national

LAS VEGAS - In the latest sign of the economic free fall, U.S. citizens are starting to show up in the early mornings outside home improvement stores and plant nurseries across the Las Vegas Valley, jostling with illegal immigrants for a shot at a few hours of work.

Experts say the slow starting but seemingly inexorable trend is occurring nationwide.

Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, is the spiritual high point of many Muslims' lives, an event that some say changes them forever and fills them with an inexpressible joy.

ELDORADO, Texas - A DNA expert did the math to show jurors Monday that altering calculations to determine paternity would barely change results of tests indicating polygamist sect member Raymond Merril Jessop fathered a child with a 16-year-old.

WATONGA, Okla. - Eugene Blackbear, leaning on a wooden walking cane, takes a seat not far from the family's sacred sweat lodge on a small acreage south of here. His son-in-law, Malcolm Whitebird, stokes the flames of a bonfire built around a pyramid of stones.

The year before a souring economy caused endowments to fall, jobs to be cut and pay to be frozen, presidents of major private research universities across the country had an extraordinary year for pay increases.

They may be kept with the best of intentions, but exotic pets can create havoc at home and in nature.

Sometimes they turn on their owners, as happened to Kelly Ann Walz, 37, of Saylorsburg, Pa., who was mauled to death Oct. 4 by a 350-pound black bear while cleaning its cage.

Sometime in the coming weeks, Pennsylvania state workers will bring permanent neutrality to the world's largest football trophy -- a bridge.

They will mount a "Rochester-Monaca Bridge" sign on the east end of the span over the Ohio River and a "Monaca-Rochester Bridge" sign on its west end.

You've heard the advice before: Check your kid's candy bucket after going trick-or-treating on Halloween. Throw away any treats from a neighbor handing out homemade goodies. Sometimes hospitals even offer to X-ray the candy just to make sure there isn't a needle in that Snickers bar.

Most kids love Halloween, but many employers anticipate its arrival with a sense of dread.

The primary reason for workplace angst: How do you control employees who want to dress up in Halloween costumes for the workday?

Susan Kemp, senior labor law counsel for the Sacramento-based California Chamber of Commerce, says it's simple: Spell out the rules to the workers.

BANGOR, Maine - The next bellwether battle over same-sex marriage will be settled in Maine Tuesday by an expected 500,000 voters, about as many as cast ballots last year in Sacramento County when the nation's most-populous state, California, repealed same-sex marriage.