Stocks gain after unemployment claims fal

NEW YORK (AP) - Encouraging news about the job market and higher profits from CBS, Facebook and other companies lifted stocks Thursday.

Ga. tightens reins on distribution of pain drugs

ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia will no longer be a haven for pain clinics that authorities say are fronts for illegal distribution of prescription pain medication.

Deadheads oppose renaming Jerry Garcia venue

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Deadheads are uniting in opposition to a proposal to rename a San Francisco venue named in honor of the Grateful Dead founder.

Georgia child care workers to face more checks

MACON, Ga. (AP) - Gov. Nathan Deal has signed a bill into law requiring childcare workers to undergo comprehensive, fingerprint-based background checks.

New law opens Ga. licenses to certain noncitizens

ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has signed two bills into law making it easier for certain noncitizens to get Georgia driver's licenses.

FBI: 3 removed backpack from Boston suspect's room

BOSTON (AP) - Three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested and accused Wednesday of removing a backpack containing fireworks emptied of gunpowder from Tsarnaev's dorm room three days after the attack to try to keep him from getting into trouble.

Fed keeps stimulus, says taxes and cuts have hurt

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday stood by its aggressive efforts to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment. And it sent its most explicit signal to date that tax increases and spending cuts that kicked in this year are slowing the economy.

Grocery store worker wins big on her lunch hour

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. (AP) - A grocery store worker near Atlanta made more money on her lunch break than many people earn in a lifetime.

Carpet company planning 2 plants in Dalton area

DALTON, Ga. (AP) - A spokesman for Gov. Nathan Deal says a carpet manufacturing company will open two plants in northwest Georgia and create about 2,400 jobs.

Stocks edge lower on manufacturing, jobs slowdown

Scientists find cannibalism at American settlement

Boston police: 3 more suspects in custody bombings

BOSTON (AP) - Three more suspects have been taken into custody in the marathon bombings, city police said Wednesday.

Georgia family finds burning cross in front yard

WOODSTOCK, Ga. (AP) - Police are investigating after a metro Atlanta family found a large cross, which had been set on fire in their front yard.

Lake Lanier begins summer full of water

GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) - After persistent drought conditions, a popular north Georgia lake is beginning the summer recreation season with a full pool of water.

456 colonoscopy patients warned of infection risk

ATLANTA (AP) - An Atlanta surgery center is warning 456 patients that their colonoscopies might have put them at risk of HIV and other diseases.

Lake Lanier reaches full winter pool

GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) - Lake Lanier, a main drinking water source and recreation area for metro Atlantans, has reached its winter full pool level.

Immigration bill envisions new farm worker program

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sweeping immigration legislation taking shape in the Senate will aim to overhaul the nation's agriculture worker program to create a steady supply of labor for farmers and growers, who rely more than any other industry on workers who have come to the country illegally. Farm workers already here would get a speedier path to legal status than other immigrants in the country illegally, and a likely new visa program would make ...

Decades after King's death, Memphis jobs at risk

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - They rode the streets of Memphis in creaky, dangerous garbage trucks, picking up trash from home after home, toiling for a sanitation department that treated them with indifference bordering on disdain. In 1968 those workers took to the streets, marching with civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to demand better working conditions, higher pay and union protection. Forty-five years after King was killed supporting their historic ...

Venters receives injection in sprained elbow

ATLANTA (AP) - Braves left-hander Jonny Venters will be shut down for a month after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his sprained pitching elbow.

Metro Atlanta toddler shoots self with pistol

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. (AP) - Police in metro Atlanta say a toddler is recovering after shooting himself with a pistol.

Man shot 5 times during Ga. burglary sentenced

MONROE, Ga. (AP) - A man who was shot five times during a burglary in Walton County has been sentenced to 20 years and is ordered to serve 10 of them in prison.

NRA study suggests trained, armed school staffers

WASHINGTON (AP) - Schools across the nation should train selected staff members to carry weapons and should each have at least one armed security officer to make students safer and allow a quicker response to an attack, the director of a National Rifle Association-sponsored study said Tuesday. Republican former Rep. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas made the remarks as a task force he headed released its report, which included a 40- to 60-hour training ...

UN adopts treaty to regulate global arms trade

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the first international treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar global arms trade Tuesday, capping a more than decade-long campaign to keep weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists, insurgents, organized crime figures and human rights violators. The resolution was approved by a vote of 154 to 3 with 23 abstentions. As the numbers appeared on the electronic board, loud cheers filled the assembly chamber. ...

Stocks rise on strong auto sales, factory orders

The Dow Jones industrial average touched another record high Tuesday following strong reports on auto sales and factory orders, the latest evidence that the U.S. economy is strengthening. Chrysler said it sold more cars and trucks in March than in any month since the Great Recession began, an increase of 5 percent. U.S. sales for General Motors and Ford rose 6 percent. Orders to U.S. factories rose 3 percent in February, the best gain ...

Sifting of Sept. 11 debris for remains begins anew

NEW YORK (AP) - Jim Riches pulled his son's mangled body out of the rubble at the World Trade Center, but the phone calls still filtered in years afterward. The city kept finding more pieces of his son. "They'll call you and they'll tell you, 'We found a shin bone,'" Riches said. "Or: 'We found an arm bone.' We held them all together and then we put them in the cemetery." Those are the ...

First suspects in cheating scandal surrender

ATLANTA (AP) - The first of more than 30 defendants expected to surrender by Tuesday's deadline in Atlanta's school cheating scandal have turned themselves in to authorities.

Ga. city council votes to require gun ownership

NELSON, Ga. (AP) - Backers of a newly adopted ordinance requiring gun ownership in a small north Georgia town acknowledge they were largely seeking to make a point about gun rights. The ordinance in the city of Nelson - population 1,300 - was approved Monday night and goes into effect in 10 days. However, it contains no penalties and exempts anyone who objects, convicted felons and those with certain mental and physical disabilities. ...

Conn. lawmakers unveil bipartisan gun control plan

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - With an announcement of sweeping proposals to curb gun violence, Connecticut lawmakers said they are hoping to send a message to Congress and other state legislators across the country: A bipartisan agreement on gun control is possible. Legislative leaders on Monday revealed proposals spurred by the Dec. 14 Newtown school shooting following weeks of bipartisan, closed-door negotiations. A vote is expected Wednesday in the General Assembly, where Democrats control both ...

Obama image machine whirs as press access narrows

WASHINGTON (AP) - A photo of the Obamas hugging that was released on Election Day 2012 has become the world's most popular tweet on Twitter. A dressed-up version of Barack Obama's State of the Union speech, packed with charts and graphs, is huge on YouTube. A playful picture of the president cavorting with a 3-year-old in a Spiderman costume is a favorite online. It's all courtesy of the Obama image machine, serving up a ...

BUCKWILD' star, 2 others found dead in W.V

SISSONVILLE, W.Va. (AP) - A cast member of the MTV reality show "BUCKWILD" was found dead Monday in a sport utility vehicle in a ditch along with his uncle and a third, unidentified person, authorities said.