Markets climb, led by small-company stocks

Top IRS official didn't reveal tea party targeting

Tax commissioner's SUV costs taxpayers $39,000

ATLANTA (AP) - Records show that a Georgia tax commissioner used public funds to buy a full-sized SUV for his own use.

Car booting temporarily suspended in Athens

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - Officials in Athens have temporarily suspended car booting in the downtown area as they examine due process issues related to the controversial practice.

Angelina Jolie says she had double mastectomy

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Angelina Jolie says that she has had a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer.

Govt obtains wide AP phone records in probe

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.

UGA president-elect announced administrative shift

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - University of Georgia President-elect Jere Morehead has announced plans to restructure the school's senior administration.

Philly abortion doctor guilty in 3 babies' deaths

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Philadelphia abortion doctor was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder and could face execution in the deaths of three babies who authorities say were delivered alive and then killed with scissors at his grimy clinic, in a case that became a flashpoint in the nation's debate over abortion.

UN: Eat more insects; good for you, good for world

3 women report sexual assaults in Columbus

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Police in Columbus are investigating after three female patients of a long-term health care facility reported that they were sexually assaulted.

Obama slams IRS targeting, defends Libya effort

Gullah Geechee plan gets Interior Dept. approval

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - A plan to preserve the culture of slave descendants of the sea islands on the Southeast coast has been approved by the Department of the Interior.

Stocks open lower despite rise in retail sales

The stock market opened lower on Monday, pulling back from record highs last week.

Tri-state water feud plays out in Congress

Court dismisses 1,800 when police fail to show up

ATLANTA (AP) - Records show that at least 1,800 criminal cases have been dismissed in a metro Atlanta county court since 2010 because police officers failed to show up in court dispute being subpoenaed to testify.

Stocks edge lower, rebounding from Cyprus losses

NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks were little changed on Wall Street after recouping losses from an early sell-off caused by concern that a bailout plan for the Mediterranean island nation Cyprus would re-ignite the European debt crisis.

Stocks fall Wall Street on Cyprus bailout

NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks fell in early trading on Wall Street on concern that the terms of a proposed bank bailout for the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus could cause the euro crisis to flare up again. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 36 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,477 as of 10:18 a.m. EDT. The Dow fell as much as 110 points in the early going, then recouped some of ...

Supreme Court upholds sentence in girl's killing

ATLANTA (AP) - The Supreme Court of Georgia has upheld the convictions and life prison sentence given to the stepmother of an 11-year-old girl who prosecutors say was starved and beaten to death in Henry County in 2003.

Ga. day care regulators changing some rules

MACON, Ga. (AP) - Georgia day care regulators are changing some rules and adding others in an effort aimed at better protecting and educating children.

Rise of Latino population blurs US racial lines

WASHINGTON (AP) - Welcome to the new off-white America. A historic decline in the number of U.S. whites and the fast growth of Latinos are blurring traditional black-white color lines, testing the limits of civil rights laws and reshaping political alliances as "whiteness" begins to lose its numerical dominance. Long in coming, the demographic shift was most vividly illustrated in last November's re-election of President Barack Obama, the first black president, despite a historically ...

Pa. guard shot finger trying to remove ring

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A federal prison guard has been charged with shooting his own finger in a drunken attempt to remove his wedding ring during an argument with his wife at their northwestern Pennsylvania home, police said.

CDC: Rare rabies death was from kidney transplant

Four people received donated organs from a man unknowingly infected with rabies, leading to a rare human death more than a year later that has authorities scrambling to treat the other three patients, federal health officials said Friday. The man who died lived in Maryland and had received a kidney. The recipients of the donor's other kidney, heart and liver are getting anti-rabies shots, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said ...

US stocks open lower, threatening long rally

U.S. stocks opened lower Friday, threatening to end the longest winning streak for the Dow Jones industrial average in nearly 17 years. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 43 points, or 0.3, to 14,496 in the first hour and half of trading. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell four points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,559. The Nasdaq composite index fell 10 points, or 0.3 percent, to 3,248. The S&P 500 was six points ...

Prisoner van overturns on Atlanta freeway

ATLANTA (AP) - A van used to transport prisoners overturned on an Atlanta freeway, jamming traffic at the start of the rush hour.

State's highest court asked to take up school case

ATLANTA (AP) - A federal judge has asked the Georgia Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of the 2011 law that gave Gov. Nathan Deal the authority to suspend six DeKalb County school board members.

Francis pays tribute to Benedict, reflects on age

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis paid a heartfelt tribute Friday to his predecessor Benedict XVI, saying his faith and teaching had "enriched and invigorated" the Catholic Church and would remain its spiritual patrimony forever. Francis offered the respects during an audience with the cardinals who elected him to succeed Benedict, whose resignation set in motion the extraordinary conclave that brought the first prelate from the New World and first Jesuit to the papacy. ...

Pentagon spends nearly $1B a year on unemployment

WASHINGTON (AP) - Even as it faces budget cuts and forced employee furloughs, the Pentagon is spending nearly a $1 billion a year on a program that sends unemployment checks to former troops who left the military voluntarily.

Pentagon: Iranian plane pursued US spy drone

WASHINGTON (AP) - An Iranian fighter jet approached a U.S. surveillance drone aircraft over the Persian Gulf but broke off its pursuit after a U.S. escort plane discharged a warning flare, the Pentagon said Thursday. Pentagon press secretary George Little said the incident occurred Tuesday and that the unarmed MQ-1 Predator surveillance drone as well as two U.S. military escort planes remained over international waters at all times. Little said the drone was conducting ...

Ga. couple arrested on child cruelty charges

POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. (AP) - A metro Atlanta couple has been arrested on child cruelty charges after police say they duct taped their children and locked them in their bedrooms.

Pope Francis' humility: stops by hotel to pay bill

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis put his humility on display during his first day as pontiff Thursday, stopping by his hotel to pick up his luggage and pay the bill himself in a decidedly different style of papacy than his tradition-minded predecessor, who tended to stay ensconced in the frescoed halls of the Vatican. The break from Benedict XVI's pontificate was evident even in Francis' wardrobe choices: He kept the simple pectoral cross ...