTON, S.C. Tulane's Kevin Sims made a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 19 seconds to play and the Green Wave held on to beat Penn State 63-60 Friday in the second round of the Charleston Classic at Carolina First Arena.

KALAMAZOO, Mich. Authorities in western Michigan arrested a person twice in three days for driving the wrong way down the highway Kalamazoo County deputies said they were alerted about 1:30 a.m. Friday after several people called 911 when they passed the unidentified driver traveling south on northbound U.S. 131.

WASHINGTON The Army says there will be an outside review of how body armor for its soldiers is tested.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. Baltimore Ravens defensive end Dwan Edwards plans to appeal the $5,000 fine he received for a hit delivered to Cleveland Browns wide receiver Joshua Cribbs on Monday night.

WASHINGTON A retired State Department employee and his wife are expected to plead guilty Friday in federal court to charges that they have been spying for Cuba for decades.

NIKISKI, Alaska Norm Olson's genial tone belies his reputation as a radical militiaman, yet here he is, at 63, an affable grandfather explaining why Americans should arm themselves against their government.

PHOENIX A 2-year-old boy dragged a 1-year-old Arizona girl Friday from a house fire that killed her mother and injured two other adults, authorities said.

WASHINGTON Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, one of three moderate Democratic senators wavering on whether to allow debate on health care legislation to proceed, said Friday that he would vote to move the bill forward.

PEEKSKILL, N.Y. A New York state man has been convicted of reckless endangerment after leaving his 85-year-old father in a car on a hot day and finding him dead three hours later.

LAS VEGAS Police believe a batch of drugs blamed in Michael Jackson's death was purchased by his personal physician at a Las Vegas pharmacy, court documents released Friday show.

ZURICH FIFA suspended Iraq from soccer because of political interference in the national federation.

ATLANTA Four North Carolina patients at a single hospital tested positive for a type of swine flu that is resistant to Tamiflu, health officials said Friday.

INDIANAPOLIS An Indianapolis man convicted of killing three children and four adults during a home invasion robbery three years ago has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

SAN FRANCISCO California's unemployment rate rose to 12.5 percent in October to set another modern record, even though more than 25,000 Californians found jobs, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.

LOS ANGELES California is investigating several companies suspected of bilking churches nationwide of hundreds of thousands of dollars through fraudulent computer leasing schemes, authorities said Friday.

CHICAGO Agriculture futures were mixed Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

OZARK, Ark. The FBI has dispatched investigators to Arkansas to look into a police officer's use of a stun gun on a 10-year-old girl who refused to take a shower.

FRANKFURT German prosecutors investigating match-fixing in soccer say 15 people in Germany and two in Switzerland have been arrested and about 200 games in Europe are under suspicion.

BETHEL, Alaska An air taxi with eight people aboard made an emergency landing on tundra when the engine failed near Alaska's Bering Sea coast.

WASHINGTON Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska is a "yes" in a crucial weekend test vote on health care.

GREENBURGH, N.Y. The New York Knicks won't sign Allen Iverson, believing any short-term gain would hinder their plans to build for the future.

UNITED NATIONS A key U.N. committee approved a resolution Friday urging Iran to halt the persecution of political opponents following the country's disputed presidential election and release those still detained.

WILMINGTON, Del. The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington is obligated to pay retirement benefits to six priests who are confirmed pedophiles, church officials argued in a bankruptcy court filing seeking permission to keep making the payments.

WASHINGTON The Senate ethics committee on Friday admonished Democratic Sen. Roland Burris for misleading investigators about his maneuvering to get Barack Obama's old Senate seat from the governor who was ousted for trying to sell it.