• Virginia Gov. shifts on abortion bill; revised measure (Reuters)
    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.
  • U.S. judge orders Moroccan held for Capitol plot (Reuters)
    Reuters - A U.S. judge on Wednesday ordered a Moroccan man to be held on charges that he planned a suicide bombing attack against Congress, believing he was working with al Qaeda militants when in fact his contacts were undercover agents.
  • Struggling Floridians line up for a chance to keep homes (Reuters)
    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.
  • Is It Time to Start Worrying About Inflation Again? (Time.com)
    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
  • A Champion in Purgatory: Muhammad Ali Returns to Vegas (Time.com)
    Time.com - As part of an extended celebration of his 70th birthday, the ailing legend appears at a massive fundraiser to benefit brain research
  • Oakland police accused of shooting cousin of Oscar Grant (Reuters)
    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.
  • Authorities tracing phone of mountain man's family (AP)

    FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Iron County Sheriff's Office in January, shows a man who authorities on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012 identified as Troy James Knapp, walking past a cabin in the remote southern Utah wildness near Zion National Park. Authorities say Knapp, captured by a motion-triggered surveillance camera sometime in December, has been linked to more than two dozen cabin burglaries over the past five years. (AP Photo/Iron County Sheriff, File)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.


  • DC police official in celeb escort flap to sue (AP)
    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.
  • Report: Crime at US public schools on the decline (AP)
    AP - Violent crime at the nation's schools is declining, and students and schools are reporting less bullying and gang activity.
  • Man's childhood comic collection fetches $3.5M (AP)

    This Feb. 13, 2012 handout photo provided by Heritage Auction , shows the CGC-Certified 6.5 copy of Detective Comics #27 from the Billy Wright Collection at Heritage Auctions in Dallas,Texas. On Wednesday, the collection is expected to bring more than $2 million when Heritage Auctions offers the comics at auction in New York City. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Heritage Auctions)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.


  • Teenage girl dies after inhaling helium at party (AP)
    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.
  • Newark mayor: NYPD Muslim files 'deeply offensive' (AP)

    Imam Abdul A. Muhammad of the Masjid Imam K. Ali Muslim mosque in Newark, N.J., speaks in his clothing and accessories store, regarding surveillance of the Muslim community by the New York Police Department, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012. Americans in New Jersey’s largest city were subjected to surveillance as part of the New York Police Department’s effort to build databases of where Muslims work, shop and pray. The operation in Newark was so secretive, even the city’s mayor says he was kept in the dark. For months in mid-2007, plainclothes NYPD officers snapped pictures of mosques and eavesdropped in Muslim neighborhoods. The result was a 60-page report, obtained by The Associated Press. It cited no evidence of crimes. It was just a guide to Newark’s Muslims. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)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.


  • Jury: 26 years total for former U.Va. lax player (AP)
    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.
  • Police charge 2 in death of Ala girl forced to run (AP)
    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.
  • Judge says Wash. can't make pharmacies sell Plan B (AP)
    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.
  • Lesbian federal worker wins health benefits case (AP)
    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.
  • Police say love triangle led to CA murder-suicide (AP)
    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.
  • Police: Ga. victims related in Korean spa shooting (AP)
    AP - A gunman walked into the Su Jung Health Sauna, argued with someone and then opened fire, killing two of his sisters and their husbands, then himself, authorities said Wednesday
  • Obama signs payroll tax cut extension into law (AP)
    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.
  • 8-year-old critical after Wash. school shooting (AP)
    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.