Reward rises for leads on Savannah student slaying

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - A reward of up to $12,500 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of whoever killed Savannah State University student Rebecca Foley.

Stocks edge lower; Pfizer weighs down the Dow

NEW YORK (AP) - Weak earnings from Pfizer and other companies dragged down major market indexes Monday, pulling the Standard & Poor's 500 back from a record high.

US home prices up 9.3 pct., most in nearly 7 years

UGA: Backpacks won't be allowed at graduation

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - The University of Georgia will ban backpacks in the school's football stadium during its commencement ceremony on May 10.

FBI visits home of wife of dead bombing suspect

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (AP) - FBI agents investigating the Boston Marathon bombings have visited the Rhode Island home of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's (TAM'-ehr-luhn tsahr-NEYE'-ehv) in-laws and carried away several bags.

S&P 500 reaches new high, led by tech

VA stops bonuses for disability claims executives

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Veterans Affairs Department is withholding bonuses for senior officials who oversee disability claims, citing a failure to meet performance goals for reducing a sizable backlog in claims processing.

Deal signs bill revising tourism tax break program

HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) - Gov. Nathan Deal has signed a bill into law that makes changes to a tax break program aimed at boosting Georgia tourism.

US loans from China at issue in debt-ceiling fight

Atlanta mayor vows enhanced security for road race

ATLANTA (AP) - City leaders and organizers of the upcoming AJC Peachtree Road Race say they will be taking enhanced security measures for the annual race in the wake of the bombings at the Boston marathon.

Brief hearing held in suspicious letters case

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi man charged with making a deadly poison sent to President Barack Obama and others was ordered held without bond until a hearing later this week when prosecutors are expected to describe what evidence they have against him

Pa. abortion doc co-defendant argues case unproven

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A lawyer for the co-defendant of a Philadelphia abortion doctor says prosecutors didn't prove their case against her.

Canada dismemberment trial set for fall 2014

MONTREAL (AP) - The trial of a former porn actor accused of dismembering his Chinese lover and mailing the body parts to Canadian political parties will begin in September 2014.

Georgians make pilgrimage to girl's tombstone

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) - One by one they came on foot, a steady stream of pilgrims, from shortly after dawn and continuing until the clouds closed in, threatening to send showers washing over the mildew-stained gravestones at Marietta City Cemetery.

Stocks up in early trading as spending rises

NEW YORK (AP) - A pair of encouraging economic reports helped propel the stock market up in early trading on Monday.

Cuts imminent, Senate Democrats, GOP stage votes

WASHINGTON (AP) - Squabbling away the hours, the Senate moved toward certain defeat of last-minute plans to avoid $85 billion in broad-based spending reductions Thursday as the two political parties blamed each other for the latest outbreak of gridlock and the Obama administration readied plans to put the cuts into effect.

Bond denied for Ga. man in cannibalism threat

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) - The man accused of threatening to eat a judge's children has been denied bond and is ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

Ga. House lawmakers OK juvenile justice reform

ATLANTA (AP) - State lawmakers in the House have approved a sweeping overhaul of Georgia's juvenile justice system, with the bill now moving to the Senate for consideration. The legislation, based on recommendations of a special panel convened by Gov. Nathan Deal, is designed to provide judges with greater discretion in sentencing youth offenders and reduce overall costs within the juvenile justice system. The bill passed unanimously on Thursday. Supporters of the legislation ...

Obama nears deadline on gay marriage decision

WASHINGTON (AP) - The next phase of President Barack Obama's evolving position on gay marriage may come Thursday, the deadline for his administration to weigh in on a landmark Supreme Court case that could determine whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to wed. Gay rights supporters are pressing the administration to file a friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to overturn California's gay marriage ban. Obama is not required to file a brief, though ...

Manning offers pleas to judge in WikiLeaks case

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) - An Army private charged in the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history offered guilty pleas Thursday to 10 of 22 charges against him and a military judge said she would allow the soldier to read a statement explaining his actions. Pfc. Bradley Manning would plead guilty to sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, in violation of military regulations but not in ...

Student due in court after accidental shooting

ATLANTA (AP) - A girl who police say accidentally shot herself with a gun at a midtown Atlanta high school is set to make her first court appearance Thursday morning.

GA couple to appear in court in alleged abuse case

DALLAS, Ga. (AP) - A Georgia couple accused of confining their teenage son to a bedroom for years with little food is set to appear in court.

After 2 days of big gains, stocks turn mixed

NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks turned mixed Thursday after two days of triple-digit rallies. Big-name companies reported higher quarterly earnings and the government said that the jobless claims are falling, but impending budget cuts cast a pall. The Dow Jones industrial average was up three points at 14,078 as of 10:06 a.m. That's 86 points away from the all-time high it reached in October 2007, before the financial crisis imploded. The Standard & Poor's ...

Congress set to OK bill renewing anti-violence law

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans appeared resigned Thursday to accepting an ambitious expansion of the Violence Against Women Act that would bring gays, lesbians, immigrants and Native Americans under its protective umbrella.

Cops: Grandma shot self, young grandsons in car

PRESTON, Conn. (AP) - A woman who picked up her two young grandsons from daycare and was supposed to bring them home so the 2-year-old could open his birthday presents instead drove them to a neighboring town and shot and killed the children and herself, state police and family members said.

Stocks surge; Dow on track to high close of year

NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks surged for a second day, putting the Dow on track for its highest close of the year. The market rose on more evidence that the U.S. housing market is recovering and signs that shoppers are still spending, at least at discount retailers such as Dollar Tree, which reported a jump in quarterly earnings Wednesday. The gains were broad: Twenty-nine of 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average advanced. ...

Pa. Spyware images sent to Aaron's computers

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Attorneys in a class-action lawsuit say the Atlanta-based furniture rental company, Aaron's Inc., hasn't notified at least 800 customers allegedly targeted by Pennsylvania-made spyware installed on the company's rental computers. In new documents filed Wednesday, the attorneys say that spyware created by North East, Pa.'s DesignerWare was used to send 185,000 emails from computers rented by its customers to Aaron's corporate computers. Attorneys for the rental customers say those emails sometimes ...

Voting rights law gets Supreme Court challenge

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court's conservative justices voiced deep skepticism Wednesday about a section of a landmark civil rights law that has helped millions of Americans exercise their right to vote. In a fast-paced, 70-minute argument, the court's liberals and conservatives engaged in a sometimes tense back and forth over whether there is an ongoing need in 2013 for a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The measure requires states ...

10 students disciplined over marijuana brownies

DACULA, Ga. (AP) - Authorities say 10 students at a high school northeast of Atlanta have been disciplined after school officials say one of them brought marijuana brownies to school and shared them.

Better late than never

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama will meet Friday with the top leaders in the House and Senate to discuss what to do about automatic cuts to the federal budget, White House and congressional leaders said.