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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."

Desert tortoise populations in the Mojave Desert continue to decline, despite years of study and protection since the reptile was designated a threatened species in 1990, experts say.

Researchers say observations support a gloomy view of the animals' status.

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.

BREMERTON, Wash. - An old gill net covers the seafloor like a blanket. Small forage fish swim through its holes untouched -- but a baby seal is not so lucky. When Jim Norberg and Jake Johnston dive down from the Twila Dawn to recover the lost net, they find the seal, dead.

WASHINGTON - For most PlayStation 3 users, the criminals they catch and the victims they save are just pixilated simulations on a TV screen.

But some federal officers are using the gaming console to protect children and catch predators in real life.

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.

As America's trade with the Far East -- principally China -- expanded massively during the 1980s and 1990s, California reaped the benefits as the gateway for both exports and imports.

With trade emerging as a major component of the state's very diverse economy, traffic and payrolls blossomed at its major ports.