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The 50th anniversary of the first two American combat casualties of the Vietnam War will be marked Wednesday (July 8) at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial.

Robert Taylor's career is a non-stop game of cat and mouse.

And if the retired Miami Beach detective is the cat, the mice are international crooks and jewel thieves.

Taylor, 55, is the director of operations for the South American Theft Group Intelligence Network (SATGIN), an East Coast nonprofit dedicated to tracking organized crime rings from south of the border.

For Roger Dobson, it meant the end of duck hunting on the lagoon near his home.

For Bob Baugher, it meant an end to riding a motorcycle on the beach.

For Bob Hudson, it meant the federal government taking his property on an undeveloped barrier island.

For Herman Wattwood, it meant having to wear a name tag to suddenly crowded PTA meetings.

For just the second time since the Great Depression, California began paying some of its bills with IOUs this week, as this year's version of the state's annual budget battle dragged on.

The IOUs began going out a few hours after state financial officials set a 3.75 percent interest rate on them Friday, along with a redemption date of Oct. 2.

McKees Rocks buried Billy Mays Friday -- a native son who reigned as the black-bearded king of infomercials, proclaiming the wonders of lotions, potions, gadgets and gizmos to insomniacs who picked up the phone and made him rich.

Call it green.

Call it high-tech.

Call it sustainable.

Or just call it coffee.

It used to be that the office coffee pot was just that: a coffee pot.

Neighborhoods in southwest Florida and elsewhere are losing more than just neighbors. Homeowners in foreclosure are ripping out bathtubs, wiring, countertops, sinks, windows, garage doors and even the trees from the front yard and selling them for cash.

Each year, it seems, Memphis is cast as one of the most dangerous, crime-ridden cities in America.

No doubt there's a lot of crime in the Bluff City, but officials here say the city suffers in the public perception because of the meticulous reporting done by the Memphis Police Department.

Tired of Michael Jackson overload? Brace yourself.

And put down your butter knife.

For years, the state fairs in Minnesota and Iowa have played a sort of butter sculpture one-upsmanship -- Princess Kay busts in St. Paul vs. full-sized cows in Des Moines.

The failures of New York's doctors and fraudulent funeral-home employees to correctly report why people died were detected by statistical analysis of 4.9 million mortality records provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.