AP – With less than two weeks before Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn awards a lucrative, first-of-its-kind contract for the private management of the state’s $2 billion-a-year lottery, some are criticizing the selection process as too secretive and questioning whether it favors one powerful bidder.
AP – Federal officials say a passenger has been taken into custody after screeners detected something suspicious in a checked bag at Miami International Airport.
AP – Hurricane Earl scooted past the North Carolina Outer Banks in the dark of night, leaving residents and officials waiting for daybreak to see how much damage the storm’s winds and waves could do.
AP – A 9-year-old boy ran to get cash from his mother’s purse to appease an armed intruder, but when he returned the man was stabbing his parents with a kitchen knife in the bedroom, according to recently released search warrants in the triple murder case.
AP – Stark differences exist between the oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico and the blast that led to the massive BP spill. Mostly notably, no one was killed and no crude was gushing into the water, but the distinctions don’t end there.
AP – A small plane that crashed into a shallow lagoon off San Francisco Bay on Thursday, killing three people, belonged to the founder of a local steel company who was believed to be among the dead.
AP – A two-story Comfort Inn has become a makeshift hurricane hostel on North Carolina’s Outer Banks for those who want to stay close to their homes but know they need better shelter from the onslaught of Earl.
AP – Six recruiters were accused Thursday of luring 400 laborers from Thailand to the United States and forcing them to work, according to a federal indictment that the FBI called the largest human-trafficking case ever charged in U.S. history.
AP – Don Fosburg recalled friends and family killed in World War II as he marked the 65th anniversary of the end of the conflict on Thursday.
AP – Illinois’ prison chief, who became a political liability to Gov. Pat Quinn during an election year because of a secret prisoner release program he oversaw, is stepping down, the governor said Thursday.
AP – A man who worked at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was arrested Thursday on suspicion that he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of items from the luggage of passengers in a case that could include hundreds of victims from around the world.
AP – Police had been negotiating with James Jae Lee for several hours and intended to keep him talking for as long as it took to safely resolve the standoff at the Discovery Channel’s headquarters. Inside the lobby, Lee’s three hostages had no intention of waiting.
AP – It will go down as one of the most painful openings to a political debate in recent memory.
AP – Bethany Storro had just bought a pair of sunglasses and was celebrating a new job when a woman walked up to her with a cup and said: “Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?”
AP – Calling the Chicago police chief’s ultimatum to stop resorting to violence a waste of time, current and former members of some of the city’s most notorious street gangs held an unlikely news conference on Thursday to send their own message to police: You’re not playing fair.
AP – The developers planning to build a $100 million Islamic center near the World Trade Center site still have financial hurdles to clear: They haven’t finished buying all the property they want for the project and are nearly a quarter-million dollars behind on real estate taxes and late fees.
AP – Illinois’ prison chief, who became a political liability to Gov. Pat Quinn during an election year because of a secret prisoner release program he oversaw, is stepping down, the governor said Thursday.
AP – Engineers removed a temporary cap Thursday that stopped oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s blown-out well in mid-July. No more oil was expected to leak into the sea, but crews were standing by with collection vessels just in case.
AP – The co-worker of a woman found dead in her boyfriend’s car after a fatal California police chase said Thursday that she spoke with the victim during the pursuit.
AP – The former television producer who tried to blackmail David Letterman was freed Thursday after four months in jail for a plot that put a spotlight on the comic icon’s office affairs, city Correction Department records show.
AP – Former Dodger CEO Jamie McCourt didn’t want to take the risk associated with buying the Los Angeles Dodgers six years ago and if she had, it would have adversely affected the team, her estranged husband testified Thursday at their divorce trial.
AP – To relaunch Middle East peace talks on Thursday, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders and their American mediators quietly agreed to push aside the question of Hamas — the Islamic militant group that controls one of the two Palestinian territories and rejects negotiations.
AP – An FBI agent says an Illinois defense attorney facing federal charges that he tried to smuggle a heroin-filled condom into an Indiana federal prison claims to have done it repeatedly, exploiting greater privacy privileges lawyers are afforded in the lockups.
AP – Mariner Energy, Inc. shares dropped more than 4 percent Thursday following news that one of its production platforms exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.
AP – Searchers in the rugged North Cascades have found a backpack belonging to the son of Hall of Fame boxing promoter Bob Arum, but they are still looking for the missing climber.
