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ELDORADO, Texas - When it came time to pick a Texas Ranger to wiggle through a little hole into the Temple Annex vault of the YFZ Ranch in April 2008, Sgt. Jesus "Jesse" Valdez was the one.

VENTURA, Calif. - Carolina Canosa turned 13 this year. She has "Twilight" posters hanging on her bedroom wall and loves the Jonas Brothers, manicures and frozen yogurt, like any other teenager.

Carolina also albinism -- a condition that results in vision problems and little color in her skin, hair and eyes -- and that's what people always seem to notice first.

The police auction of a souped-up motorized recliner, confiscated because the owner was drunk, is back on track, now that the La-Z-Boy company's concerns have been satisfied.

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.

WASHINGTON - Civil liberties advocates caution that mandatory vaccinations, forced quarantines and restricted interstate travel would not only endanger individual rights but also would be unlikely to prevent disease in the event of a severe H1N1 outbreak.

Car insurance by the tankful?

Not quite, but California moved a step closer last month to pay-as-you-drive policies that could allow motorists to buy insurance like they do gasoline -- a little at a time.

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.

Budget-cutting changes to California's In-Home Supportive Services program began Monday, affecting thousands of low-income seniors and disabled people and their caregivers.

Budget-related legislation requires the Department of Social Services to cut $82.1 million in program costs this year.

Q: Does a federal lawsuit stop the cuts and program changes?

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.