Top National Stories from the AP

• DiCaprio granted 3 years' protection from woman Sept. 10, 2010, 11:15 a.m. CDT

  LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has granted Leonardo DiCaprio a three-year restraining order from a woman who he said claims to be his wife and carrying his baby. During a brief hearing Friday, a Los Angeles judge ordered that Livia Bistriceanu stay 100 yards away from the actor. Court filings ...

• 9/11 politicized by mosque, Quran controversies Sept. 10, 2010, 9:39 a.m. CDT

  NEW YORK (AP) — For almost a decade, the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was marked by somber reflection and a call to unity, devoid of politics. Not this time. This year's commemoration of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Shanksville ...

• Afghans protest, Fla. pastor plans to meet NY imam Sept. 10, 2010, 3:24 a.m. CDT

  GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — As thousands of Afghans protested a tiny Florida church's plan to burn the Muslim holy book, the church's pastor said he won't follow through with the burning if he's able to meet Saturday with the organizers behind a mosque planned near ground zero ...

• CA crews try to reach smoldering homes after blast Sept. 9, 2010, 10:19 p.m. CDT

  SAN BRUNO, Calif. (AP) — Fire crews tried to douse the remnants of an enormous blaze and account for the residents of dozens of homes Friday after a gas line ruptured and an explosion ripped through in a neighborhood near San Francisco, killing at least four people and likely more. Television ...

• Police: Feuds led Pa. woman to shoot colleagues Sept. 9, 2010, 8:40 p.m. CDT

  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Kraft Foods plant worker was suspended from her job because she was feuding with colleagues, then returned minutes later with a handgun and fatally shot two of them and critically wounded a third, police said Friday. Yvonne Hiller, 43, was escorted from the plant after being told ...

• Calif judge to stop 'don't ask, don't tell' policy Sept. 9, 2010, 8:36 p.m. CDT

  LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge said she will issue an order to halt the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, after she declared the ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ruled Thursday that the prohibition on openly gay military ...

• Utility company: Gas line ruptured in blast area Sept. 9, 2010, 8:31 p.m. CDT

  SAN BRUNO, Calif. (AP) — The utility company that serves the San Francisco Bay area says one of its gas lines ruptured in the area where a massive blast and fire destroyed homes and sent residents fleeing. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. officials said in an e-mailed statement that the ruptured ...

• Patriots QB Brady unhurt in wreck near Boston home Sept. 9, 2010, 5:57 p.m. CDT

  BOSTON (AP) — New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was unhurt in a two-vehicle accident near his home Thursday morning before practicing as usual with his team ahead of the season opener and agreeing to a four-year contract extension that, according to two people familiar with it, would make him the ...

• Correction: Abortion Doctors-Scheme story Sept. 9, 2010, 5:21 p.m. CDT

  BALTIMORE (AP) — In a Sept. 9 story about an abortion doctor, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the Guttmacher Institute said the abortion business can be lucrative. The Guttmacher Institute provided costs for abortions but did not say the business could be lucrative.

• Detroit fires add to burned, vacant landscape Sept. 9, 2010, 2:53 p.m. CDT

  DETROIT (AP) — The homes next door and down the block from Toni Booker's Detroit house have been vacant for months, covered in gang graffiti and stripped of anything valuable. After a wildfire raged through her east side neighborhood this week, those same homes now are charred, some gutted. "I ...

• Close watch on Colorado wildfire as winds kick up Sept. 9, 2010, 2:14 p.m. CDT

  BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Weary firefighters hoped the worst was over from a wildfire that destroyed nearly 170 homes in the Rocky Mountains foothills, but crews monitored hot spots Friday amid concerns that erratic winds could fan the flames and send them into Boulder. Fearing further devastation, city officials had urged ...

• 4 dead, 3 still missing after Hermine flooding Sept. 9, 2010, 1:25 p.m. CDT

  SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Authorities have switched to recovery mode for a missing motorist in Austin while searches have resumed in the San Antonio area for two others swept away in flooding spawned by the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine. Austin fire Lt. Josh Portie (por-SHAY') said Friday the search was ...

• Woman accusing Vince Neil of grabbing her in Vegas Sept. 9, 2010, 11:48 a.m. CDT

  LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police were investigating a complaint by a woman who claimed Motley Crue singer Vince Neil grabbed her arms in an elevator at the Las Vegas Hilton, but a hotel executive said Thursday surveillance video showed the allegation was not true. Neil, 49, wasn't arrested after police ...

• Driver cited in wreck with Patriots QB Brady Sept. 9, 2010, 7:48 a.m. CDT

  BOSTON (AP) — Officials say a Massachusetts driver whose van slammed into a car driven by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has had his driver's license suspended at least five times. Massachusetts RMV spokeswoman Ann Dufresne (doo-FRANE) said that the driver's license of 21-year-old Ludgero Rodrigues was suspended ...

• Pastor cancels Quran-burning, then reconsiders Sept. 9, 2010, 6:17 a.m. CDT

  GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — An anti-Islamic preacher backed off and then threatened to reconsider burning the Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, angrily accusing a Muslim leader of lying to him Thursday with a promise to move an Islamic center and mosque away from New York's ground ...

• A whole different Playboy channel _ for the blind Sept. 9, 2010, 4:30 a.m. CDT

  HOUSTON (AP) — Suzi Hanks reads Playboy magazine for the articles. And the jokes. And the letters and cartoons. And yes, for the pictures. Each week, for an hour, Hanks snuggles close to a microphone in a tiny soundproof closet, reading — and describing in great detail — portions of the latest Playboy ...

• Thousands wait to see if homes near Boulder burned Sept. 8, 2010, 11:01 p.m. CDT

  BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Thousands of people waited Thursday to learn if their homes survived a wildfire that's raged for four days in a parched area near Boulder as firefighters battled to contain the blaze before winds picked up. Dan Hackett, who lives in the mountain community of Gold Hill ...

• Fire officials assess damage from Detroit blazes Sept. 8, 2010, 5:27 p.m. CDT

  DETROIT (AP) — Fire officials in Detroit are trying to determine the extent of damage caused by a series of blazes that swept across the city. Community Relations Chief Katrina Butler said Thursday the department was compiling data from firefighters who battled Tuesday's wind-fed wildfires. Butler says it is unclear ...

• Texas authorities seek 4 missing after floods Sept. 8, 2010, 4:30 p.m. CDT

  SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Authorities in the San Antonio area searched Thursday for a man who drove into a flooded road, making him the fourth person swept away by floodwaters from the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine. The man drove into the rushing water Wednesday, despite his wife urging him to ...

• Google search accelerates with 'instant' results Sept. 8, 2010, 12:16 p.m. CDT

  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google Inc. stepped on its Internet search accelerator Wednesday with a new feature that displays results as soon as people begin typing their request. The change, called "Google Instant," is the closest the 12-year-old company has come yet to realizing its founders' ambitions to build a search ...

• Chicago mayor race wide open as Daley steps aside Sept. 8, 2010, 12:02 p.m. CDT

  CHICAGO (AP) — Mayor Richard M. Daley said Wednesday that he will not endorse anyone to replace him as leader of the nation's third-largest city as speculation grew about who would emerge as a front-runner from a long list of potential contenders, including one-time aide and current White House chief ...

• Correction: Obit-Loh story Sept. 8, 2010, 11 a.m. CDT

  NEW YORK (AP) — In an Aug. 30 obituary for retired Associated Press reporter Jules Loh, The Associated Press misspelled the last name of his sister. She is Anne "Nan" Bousquet, not Bosquet.

• Safety concern for Fla. gov. over 9/11 Quran burn Sept. 8, 2010, 8:12 a.m. CDT

  GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida's governor is concerned about safety at home and around the world, a feeling shared by national and world leaders, over a plan by the head of a small church to burn copies of Islam's holiest text to mark the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Gov ...

• MTV's 'Snooki' fined $500 for bothering beachgoers Sept. 8, 2010, 7:46 a.m. CDT

  SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. (AP) — Calling her "a Lindsay Lohan wannabe," a judge fined "Jersey Shore" star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi $500 on Wednesday and ordered her to perform community service after she pleaded guilty to disturbing others on a beach in July. Her lawyer said Polizzi was under the influence ...

• BP report blames itself, others for oil spill Sept. 8, 2010, 2:15 a.m. CDT

  NEW ORLEANS (AP) — BP took some of the blame for the Gulf oil disaster in an internal report issued Wednesday, acknowledging among other things that it misinterpreted a key pressure test of the well. But in a possible preview of its legal strategy, it also pointed the finger at its ...