national

BANGOR, Wash. - Specially trained Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions will help guard a Trident submarine base in Washington beginning next year, the Navy announced this week.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - A reported child abduction that turned out to be a hoax this week apparently started with two young boys mimicking the plot of a crime-related television program and ended with misdemeanor charges, a police spokesman said.

CREEDMOOR, N.C, - After a 14-month hunt that sent searchers trudging through pastures and peering into open wells, sheriff's deputies found the skeletal remains of Kelly Morris inside a 900-acre tract where dogs chase coyotes and foxes for sport.

A would-be robber -- wearing clown makeup and carrying a purse -- tried to hold up a Riverside credit union this week but left empty handed.

"I guess they didn't take the clown seriously," said police Sgt. Skip Showalter.

The brief one-man circus performed at 5:11 p.m. Wednesday at Altura Credit Union along the 3400 block of Fourteenth Street.

The thought of kids with runny noses sitting in Santa's lap sharing their deepest desires and germs this holiday season isn't eliciting the usual "Ho, ho, ho." It's more of an "Oh, no, no."

As in, "Oh no, don't give Santa swine flu."

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Animal shelters across the nation are overloaded with pit bulls, muscular terriers with a reputation for violence and fighting.

Media reports on pit bull maulings are commonplace.

A YouTube video of eight young men terrorizing bicyclists and pedestrians -- including children and older people -- in what appear to be the twin Minnesota cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul has triggered a police investigation.

Most Americans believe people have become less civil and polite when they talk about the federal government and its policies.

Fifty-seven percent of adults in a Scripps Howard survey answered "yes" to the question: "Does it seem to you that people, in general, have become less civil and less polite when they talk about the federal government?"

I'm no big fan of capital punishment, but it's hard to argue that John Allen Muhammad didn't deserve to die last week. Much more than most murders, his were particularly meaningless.

Roy A. Hallums, who endured 311 days in captivity as a hostage in Baghdad, has a way of stating what might appear hyperbolic with a calm earnestness.