The former fiance of Gov. Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter says he thinks he knows why the Alaska governor is resigning - concerns over money.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford pushed for a packed schedule but wanted to keep an evening free on the taxpayer-funded trip to Buenos Aires where he says his friendship with an Argentine woman turned physical, e-mails released Thursday show.

Detectives investigating the death of Michael Jackson are looking at his prescription drug history and trying to talk with his numerous former doctors, the Los Angeles police chief said Thursday.

State education officials on Thursday rejected a plan by a Southern California school district to use summer classes to make up for a scheduling error that could cost the district millions of dollars.

The following recalls have been announced:

American Indian and Alaskan communities are set to receive $90 million in stimulus funds for water and wastewater projects. Here's a sampling of where the money is going:

The road from the Navajo community of Sweetwater to Red Mesa is unpaved and rugged but well traveled.

The Air Force Academy says 84 cadets with flu-like symptoms have been isolated are being tested for swine flu.

A woman accused of tagging her way through Europe has been sentenced to six months in jail for spray-painting Queens subway cars over three years.

San Francisco International Airport officials say a Northwest Airlines jet carrying 194 passengers suffered an engine problem after takeoff, forcing it to return to the airport.

A man convicted of killing two campers during a 1995 robbery of their southern Oklahoma campsite was put to death Thursday.

The federal government's most secure prison has determined that two books written by President Barack Obama contain material "potentially detrimental to national security" and rejected an inmate's request to read them.

An advertising executive's former wife who police say was held hostage by her ex-husband for hours inside his Connecticut home told a newspaper she did not expect to survive the ordeal, which ended when he allegedly set the house on fire after she escaped.

A Canadian musician has become an Internet sensation after posting a song on YouTube about United Airlines breaking his guitar.

The Shriners will continue treating children in all 22 cities where they operate hospitals, but some of the facilities may be downgraded to outpatient surgical centers and the sale or lease of real estate will be explored, the nonprofit's new CEO said Thursday.

Customs agents discovered an extra ingredient in a shipment of Colombian coffee: nearly a half-ton of cocaine.

A lot of people are saying this is cyber war. But if the Internet attack on U.S. Web sites was an assault by North Korea or some other foreign government, what good responses are in America's arsenal?

The Coast Guard ended its search Thursday for five people aboard a small plane that crashed off Florida's Gulf Coast, saying it believes all are dead.

State education officials have given a failing grade to a plan by two Southern California elementary schools to use extended summer sessions to make up for lost class time.

Starting Friday, most state government offices will begin closing three days a month to save California some money.

U.S. authorities trying to unravel the widespread cyber attacks against government Web sites in the United States and South Korea this week are facing a lengthy, complex investigation that may never identify a culprit, at least not one they would be willing to reveal.

Paris Hilton hated her 2006 movie "Pledge This!" and refused for months to make promotional appearances for it despite a contract requiring her to do so, lawyers for the film's investors said as trial opened Thursday in an $8 million lawsuit against her.

Steve McNair's pastor and close friend cautioned against judging the ex-NFL quarterback Thursday, reminding people who gathered for his memorial not to cast the first stone when talking about his life off the field.

Tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown were convicted Thursday of amassing weapons, explosives and booby traps and plotting to kill federal agents during a nine-month standoff in 2007 at their fort-like home in rural New Hampshire.