AP - The showdown over Arizona's immigration law played out in court and on Phoenix's sun-splashed streets on Thursday, as the state sought to reinstate key parts of the measure and angry protesters chanted that they refused to "live in fear." Dozens were arrested.

AP - A bill that would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to people sickened by World Trade Center dust fell short in the House on Thursday, raising the possibility that the bulk of compensation for the ill will come from a legal settlement hammered out in the federal courts.

AP - Even when the oily sheen starts fading from the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, it manages to become bad news for fishermen.

AP - New brush fires swept over more than 3 square miles and prompted evacuations in rural Los Angeles County hills Thursday, while good weather to the north helped firefighters building containment lines around two wildfires that destroyed homes in remote mountain communities earlier in the week.

AP - A Canadian company whose pipeline leaked hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into a Michigan river has experienced leaks, an explosion and dozens of regulatory violations in the past decade throughout the Great Lakes region and elsewhere in the U.S.

AP - An energy company received federal approval Thursday to take natural gas from a largely untouched, picturesque region of Utah by agreeing to use new technology to drill under wild areas instead of on top of them.

AP - Imagine spending $250,000 on flowers. Or $20,000 on a cake. How does $15,000 to $20,000 for toilets sound?

AP - Nearly a fifth of Colorado's medical marijuana dispensary operators could be forced out of business in coming weeks because of new state rules barring some convicted felons from the pot business, federal drug authorities say.

AP - One of the survivors of a deadly grizzly bear attack said Thursday she realized her only hope was to play dead after feeling the bear's jaw clamp onto her arm in the middle of the night.

AP - A woman hospitalized in critical condition after sitting for a month with deep bedsores in a recliner soaked with her waste died Thursday, on her 81st birthday, prosecutors said. Five family members who lived with her face various elderly abuse charges and could see upgraded charges.

AP - Ellen DeGeneres is dancing off "American Idol" after one season, leaving Fox's hit show with two vacancies on its judging panel.

AP - The U.S. is fighting two wars, and millions are looking for work. So what is making politicians thump their lecterns in two of New England's hottest political races this summer?

AP - On a leafy cul-de-sac in a gated Texas community, a man walked inside his stepfather's home with a briefcase. A teenage boy at the house didn't recognize him but could tell he was angry. He took his young siblings outside, and moments later heard gunfire.

AP - More than 1 million people are expected to participate in what amounts to the largest-ever public opinion poll on the nation's new health care law.

AP - More than 10 years have passed since she gave up her pursuit of a degree in computer science, but Yajahira Deaza still has regrets.

AP - Ousted Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod said Thursday she will sue a conservative blogger who posted a video edited in a way that made her appear racist.

AP - A jury sentenced a south Texas man to death on Thursday, four days after convicting him of capital murder for beheading his common law wife's three children in 2003.

AP - Water gurgling from a well is flooding Craig Gautreaux's rice and crawfish fields, turning the farm into a wetland for migratory birds whose usual Gulf of Mexico wintering grounds are threatened by the oil spill.

AP - Convicted DC sniper Lee Boyd Malvo tells actor William Shatner on a cable TV special that he and his partner tried to recruit fellow shooters for their 2002 spree and that his accomplice killed one man for backing out, according to the program set for airing Thursday.

AP - It was a night in early November during the infancy of the Cold War when the anti-communist dissidents were hustled through a garden and across a gully to a vehicle on a dark, deserted road in Budapest. They hid in four large crates for their perilous journey.