 State patrols struggle with big gas bills
 Associated Press
Col. Paul Grimstad, head of Montana's Highway Patrol fills up his cruiser in Helena, Montana. With gas prices soaring, state police agencies nationwide are scrambling to find the money to cover costs — in some cases looking to downsize to smaller-engine cars or even motorcycles.
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South Texas gets first look at Dolly's damage
BROWNSVILLE, Texas, 8:44 a.m. July 24 (AP)
Residents and recovery teams began fanning out across south Texas Thursday and cars crept along roads with darkened stoplights as the region got its first look at the destruction left by Hurricane Dolly.
Traffic picked up on local roads littered with debris as people emerged for the first time in more than 24 hours after Dolly's soaking rains and punishing winds. After crashing ashore on South Padre Island, the storm ripped roofs from homes, flooded roads and downed power lines, but the Rio Grande levees officials had feared could breach held strong.
More National News
PITTSBURGH, 12:56 p.m. July 24 (AP)Mom accused of poisoning son sent to Pa. hospital: A mother accused in Pittsburgh of deliberately injecting her 4-month-old son with salt water will be sent to a state mental hospital because she suffers from severe depression. MIAMI, 12:53 p.m. July 24 (AP)
Ark. man accused in 4 boat deaths pleads guilty: One of two men accused of killing four people aboard a fishing charter last year pleaded guilty Thursday in exchange for an agreement that prosecutors will not seek the death penalty. OKLAHOMA CITY, 12:45 p.m. July 24 (AP)
Okla. crane fall kills man watching construction: Church members watching the steeple being raised on their new building looked on in horror Thursday as a crane holding the structure toppled, crushing a car and killing an 80-year-old man who had been watching from inside the vehicle, firefighters said. WASHINGTON, 12:39 p.m. July 24 (AP)
Memo: 'Good faith' protects against torture charge: The Justice Department in 2002 told the CIA that its interrogators would be safe from prosecution for violations of anti-torture laws if they believed “in good faith” that harsh techniques used to break prisoners' will would not cause “prolonged mental harm.” NEW YORK, 12:30 p.m. July 24 (AP)
AP told 3 bidders make final cut to buy Cubs: Tribune Co. is inviting at least three potential buyers who each submitted bids for the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field near or above $1 billion to participate in a second round of proposals, according to a person involved in the process. WASHINGTON, 12:27 p.m. July 24 (AP)
Satellite radio companies to pay $19.7 million: Approval of a merger of the nation's only two satellite radio companies was imminent Thursday after the pair agreed to pay $19.7 million to settle charges they violated federal rules.
PRICE, Utah, 9:49 a.m. July 24 (AP)
Feds to release report on Utah mine disaster: Federal regulators giving a report on what went wrong at a deadly Utah mine cave-in last summer said they expected a critique of their own performance by another agency.
CHICAGO, 5:20 a.m. July 24 (AP)
Reports of wire taps emerge in Drew Peterson case: Two friends of former police officer Drew Peterson told a newspaper he made incriminating statements during secretly taped conversations following the disappearance of his fourth wife – claims that Peterson denies.
NEW ORLEANS, 6:54 a.m. July 24 (AP)Crews clean oil from shut stretch of Mississippi: Crews are cleaning more than 400,000 gallons of oil from a closed stretch of the Mississippi River from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico. MINNEAPOLIS, 3:24 a.m. July 24 (AP)
Police see communication key to convention peace: Borrowing from a European model, Minneapolis and St. Paul police hope to quell any disruptions at this summer's Republican National Convention by exchanging cell phone numbers and offering other olive branches to demonstrators.
WASHINGTON, 2:34 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Minimum wage going up, little help as costs soar: About 2 million Americans get a raise Thursday as the federal minimum wage rises 70 cents. The bad news: Higher gas and food prices are swallowing it up, and some small businesses will pass the cost of the wage hike to consumers.
NEW YORK, 8:07 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Church surrenders lot near ground zero for $20M: The World Trade Center site's owner has offered $20 million to acquire the 1,200-square-foot lot of a church destroyed on Sept. 11, freeing one more piece of land needed to rebuild every inch of ground zero.
HONOLULU, 8:03 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Air Force says no survivors of B-52 crash off Guam: All six crew members aboard a B-52 bomber that crashed off Guam were killed, the Air Force said Wednesday as the search effort shifted focus from rescue to recovery of the crew and pieces of the wreckage.
QUINCY, Wash., 7:28 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Huge brush fire subsides in central Washington: An evacuation order for up to 300 people was lifted Wednesday as more firefighters were put to work on a wind-driven wildfire fueled by sagebrush in central Washington, officials said.
NEW YORK, 7:16 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Bubble burst? Off-Broadway show's suds stolen: The bubble might have burst for off-Broadway's “Gazillion Bubbles Show.” Someone has stolen the show's specialized soapy bubble solution, which takes two months to make.
DALLAS, 7:01 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Detective who helped arrest Oswald dead at 87: Dallas police Detective Paul Bentley, who helped arrest presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald at the Texas Theater, had a ready retort for those who didn't accept the official story that Oswald acted alone.
NEW ORLEANS, 6:43 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Ship-barge crash closes Mississippi at New Orleans: A stretch of the Mississippi River at New Orleans could be closed for days as crews clean a 12-mile oil slick caused Wednesday when a tanker and barge collided, officials said.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas, 6:39 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Convicted killers in Texas, Miss., put to death: Texas executed a man Wednesday who was convicted of killing a woman and her child, while Mississippi put to death a man who took part in the fatal beating of another man.
DALLAS, 6:31 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Only 2 Texas high schoolers positive for steroids: The nation's largest steroids testing program caught only two Texas high school athletes taking unauthorized substances out of more than 10,000 students who were tested, according to results issued Wednesday.
OLATHE, Kan., 5:58 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Kansas man pleads guilty in teen's kidnap-slaying: A man pleaded guilty Wednesday to snatching an 18-year-old from a store parking lot, raping her and strangling her with her own belt before dumping her body in a park.
TAUNTON, Mass., 5:48 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Mass. woman kills self before home foreclosure: A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself shortly after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house that day, she would be dead.
OKLAHOMA CITY, 5:31 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Anti-gay Okla. lawmaker caught with gun at Capitol: A state lawmaker who gained national notoriety with an anti-homosexual rant was stopped from entering the state Capitol Wednesday when she was found to have a loaded handgun in her purse, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.
AKRON, Ohio, 5:08 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Ohio woman gets 5 years in $8M armored-car heist: A woman who helped her boyfriend steal about $8 million from an armored car company was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison.
PITTSBURGH, 4:56 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Pennsylvania infant cut from womb leaves hospital: The baby cut from a slain woman's womb last week was released from the hospital Wednesday as a defense attorney said the woman accused of the crime intends to plead not guilty.
DETROIT, 4:31 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Toyota outsells GM worldwide in first half: General Motors Corp., pummeled by falling U.S. sales and high gas prices, lost the global sales lead to Toyota Motor Corp. in the first half of this year, but the churning market makes it difficult to predict which automaker will end the year on top.
ALBEMARLE, N.C., 4:27 p.m. July 23 (AP)
NC police warned about woman with 5 dead spouses: A former police officer and a neighbor said Wednesday that a Georgia grandmother who now has five dead spouses tried to hire them to kill her fourth husband more than two decades ago.
CHICAGO, 3:50 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Chicago cop accused of shaking down tow operators: A police officer was arrested Wednesday on federal charges of shaking down tow truck operators for payoffs of up to $400 per vehicle in exchange for steering towing business to them.
HARTFORD, Conn., 3:35 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Suspect in girlfriend's killing found dead in cell: A man charged with murdering his pregnant girlfriend in front of their two children killed himself in his jail cell, a state prison official said Wednesday.
MIAMI, 2:47 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Unknown disease killing off Florida's state tree: The sabal palm, Florida's state tree, is under attack by a microscopic killer that has scientists stumped.
FRANKFORT, Ky., 2:46 p.m. July 23 (AP)
New policy lowers flags only for Ky. soldiers: Kentucky has started lowering flags to half-staff only for fallen soldiers from the Bluegrass State, upsetting veterans and lawmakers who say the policy dishonors tens of thousands of service members from other states stationed at installations such as Fort Campbell and Fort Knox.
NEW YORK, 2:34 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Gates, Bloomberg pool riches to fight smoking: Microsoft founder Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are pooling their piles of money to pour $375 million into a global effort to cut smoking.
2:25 p.m. July 23 (AP)
Judge to Moussaoui jury: You got it right: McLEAN, Va. – The judge in the trial of convicted Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui says she told jurors that they made the right decision in sparing his life.
NEW YORK, 12:55 p.m. July 23 (AP)
New York Times to raise newsstand price to $1.50: The New York Times Co. will increase the Monday-Saturday newsstand cost of its flagship paper by 25 cents to $1.50, the publisher said Wednesday.
NEW ORLEANS, 12:08 p.m. July 23 (AP)
FEMA seeks immunity from suits over trailer fumes: The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked a federal judge Wednesday for immunity from lawsuits over potentially dangerous fumes in government-issued trailers that have housed tens of thousands of Gulf Coast hurricane victims.
ALBANY, N.Y., 10:07 a.m. July 23 (AP)
NY prohibits smoking in addiction recovery centers: Many drug addicts, problem gamblers and alcoholics may find it harder to kick their habits in New York now that the state has become the first in the country to ban smoking at all recovery centers.
ELDORADO, Texas, 8:29 a.m. July 23 (AP)
Texas grand jury indicts polygamist sect members: Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, already convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice and awaiting trial in Arizona on other charges related to underage marriages, is now accused of assaulting a girl in Texas in January 2005.
HOUSTON, 6:24 a.m. July 23 (REUTERS)
Port of Corpus Christi, Texas, shut due to Dolly: The Port of Corpus Christi, Texas, through which three refineries are supplied with crude oil, was shut due to heavy weather from Hurricane Dolly, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday morning.
5:56 a.m. July 23 (AP)
Bush drops opposition to housing bill: WASHINGTON –President Bush has dropped his opposition to legislation that aims to calm the chaotic housing market despite his opposition to a $3.9 billion provision, the White House said Wednesday.
HOUSTON, 5:49 a.m. July 23 (AP)
Man who squeezed out of jail nabbed in hotel pool: Police in Houston say a murder suspect who lost weight so he could escape from jail by squeezing through a vent has been caught taking a dip in a motel swimming pool.
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C., 3:51 a.m. July 23 (AP)
Tourism travails: summer fun faces uncertain times: The sign outside the Aquarius motel reads: “Spend a night, Not a paycheck,” but some Midwest travelers have canceled reservations and other visitors stay fewer nights. On the nation's opposite coast, vacationers in Oregon worried about $4 gas splurge less on meals and skip the frills on getaways.
HARRISBURG, Pa., 2:40 a.m. July 23 (AP)
Penn. lawmakers urged to use sex-offender tracking: Pennsylvania's auditor general wants his state to join the estimated two dozen others that track some released sex offenders with global positioning satellite technology.
HOUSTON, 2:39 a.m. July 23 (AP)
Researcher says Gulf dead zone bigger than ever: A “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas-Louisiana coast this year is likely to be the biggest ever and last longer than ever before, with marine life affected for hundreds of miles, a scientist warned.
TRENTON, N.J., 2:10 a.m. July 23 (AP)
New Jersey to require organ donation decision: In five years, New Jersey residents seeking driver's licenses will have to decide whether they want to become organ donors under a new first-of-its kind law.
CHARLESTON, W.Va., 1:00 a.m. July 23 (AP)
Effects linger from last summer's drought in W.Va.: First, there was last summer's drought. Then came more bad news: skyrocketing fuel and fertilizer prices, and a wet spring that delayed West Virginia farmers' plantings and hay harvests.
NEW YORK, 12:14 a.m. July 23 (AP)
NYC services to be offered in 6 foreign languages: This polyglot city is making it official: Agencies will offer services in six of the most common foreign languages spoken – Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole.
MOYOCK, N.C., 3:04 p.m. July 22 (AP)Blackwater looks to rebuild name on other fronts: The world over, guns for hire are known as “Blackwater guys” – and that's the reason Blackwater Worldwide wants to move beyond the business of private security contracting. WASHINGTON, 2:11 p.m. July 22 (AP)
Bush says Wall Street has hangover, must sober up: President Bush, in an unguarded moment, said Wall Street “got drunk and now it's got a hangover.”
