HONOLULU (AP) -- A retired Army master sergeant who pleaded guilty to bribery and money-laundering charges stemming from his time in Iraq has been sentenced to three years and four months in prison....

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) -- A worker who was in a Connecticut power plant when it exploded on Sunday tells The Associated Press there was a smell of natural gas in the plant less than an hour before the blast....

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A lawyer for a Rutgers University graduate student charged with a January security breach at Newark Liberty Airport that led to worldwide flight delays entered a plea of not guilty Tuesday and defended his client as "simply a lovesick man who made a mistake."...

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. (AP) -- Homeowners in mud-ravaged foothill towns north of Los Angeles packed their cars and fled Tuesday as evacuation orders took hold and a new winter storm approached....

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A former state legislative aide testifying in a public corruption trial delved into his sex life Tuesday, saying under cross-examination that he had been having problems with sexual performance for which he received medical treatment....

DENVER (AP) -- Police in at least two states are increasingly using a DNA crime-solving technique that some legal experts say amounts to guilt by association: If your brother, father, uncle or son has been in trouble with the law and is in a DNA database because of it, you, too, could fall under suspicion....

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Police began excavating a landfill Tuesday in search of a body or other evidence in the disappearance of an 8-month-old Arizona boy who was last seen with his mother at a San Antonio hotel on the day after Christmas....

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Silence emanated Tuesday from top Democrats in New York as Gov. David Paterson, already fighting to remain politically viable, fought to lay to rest unconfirmed rumors and news reports of womanizing and drug use....

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A suspect was arrested Tuesday in the killing of a well-known anti-gang counselor who was shot to death when he confronted a tagger writing graffiti in Los Angeles, police said....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Snow blew across the Midwest on Tuesday and headed for the hard-hit Mid-Atlantic region, where federal government offices have been closed since last week and utility workers struggled to restore power already knocked out by a weekend blizzard....