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Overstressed military mental health system examined
In the aftermath of the Fort Hood shootings last week, the spotlight is suddenly on the military's overstressed mental health care system.
Questions are emerging about how a few hundred military mental health counselors are treating thousands and thousands of men and women in the armed forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Cuba drops potato from ration books, signaling shift
The humble potato has become the symbol of a new revolution sweeping Cuba.
The vegetable has been eliminated from the thick brown ration books that Cuban nationals relied on for nearly 50 years to purchase government-subsidized groceries, part of the socialist country's attempt to ensure equal access to such staples as rice, beans and cooking oil.
Long hours in Calif. capitol can mean lousy lawmaking
Early -- very early -- one morning last week, state Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod wandered to the back of the ornate Senate chambers and expressed a feeling shared by many of the other people in the room.
"I would rather stick my finger in a light socket," she said, "than spend another hour in here."
Vegas 'stripper mobile' rolling along, raising a storm
LAS VEGAS - Even the men who hand out "nude girls direct to your room" cards stopped their hawking long enough to do some gawking at the "stripper-mobile" as it rolled down the Las Vegas Strip on this week.
A new approach to immigration
The Obama administration's new immigration strategy, focusing more on crackdowns on employers than worker deportations, has an early test case in Minnesota.More than 1,200 workers from American Building Maintenance Co. left their jobs last month after immigration agents conducted an audit of the company -- an audit that revealed they were working illegally.
$75 billion mortgage bailout no help to many homeowners
Nine months ago, the Obama administration offered banks $75 billion in taxpayer money to rework troubled mortgages.
Cal State system gets record number of applications
A record number of students are applying to attend California State University campuses next fall, and officials are urging those who haven't yet applied to get their paperwork in by the end of the month.
In the five weeks since the application period opened, 266,152 students have applied to attend a Cal State campus -- an increase of 53 percent compared with the same time last year.
Priest's plea for help nets beating
TAMPA, Fla. - Marine reservist Jasen Bruce was getting clothes out of the trunk of his car when a bearded man in a robe approached him.
That man, a Greek Orthodox priest named Father Alexios Marakis, speaks little English and was lost, police said. He wanted directions.
Pachyderm paradise tucked out of sight in Tennessee
OHENWALD, Tenn. - Most of the locals haven't heard the trumpeting or seen the massive animals that can stand 12 feet tall and weigh thousands of pounds.
Here in Hohenwald, a small city outside Nashville with a population of about 3,800, residents know world-famous elephants roam just outside of town.
But that's all they know.
Flowers sent to Ft. Hood shooter draw FBI interest
LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. - The New Testament instructs Christians to love their enemies.
Now a Lehigh Acres, Fla. man says he is attracting the attention of the FBI after he followed those instructions, attempting to send a dozen roses to the suspected gunman in the recent massacre at Fort Hood in Texas.

