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California wildfires strain state's resources
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A wildfire threatening thousands of homes in Southern California spread slowly through scenic canyonlands Saturday, straining resources as crews struggled to contain hundreds of other blazes around the state....
3 freed US hostages give thanks for their rescue
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- The three American hostages rescued by Colombia's military said in their first public statement that they are doing fine and are thrilled to "return home to the country we love."...
Americans' unhappy birthday: 'Too much wrong'
Even folks in the Optimist Club are having a tough time toeing an upbeat line these days. Eighteen members of the volunteer organization's Gilbert, Ariz., chapter have gathered, a few days before this nation's 232nd birthday, to focus on the positive: Their book drive for schoolchildren and an Independence Day project to place American flags along the streets of one neighborhood....
After DC gun ban overturned, city seeks new rules
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dale Metta, who manages a gun shop just outside the District of Columbia limits in Maryland, has had to turn away dozens of city residents wanting to buy handguns in recent days. Never mind that the U.S. Supreme Court just struck down Washington's 32-year-old ban on possessing handguns....
Grief leads father to create bomb-defusing robot
TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -- The knock on Brian Hart's door came at 6 a.m. An Army colonel, a priest and a police officer had come to tell Hart and his wife that their 20-year-old son had been killed when his military vehicle was ambushed in Iraq....
Helms never changed on civil rights opposition
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Jesse Helms forever changed North Carolina politics and the conservative movement. The former senator did it without ever changing much about himself....
Jones Beach evacuated after fireworks wash up
NEW YORK (AP) -- A popular beach on Long Island was evacuated at the height of a holiday weekend after stray, unexploded fireworks washed ashore the day after a July Fourth show, state parks officials said Saturday....
Accident at Iowa town's fireworks display hurts 37
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- A Fourth of July fireworks shell misfired in a northern Iowa town, sending a fireball skidding down a street into a crowd of spectators and injuring 37 people, officials said Saturday....
At root of most wildfires, by far: People
CROWN KING, Ariz. (AP) -- Playing with matches, being careless with a campfire, even burning a letter from an estranged husband: Some of the most devastating wildfires in the country's recent history have been started by people....
Ore. man completes flight of fancy - in lawn chair
BEND, Ore. (AP) -- Using his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth, a 48-year-old gas station owner flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert Saturday, landing in a field in Idaho....
Ore. man completes flight of fancy - in lawn chair
BEND, Ore. (AP) -- Using his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth, a 48-year-old gas station owner flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert Saturday, landing in a field in Idaho....
Helms never changed on civil rights opposition
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Jesse Helms forever changed North Carolina politics and the conservative movement. The former senator did it without ever changing much about himself....
Grief leads father to create bomb-defusing robot
TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -- The knock on Brian Hart's door came at 6 a.m. An Army colonel, a priest and a police officer had come to tell Hart and his wife that their 20-year-old son had been killed when his military vehicle was ambushed in Iraq....
Americans' unhappy birthday: 'Too much wrong'
Even folks in the Optimist Club are having a tough time toeing an upbeat line these days. Eighteen members of the volunteer organization's Gilbert, Ariz., chapter have gathered, a few days before this nation's 232nd birthday, to focus on the positive: Their book drive for schoolchildren and an Independence Day project to place American flags along the streets of one neighborhood....
3 freed US hostages give thanks for their rescue
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- The three American hostages rescued by Colombia's military said in their first public statement that they are doing fine and are thrilled to "return home to the country we love."...
Hawaiian volcano spewing more lava than usual
VOLCANO, Hawaii (AP) -- More lava than usual is spilling from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano into the ocean....
California wildfires strain state's resources
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A wildfire threatening thousands of homes in Southern California spread slowly through scenic canyonlands Saturday, straining resources as crews struggled to contain hundreds of other blazes around the state....
Accident at Iowa town's fireworks display hurts 37
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- A Fourth of July fireworks shell misfired in a northern Iowa town, sending a fireball skidding down a street into a crowd of spectators and injuring 37 people, officials said Saturday....
Jones Beach evacuated after fireworks wash up
NEW YORK (AP) -- A popular beach on Long Island was evacuated at the height of a holiday weekend after stray, unexploded fireworks washed ashore the day after a July Fourth show, state parks officials said Saturday....
Obituaries in the news
Eric Lieber...
Stabbing suspect caught fleeing in wheelchair
EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- El Paso police arrested a man on a charge of attempted murder Saturday after he was caught fleeing the scene of a stabbing in his motorized wheelchair....
After DC gun ban overturned, city seeks new rules
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dale Metta, who manages a gun shop just outside the District of Columbia limits in Maryland, has had to turn away dozens of city residents wanting to buy handguns in recent days. Never mind that the U.S. Supreme Court just struck down Washington's 32-year-old ban on possessing handguns....
91-year-old woman gets stuck under car for 2 days
GREENDALE, Wis. (AP) -- A 91-year-old woman who had crawled under her car to look for her keys ended up stuck beneath an axle for two days until her mail carrier noticed letters piling up, police said....
ACLU plans to investigate Rainbow Family treatment
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union said Saturday that it plans to investigate the actions of federal law enforcers who arrested five Rainbow Family members in western Wyoming during their annual gathering....
At root of most wildfires, by far: People
CROWN KING, Ariz. (AP) -- Playing with matches, being careless with a campfire, even burning a letter from an estranged husband: Some of the most devastating wildfires in the country's recent history have been started by people....
Last of flood-closed Mississippi locks reopen
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The last of the Mississippi River navigational locks that were closed to barges because of flooding are back in business....
Cincinnati NAACP rises again to host convention
CINCINNATI (AP) -- The NAACP's Cincinnati chapter sagged to a low point a few years ago, its membership the smallest it had been in decades. Some outside the chapter even questioned its relevancy - this in a city recently torn by racially tinged rioting....
Tropical Storm Bertha speeding over Atlantic
MIAMI (AP) -- Tropical Storm Bertha continues to speed across the Atlantic Ocean....
Public tipsters help foil fugitive murder suspect
GRANITE CITY, Ill. (AP) -- The television image of fugitive murder suspect Nicholas Sheley's mug shot was fresh in Samantha Butler's mind as she ventured out to get dinner for the family, warning her relatives to lock the door behind her....
Arrest made after FedEx sends drug to wrong place
BALTIMORE (AP) -- FedEx prides itself on reliability. But a mistaken delivery tipped off police to a 200-pound shipment of marijuana that someone tried to send from Pembroke Pines, Florida to Baltimore via the shipping company....
Detroit man gets 13-20 years in road rage case
JACKSON, Mich. (AP) -- A Detroit man whose driver's license has been suspended 22 times has been sentenced to 13 to 20 years in prison in what authorities describe as an extreme case of road rage....
Poe Cottage in NYC park to undergo renovation
NEW YORK (AP) -- It was many and many a year ago in a cottage in the Bronx where Edgar Allan Poe lived his last years and wrote some of his classic pieces....
Calif. governor's race: youth or experience?
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Charismatic and politically bold, both San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa seem like naturals to help Democrats reclaim the governor's office in 2010....
Questions raised about capital case 24 years later
SHERMAN, Texas (AP) -- Three months after four bodies were found shot execution-style in an airplane hangar on the B&B Ranch north of Dallas in 1984, chemical salesman Lester Leroy Bower Jr. was charged with capital murder....
History of Old Point Comfort and Fort Monroe
Highlights of the history of Old Point Comfort and Fort Monroe:...
Va. fort's future in focus as Army plans pullout
HAMPTON, Va. (AP) -- Fort Monroe - a Union oasis where fugitive slaves flocked during the Civil War - returns to Virginia's control when the Army pulls out in 2011, and historians are trying to protect the future of the "Freedom Fortress."...
Spitzer call girl drops 'Girls Gone Wild' lawsuit
MIAMI (AP) -- The call girl involved in a scandal that brought down New York's former governor has dropped a lawsuit claiming "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis exploited her image and name on the Internet....
Toledo apartment complex fire leaves 100 homeless
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- Authorities in Toledo, Ohio, say a fast-moving fire at an apartment complex has destroyed eight buildings and left more than 100 people homeless....
Kenyan village gets clinic from brothers it helped
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- When residents of a tiny Kenyan village sold their chickens and cattle to buy Milton Ochieng's $900 plane ticket to Dartmouth College, they told him they wanted something in return....
Former Republican Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Former Sen. Jesse Helms, an unyielding champion of the conservative movement who spent three combative and sometimes caustic decades in Congress, where he relished his battles against liberals, Communists and occasionally a fellow Republican, died on the Fourth of July. He was 86....
7th victim of helicopter crash dies in hospital
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- Authorities say the lone survivor of a mid-air crash of two medical helicopters has died at a hospital....
FBI probe latest setback for beleaguered Detroit
DETROIT (AP) -- Auto industry cutbacks, double-digit unemployment and one of the nation's highest home foreclosure rates have left Detroit with a dreary economic future....
Hundreds remember 9/11 flight crews with sculpture
GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) -- On a pedestal in a Texas intersection hundreds of miles from where terrorists crashed planes seven years ago, two flight attendants and two pilots, rendered in bronze, now care for a traveling child....
NJ party town relaxes rules on kegs, rude gestures
BELMAR, N.J. (AP) -- After battling rowdy renters and out-of-control keggers for decades, this Jersey shore party town has finally decided to lighten up a little....
Huge trove of 78 rpm records donated to Syracuse U
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -- A vast collection of 78 rpm records - valued at $1 million, weighing 50 tons and representing more than a half-century of American music history - is being donated to Syracuse University by the estate of a prominent New York City record shop owner....
US marks Independence Day with fireworks, revelry
NEW YORK (AP) -- The nation's largest fireworks display exploded in a spectrum of color over the East River, temporarily stealing the spotlight from New York's world-famous skyline and helping to create a brilliant end to a day of July Fourth celebrations nationwide....
Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist proposes to girlfriend
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Gov. Charlie Crist won't be sleeping alone in the governor's mansion much longer - he is engaged to a woman he met in New York City last September who quickly captured his heart....
Champ retains NYC hot-dog eating title in overtime
NEW YORK (AP) -- Joey Chestnut achieved frankfurter immortality Friday, outdueling his celebrated Japanese rival in an epic hot-dog eating contest that pushed both of the gluttonous gladiators to the brink....
4 people dead in Milwaukee shooting; no arrests
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- At least one person fired a gun into a crowd in a street early Friday, killing four people and sending panicked revelers running for cover, police said....
2 supervisors at raided meatpacking plant arrested
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Two supervisors at an Iowa meatpacking plant that was raided by federal immigration agents in May were arrested and charged with encouraging people to live in the United States illegally....
Facts about super yachts
A look at the super yacht industry:...
Statue of Liberty's crown may reopen to public
NEW YORK (AP) -- The National Park Service is considering reopening Lady Liberty's crown for the first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to documents a congressman released on July Fourth....
Epic NC politician's life ends on Fourth of July
WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) -- At Fourth of July parades and barbecues around the Tar Heel state, Jesse Helms' supporters recalled this father of the conservative movement as the man who stood up for traditional values and the defeat of communism - but still had time to help his constituents....
Farmers say salmonella scare has hurt tomato sales
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Expect fewer slices of red, ripe tomatoes next to the grill this holiday weekend....
Auction house seeks to sell Rosa Parks collection
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Arlan Ettinger will never forget the response he got when he took one of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks' hats to a meeting at the Apollo Theater in New York....
NY researcher: `Yankee Doodle' turns 250 _ maybe
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Wish "Yankee Doodle" a happy 250th birthday. Maybe....
Reaction to the death of Jesse Helms
Reaction to the death of former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, who died on the Fourth of July at age 86:...
Pal in case of Vermont girl regrets involvement
When Kevin Grosenheider received a call early Monday from his friend, Raymond Gagnon, asking him to dispose of a safe, he decided to help him out....
Guerrilla gardeners dig in to beautify Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- More than a dozen people, some wearing orange protective gear, pulled rakes and shovels from a dingy shopping cart and started working on a parched patch of land along a busy off-ramp of the Hollywood Freeway....
Unclear future for 10 men on Nebraska's death row
TECUMSEH, Neb. (AP) -- For more than 10 years, John Lotter has faced death in Nebraska's electric chair for the grisly 1993 triple murder that spawned the movie "Boys Don't Cry."...
Instructor, student die in Calif. helicopter crash
LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) -- A flight instructor and student have been killed in a helicopter crash near a Northern California freeway that knocked power lines into traffic lanes and started a grass fire....
Biographical information on ex-Sen. Jesse Helms
NAME (AP) -- Jesse Alexander Helms....
Correction: Leona Helmsley story
NEW YORK (AP) -- In a July 2 story about the estate of Leona Helmsley, The Associated Press, relying on an article in The New York Times, erroneously reported that Helmsley's grandchildren received $6 million each from her will. It was a combined total of $6 million....
Tension builds over Coney Island rebuilding plan
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Fourth of July weekend has always been one of the most exciting times of the year for Coney Island: Crowds line the boardwalk to watch the hot-dog eating contest, visitors take terrifying roller coaster rides, and beachgoers frolic in the sand and surf....
Jesse Helms quotes on life and politics
Some quotes of Jesse Helms, who died on the Fourth of July at age 86:...
Ask AP: Alaskan oil, the Latin American drug trade
What happens to all the oil that flows hundreds of miles through the trans-Alaska pipeline? Is it true that it all gets sold to Japan?...
Details emerge in capture of killing spree suspect
CHICAGO (AP) -- As the hunt wound down for the man suspected in a killing spree that left eight people dead in two states, a disheveled Nicholas T. Sheley walked calmly into a Subway restaurant in suburban St. Louis, asked to use the phone and called his lawyer - all but ensuring his capture....
Federal judge orders 2 Marines released from jail
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) -- A federal judge in Riverside, Calif., has ordered two Marines released from jail despite their refusal to testify before a grand jury investigating the alleged killing of Iraqi detainees in 2004....
Father without baby sitter accused of caging kids
POSEN, Ill. (AP) -- A suburban Chicago man locked his two young daughters in a wire cage hidden in the back of his pickup truck because he didn't have a baby sitter, officials said Thursday....
Young offenders in SF illegally get no more break
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Minors who commit crimes while in the United States illegally will be turned over to federal immigration officials, a reversal of a nearly 20-year-old San Francisco policy, Mayor Gavin Newsom said Thursday....
July 4th boaters: Steer clear of NJ dolphin family
SEA BRIGHT, N.J. (AP) -- Authorities protecting a dolphin family in a New Jersey river are stepping up enforcement over the July Fourth holiday....
Woman charged in Chicago police officer's death
CHICAGO (AP) -- A 44-year-old woman was charged Thursday with first-degree murder and attempted murder in the shooting death earlier this week of a veteran Chicago police officer....
Mich., Ohio storms bring flooding, power outages
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- Severe thunderstorms swept across parts of Michigan, flooding streets and cutting power to many residents....
Police: No gunman at State Farm HQ in Illinois
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (AP) -- Police have given the all-clear at the headquarters of State Farm insurance in Illinois after a witness reported seeing a man with a gun headed toward the building....
NTSB: Cargo carrier received threat before fire
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Federal investigators say a cargo carrier whose plane was burned in an unexplained fire had received a threat a few days before....
Drifter pleads in Wis. torture-homicide case
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A member of a gang of drifters who was accused of helping to kill another woman in the group and of torturing the woman's 11-year-old son pleaded no contest Thursday to reckless homicide....
Police have suspect in Pa. boy's 1985 death
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Police have a suspect in the 1985 killing of a teenage boy whose body was found in a thicket months after he left home on a bicycle, a coroner said Thursday....
Former top Cleveland church accountant convicted
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A federal jury on Thursday convicted the former top accountant at the Cleveland Catholic Diocese of tax charges and acquitted him of more serious charges related to alleged kickbacks....
NY softball player's death ruled a homicide
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- A softball player who died after being punched in the back of the head by a rival team member was a victim of homicide, a pathologist ruled Thursday....
Government seeks more time for Moussaoui briefs
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Federal prosecutors want two more months to file their brief in Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui's (zak-uh-REE'-uhs moo-SOW'-eez) appeal....
Texas man freed by DNA after 15 years in prison
DALLAS (AP) -- A Texas man who spent more than 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of kidnapping and robbery raised both arms skyward and collapsed in his mother's embrace Thursday after being told he was a free man....
Handcuffed woman who jumped from bridge recaptured
SEATTLE (AP) -- A woman who leaped from a bridge into a chilly river wearing handcuffs as she worked as a police informant during an attempted drug bust was captured early Thursday, two days after vanishing....
Some psych patients wait days in hospital ERs
NEW YORK (AP) -- When staffers at a Brooklyn hospital spotted a middle-aged woman lying face-down on a waiting room floor last month, it hardly seemed like cause for alarm....
SC child slaying suspect was close family friend
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) -- Relatives of an 8-year-old girl found raped and slain in an abandoned home said Thursday that the young teenager accused of the crime was like a member of the family....
Feds indict 2 alleged munitions dealers in Miami
MIAMI (AP) -- Federal prosecutors in Miami have indicted two men on charges of illegally providing U.S.-made military aircraft parts to Iranian buyers....
Former Olympian pleads guilty to heroin charges
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Former track star Tim Montgomery, once dubbed "the world's fastest man," pleaded guilty Thursday to distributing heroin, averting a trial set for next week....
NYC crane inspector pleads not guilty to lying
NEW YORK (AP) -- A former city building department inspector pleaded not guilty Thursday to lying about examining a huge construction crane that collapsed days later, killing seven people....
Feds: Pa. trooper tipped off hooker probe suspects
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A state trooper who was investigating prostitution at a truck stop near Harrisburg, Pa., was accused of tipping off the suspects....
Utah is going to a 4-day workweek to save energy
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Starting next month, it will be "TGIT" for Utah state employees. As in: "Thank God It's Thursday."...
DC native finds calling in Fourth of July history
CLARKSBURG, Md. (AP) -- Historian James Heintze can tick off colorful accounts of how the nation has celebrated the Fourth of July over the years: In the 19th century, canons fired, church bells sounded and fireworks exploded....
Ohio warehouse fire forces evacuation; no 1 hurt
ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) -- A raging fire at a mostly vacant warehouse early Thursday forced nearby families to stay out of their homes overnight. No one was injured....
Former mayor to march in R.I. July 4th parade
BRISTOL, R.I. (AP) -- Vincent "Buddy" Cianci may not be mayor of Providence anymore, but he's resuming one of the public duties he lost when he was sent to prison in 2002 for corruption....
Police: Woman pulled knife, gun from baby stroller
UTICA, N.Y. (AP) -- Police say a woman out for a walk with her baby and another child in Utica, N.Y., was packing more than diapers in her stroller....
Pa. historians baffled by vanished Lincoln bust
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) -- Few of the 3,000 historic postcards in Jack Hiddlestone's collection are as veiled in mystery as the one with Abraham Lincoln on the front....
Teen's death leads to sign change at Ga. Six Flags
AUSTELL, Ga. (AP) -- State regulators say Six Flags Over Georgia must increase the size and number of warning signs near a popular roller coaster that hit and killed a teen....
Indiana gas price protester to plead guilty
VALPARAISO, Ind. (AP) -- A man who was arrested for climbing to the roof of a gas station to sing a song protesting high gasoline prices says he will plead guilty to a trespassing charge....
Bushmen denied visas to build mud-huts in Va.
STAUNTON, Va. (AP) -- Three West African bushmen recruited to build a mud-hut village at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia have been denied visas because officials say the men were poor, didn't speak English and failed to convince them that their visit only would be temporary....
AP IMPACT: 'Go-arounds' are possible safety hazard
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A United Airlines jetliner was coming in for a landing at the Las Vegas airport in 2006 when the tower radioed that a smaller plane was still crossing the runway....
Fishing boat captain convicted in fatal smuggling
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A federal jury found a Bahamian fishing boat captain guilty of second-degree murder in the drowning of three illegal immigrants he was trying to smuggle into the United States....
Coast Guard ship hits ferry; no one seriously hurt
NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) -- A Coast Guard cutter collided with a Block Island Ferry carrying more than 250 passengers in dense fog Wednesday, but no serious injuries were reported, authorities said....
Court proceedings begin for killing-spree suspect
CHICAGO (AP) -- Now that the multistate manhunt has ended, legal wrangling has begun over an ex-convict suspected in a killing spree that left eight people dead in Illinois and Missouri....
Boston police seek a review of Celtics fan's death
BOSTON (AP) -- Boston's police commissioner is asking for an independent review into the death of a man who stopped breathing while being arrested on the night the Boston Celtics won the NBA championship....
Judge tosses wiretapping lawsuit by Islamic group
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal judge on Wednesday tossed out a lawsuit by an Islamic organization that accused the Bush administration of illegally wiretapping its telephones without warrants....
Fire danger, economic woes cancel fireworks shows
Those seeking the oohs and aahs of traditional Fourth of July fireworks could be sadly disappointed this year: Public displays and sales of boxed firecrackers are being canceled or scaled back across the nation, victims of a sluggish economy, wildfire fears and product shortages caused by a warehouse fire in China....
Neb. teacher pleads guilty to sex with student, 13
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A former teacher pleaded guilty Wednesday to fleeing to Mexico with a 13-year-old student so she could have sex with him. Her plea was part of a deal to ensure she'll spend less than a decade in federal prison....
Inspectors back in Colo. lab after plutonium spill
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have ordered a federal laboratory to stop using radioactive materials until it can show its procedures are safe after a plutonium spill....
Report: ND candidate's crashed plane low on gas
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- A Republican congressional candidate's small plane had less than a quart of fuel in its tanks when he crash landed in a cornfield last month, a federal National Transportation Safety Board accident report says....
Bomb threat disrupts LAX, no explosive found
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Several flights were grounded at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday after a man claimed to be a terrorist and made a bomb threat, police said....
Officials: Lake Michigan water levels receded
CHICAGO (AP) -- After warning of a possible big wave, or seiche (SAYSH), Park District officials say water levels on Lake Michigan appeared to have swelled about a foot before receding....
Texas man gets 4,060 years in prison for sex abuse
WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) -- A man was sentenced to more than 4,000 years in prison Wednesday for sexually assaulting three teenage girls over two years....
