Ken Stanford

Gone are the days when young voters weren't taken seriously. In 2008, they helped propel Barack Obama into the Oval Office, supporting him by a 2-1 margin.

U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd obtained secret FBI documents about the civil rights movement that were leaked by the CIA and triggered an angry confrontation between the two agencies in the 1960s, according to newly released FBI records.

The men came from different walks of life on two continents: a children's puppeteer in Florida, a hotel manager in Massachusetts, an emergency medical technician in Kansas, a day care worker in the Netherlands. In all, 43 men have been arrested over the past two years in a horrific, far-flung child porn network that unraveled like a sweater with a single loose thread.

Members of Congress headed home for a five-week break with a lengthy list of uncompleted work and little to show for the past year and a half except an eye-popping amount of dissatisfaction: Nearly 80 percent of Americans are unhappy with them. The Republican-controlled House and Democratic-led Senate have set record lows for production and record highs for dysfunction.

A wildfire whipped by gusty, southerly winds swept through rural woodlands south of the Oklahoma City area Friday, burning several homes as firefighters struggled to contain it in 113-degree heat.

Sputtering along, the economy on Friday offered some hope but no illuminating help to voters who are mired in a weak jobs recovery and flooded with familiar promises from President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. The new employment snapshot seemed too mixed and middling to jolt a consistently close race.

A dozen U.S. service members brought women, likely prostitutes, to their hotel rooms in Colombia and also allowed dogs to soil bed linens and building grounds shortly before President Barack Obama arrived in the country for an April summit, according to a military investigation that followed the announcement of punishments for the men.

The Medical Center Auxiliary honored more than 100 teen volunteers at an appreciation dinner Thursday night at the Gainesville Civic Center.

It's the season for state and county fairs, and health officials are reminding fairgoers to be careful around pigs because of a new flu spreading from the animals to people.

Gay rights activists were kissing at Chick-fil-A stores across the country Friday, just days after the company set a sales record when customers flocked to the restaurants to show support for the fast-food chain president's opposition to gay marriage.