 Fay comes ashore
 Associated Press
 Tropical Storm Fay moved inland Tuesday after making landfall in southwest Florida, never growing into the hurricane that forecasters had cautioned it could become. |
Court says EPA air pollution rule is illegal
WASHINGTON, 3:19 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
A Bush administration rule barring states and local governments from requiring more air pollution monitoring is illegal, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out a two-year-old rule that may have allowed some refineries, power plants and factories to exceed pollution limits because the Environmental Protection Agency “failed to fix inadequate monitoring requirements ... and prohibited states and local authorities from doing so.”
More California & The West News
TUCSON, Ariz., 5:52 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)Virtual fence construction in Arizona on hold: Construction on “virtual fence” projects scheduled along Arizona's border with Mexico is on hold indefinitely because the Interior Department hasn't signed off on use of its lands, federal officials said Tuesday. PHOENIX, 6:16 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Searchers say all missing in Grand Canyon located: Rescue crews have located a handful of hikers who were considered missing after flooding struck a remote part of the Grand Canyon, authorities said Tuesday.
SAN ANGELO, Texas, 10:26 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Girl from polygamist group ordered into state care: A Texas judge has ordered a 14-year-old girl who was allegedly married to jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs to be placed in foster care.
BUFFALO, N.Y., 1:15 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)Lennon's killer told parole board he's ashamed: John Lennon's killer told parole officials during his latest unsuccessful bid for release from prison that he is ashamed and sorry for gunning down the former Beatle nearly three decades ago. WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION, Wyo., 1:48 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Wyo. tribe mourns 3 teens, loss of cultural ties: Rows of rundown houses sit among stunted trees on a bleak, wind-swept plateau. The nearest mountains are a faint smudge on the horizon, and a boarded-up house marks the end of the road. LANSING, Mich., 1:50 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
63-year-old woman sues AARP for age discrimination: AARP, the national advocacy group for older Americans, is being accused of age discrimination. OKLAHOMA CITY, 2:29 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
50 years after Okla. sit-in, participants honored: Portwood Williams didn't know what kind of reception the children in his car would receive when they sat down at a segregated lunch counter in downtown Oklahoma City to order some soft drinks. WASHINGTON, 2:29 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Court hears arguments in WWII land dispute: An attorney for hundreds of Kentucky families forced to sell their farms to the Army during World War II argued in federal court Tuesday that government agents bullied them into accepting bad deals in the wake of Pearl Harbor. 2:53 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
States throw out costly electronic voting machines: The demise of touch-screen voting has produced a graveyard of expensive corpses: Warehouses stacked with thousands of carefully wrapped voting machines that have been shelved because of doubts about vanishing votes and vulnerability to hackers. MOUNT LAUREL, N.J., 2:53 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Suspected Fort Dix plotters seek delay in trial: The five men accused of plotting an attack on soldiers at Fort Dix want their trial postponed because a key expert witness, an Army reservist, is being called to active duty in Iraq. 3:02 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Flooding recedes in South Texas after foot of rain: McALLEN, Texas – Flooding receded Tuesday in southern Texas and main highways reopened after a deluge of as much as 13 inches of rain, as the drenching weather shifted to the northern end of the state and Oklahoma. ATLANTA, 2:53 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Lawsuit: 2 King children accused of unfairly using center: Two of Martin Luther King Jr.'s children have been sued by the institution their mother founded – the latest chapter in a family drama that has become increasingly more public in recent years. ATLANTA, 3:13 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Researcher: Bigfoot just a rubber gorilla suit: Turns out Bigfoot was just a rubber suit. Two researchers on a quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot say that the carcass encased in a block of ice – handed over to them for an undisclosed sum by two men who claimed to have found it – was slowly thawed out, and discovered to be a rubber gorilla outfit. NEW YORK, 3:18 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
2 NYPD officers accused of assaulting motorist: Two off-duty New York police officers are facing charges that they kicked, punched and pistol-whipped a man whose open car door was blocking their lane of traffic. NEW YORK, 3:22 p.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
NYC boy, 5, dies after falling down elevator shaft: Police say a 5-year-old New York City boy plunged 10 stories to his death after he jumped from an elevator that got stuck between floors with its doors open.
DELTA TOWNSHIP, Mich., 11:34 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Mich. shoplifting suspect crushed in compactor: Michigan authorities say a shoplifting suspect has died after being crushed in a trash compactor where she was hiding.
GREENVILLE, S.C., 11:31 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Woman pleads guilty to stealing South Carolina ID: A Montana woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing the identity of a missing South Carolina woman to attend an Ivy League school in what her lawyer called a bid to escape a painful past.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, 11:21 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Ohio says no to voting machine 'sleepovers': Poll workers will not be allowed to take voting machines home for safekeeping in the days before the November presidential election because the practice known as “sleepovers” is an unacceptable security risk, the state elections chief said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON, 11:17 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Paulson previews agenda for next China talks: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Tuesday the next round of high-level talks with China will focus on energy and environmental issues, and efforts to agree on an investment treaty.
FLINT, Mich., 11:15 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Former Mich. teacher accused of sex with boy, 12: Authorities accuse a former Michigan elementary school teacher of having sex with a 12-year-old boy she was tutoring at her home.
WASHINGTON, 9:18 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
U.S.: Musharraf can live where he wants: The United States says it has not been asked about giving former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf asylum, but that the former army general “has a right to live wherever he wants.”
CHICAGO, 8:29 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Suit accuses restaurant of giving man big tapeworm: A man who contends he got a 9-foot tapeworm after eating undercooked fish has sued a Chicago restaurant.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., 7:42 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Slain Arkansas party chairman honored at funeral: The funeral for slain Arkansas Democratic Party chairman Bill Gwatney was marked by humor as former President Clinton and others remembered the man who had touched their lives.
BOSTON, 7:27 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Mass. man guilty of possessing 6 stolen paintings: A retired Massachusetts lawyer has been found guilty of possessing six valuable paintings that had been stolen from a home in 1978.
GREEN BAY, Wis., 6:25 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Sailor, knocked from boat, rescued 12 hours later: A sailor rescued after he fell into Lake Michigan says one of the worst moments of the 12-hour ordeal came near the end, when a Coast Guard helicopter seemed to have its spotlight on him, only to turn away.
LAS VEGAS, 3:12 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Clinton: U.S. should demonstrate energy solutions: The United States can capture the world's imagination by creating an energy independent state, territory or nation, former President Bill Clinton told an energy summit.
DETROIT, 2:49 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Judge: Detroit mayor removal hearing can't proceed: Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick won a small but much-needed legal victory when a judge ruled the Detroit City Council doesn't have the authority to force him from office.
LOS ANGELES, 1:20 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Defense: Prosecutors bending law for MySpace hoax: A defense attorney for the Missouri woman charged in a MySpace hoax that allegedly led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide argued in court papers that prosecutors are bending a cyber crime statute to prosecute his client.
NEWARK, N.J., 1:04 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Iraqi refugees arriving in U.S. for resettlement: Thousands of Iraqi refugees have arrived in the United States as part of a nationwide resettlement program to bring 12,000 Iraqis to the United States by the end of next month, officials said.
JUNEAU, Alaska, 12:38 a.m. Aug. 19 (AP)
Dividend checks to be distributed early in Alaska: Here are two reasons to smile if you live in Alaska: Your annual oil royalty dividend will likely be bigger than ever and the checks will go out earlier than ever before.
