The happiest of seasons is also among the deadliest: Unintentional shootings spike during the holidays, and are more likely to occur than any other time of the year, according to an analysis by The Associated Press and the USA TODAY Network.
A 300-pound metal sculpture of a satanic pentagram, erected as an atheist protest to a public park's Nativity scene, was severely damaged on Tuesday when it was pulled to the ground by vandals.
Seven people have been injured, two seriously, when an escalator at a New York City mall malfunctioned, causing one person to fall and set off a chain reaction down the line.
A Department of Homeland Security analyst is due in court for a plea hearing on charges that he took a gun and other weapons into his agency's Washington building.
The federal government will be pouring nearly a quarter-billion dollars into several dozen projects aimed at tackling the effects of drought in the West and restoring watersheds that provide drinking water to communities around the nation.
As the new Mark Wahlberg film "Patriots Day" about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing premieres on Wednesday in Boston, the mayor and others are pressing for recognition for a police officer who died a year after being wounded in a confrontation with the suspects.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory has issued its highest level of alert for aviation after what it says was a brief eruption of a volcano on the Aleutian Islands on Tuesday.
A man who survived a deadly 2012 drive-by shooting in Boston identified former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez in court on Tuesday as the one who pulled the trigger.
A federal jury found Tuesday that a warden at a jail in Hawaii did not subject female inmates to sexual humiliation and discrimination, and did not retaliate against a jail social worker who brought the suit.
A Dallas-area woman convicted of capital murder for the 2010 slayings of her mother and stepfather when she was 12 is being sent to adult prison rather than parole to complete her 20-year sentence.
A California man has pleaded guilty to a charge stemming in part from the theft of more than 100 wine bottles worth more than $500,000 from a famed Napa Valley restaurant, officials said Tuesday.
A man who became known as the "Barefoot Bandit" during a teenage crime spree in stolen cars, boats, and planes had his flight-school fundraiser grounded by federal probation officials.
Newly released 911 recordings depict a frantic, chaotic scene as a grandmother pulls into a Little Rock shopping center and discovers her 3-year-old grandson has been shot in what police describe as a road-rage killing.
