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McKINNEY, Texas – A judge declared a mistrial Saturday in the murder trial of a woman accused of fatally cutting the arms off her 10-month-old daughter. Jurors deadlocked during the fourth day of deliberations in the case of Dena Schlosser, 37, who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. “There …

WASHINGTON – Sales of new U.S. homes rose a much larger-than-expected 13.8 percent in March, the biggest one-month gain since April 1993, but prices fell sharply, a government report showed Wednesday. The pace of new home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted 1.213 million unit annual rate from a downwardly …

NEW YORK – Transit union leader Roger Toussaint said he’d march across the Brooklyn Bridge with workers before turning himself in Monday for a 10-day jail sentence stemming from the illegal three-day subway and bus strike that crippled the city in December. Labor leaders and unionized workers were expected to …

We’ve all found ourselves chatting with someone whose breath could easily wilt a flower. With more than 90 million people suffering from chronic bad breath (also called halitosis), that’s a lot of wilted flowers. If you (or someone you regularly smooch) has an attack of bad breath that even Altoids …

NEW YORK – The New York Attorney General and the state’s banking department on Tuesday announced the indictments of eight individuals who allegedly participated in a scheme that defrauded residential mortgage lenders of “tens of tens of millions of dollars” over the past five years. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer also …

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Tornadoes tore across a university campus overnight, ripping walls off a church and sorority house, crushing houses and cars, and killing a woman in a mobile home southeast of town. University of Iowa sophomore Melissa Fortman huddled with friends in the basement their sorority as the …

TOPEKA, Kan. – A state ethics commission is investigating allegations that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius‘ re-election campaign illegally solicited contributions from lobbyists. A spokeswoman for the Democratic governor confirmed Friday that the Governmental Ethics Commission staff had discussed an e-mail with Sebelius’ campaign committee. The commission is expected to take up …

WASHINGTON – Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show. The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who …

NEW YORK – Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard are engaged and expecting a baby, her publicist said Tuesday. It will be the first marriage for both actors, Gyllenhaal’s representative, Amanda Silverman, said Tuesday. No other information was released. The couple have been dating for four years. Screen credits for the …

MORA, N.M. – A wildfire forced the evacuation of two small towns as it burned across 10,000 acres of grass and ponderosa pine trees in northeastern New Mexico, authorities said. Firefighters battling the blaze were helped by calmer weather overnight, state Forestry Division spokesman Dan Ware said Thursday. The fire …