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Hundreds of people showed up Saturday morning for a gun buyback in Seattle. One man even brought a rocket launcher. He said it had already been used and could not do any harm. Mason Vranish said he bought it from a man for $100, but within seconds police took it off his hands. “Their reason was even though it was single time use item it is still military property concern that a soldier had stolen it from the base or whatever and it wasn't theirs to own... so it somehow ended up in the civilian market illegally,” said Vranish. Officers...

...Are black people supporting Obama mainly because he's black? If race is just one factor in blacks' support of Obama, does that make them racist? Can blacks' support for Obama be compared with white voters who may favor his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, because he's white? ...Stacey Dash, who also has Mexican heritage, is best known for the 1995 film "Clueless" and the recent cable-TV drama "Single Ladies." On Twitter, she was called "jigaboo," "traitor," "house nigger" and worse after posting, "Vote for Romney. The only choice for your future." ...Twitter users are by no means representative of America, and...

About four in 10 U.S. adults believe that President Obama's healthcare reform law will create "death panels" to decide patients' fitness for care, according to a new Associated Press-GfK survey. Support for the widely challenged claim has remained steady since 2010, when 39 percent believed "death panels" would result from the healthcare law. Today, 41 percent say the same is true. Overall, most people believe the law will go into effect in spite of Republican pledges to repeal it. About seven in 10 adults said the law will be implemented with some changes, while 11 percent believe it will be...

WASHINGTON (AP) — ‘‘2016: Obama’s America,’’ a new conservative film exploring the roots of President Barack Obama’s political views, took in $6.2 million to make it one of the highest-grossing movies of last weekend. The film, written and narrated by conservative scholar Dinesh D'Souza, argues that Obama was heavily influenced by what D'Souza calls the ‘‘anti-colonial’’ beliefs of his father, Barack Obama Sr., a Kenyan academic who was largely absent from the president’s life.

WASHINGTON—In his debut as Mitt Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan promised "America's comeback team" won't duck tough budget issues, although the man standing next to him has kept his head low so far. Romney vowed the duo would "preserve" Medicare, an eye-popping claim considering Ryan wants to transform the program from the ground up. Not all the rhetoric fit neatly with reality or with the record when Romney introduced his Republican vice presidential choice to the nation Saturday. A look at some of the claims by the Wisconsin congressman and Romney, and how they compare with the facts. ROMNEY: "Unlike...

"I'm going to have to find another way to do this - the AP's been getting away with this” There is a better way, Rush, and here it is. 1 - During the Founding era, and up to the founding of the AP in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, NOBODY THOUGHT JOURNALISM WAS OBJECTIVE. Newspapers were about the opinions of their printers, just lile the EIB Network is about the opinion of Rush Limbaugh. Jefferson famously asserted that advertisements were the only truths to be relied on in newspapers. 2. The telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore was first...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The president just couldn't say no: Mick Jagger held out a mic almost by way of command, and soon Barack Obama was belting out the blues with the best of them. The East Room of the White House was transformed into an intimate blues club on Tuesday night for a concert featuring blues all-stars of the past, present and future - and the president himself.

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The Supreme Court's conservative majority made it harder for people to band together to sue the nation's largest businesses in the two most far-reaching rulings of the term the justices are wrapping up on Monday. The two cases putting new limits on class-action lawsuits were among more than a dozen in which the justices divided 5-4 along familiar ideological lines, with the winning side determined by the vote of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Women made up one-third of the nine-member court for the first time ever this year, but missing from the court's docket was a case that could be called...

President Barack Obama is pivoting from diplomacy on the world stage to the intimate and delicate domestic task of acting as healer-in-chief to a devastated community. The president travels to tornado-wrecked Joplin, Mo., on Sunday, a day after returning from a six-day European tour of Ireland, England, France and Poland. After days of focusing on the U.S. relationship with the rest of the world, he'll turn to an even more critical connection: his own, with the American people. The president will visit with survivors and family members of the worst tornado in decades, a monster storm that tore through Joplin...

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Dozens of ultra-conservatives plan to gather in Bartlesville Monday night to protest the Legislature's plan to focus more on the economy than on social issues. The more conservative Republicans, including tea party members, want lawmakers to focus on abortion restrictions, immigration and fewer regulations on firearms. Republican leaders who will direct the agenda want to concentrate first on improving Oklahoma's struggling economy. Charlie Meadows, with the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee, said Monday he expects up to 200 protesters. Meadows says Monday's gathering at the Bartlesville Community Center is a way to send a message to...

How much did the left show its keister on O’Donnell’s alleged gaffe? So much so that the AP/WaPo story on the subject was almost completely rewritten last night, and without an official correction. After the break I will have screen caps and a cut and paste of the text of the article, but let’s start with just the first paragraph. Before: WILMINGTON, Del. — Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to disagree or not know that the First Amendment bars the government from...

GROZNY, Russia – Islamic insurgents attacked Chechnya's parliament Tuesday in a brazen suicide raid that left six people dead and 17 wounded, defying Kremlin claims of stability in the volatile southern region.

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation that would have repealed the law banning gays from serving openly in the military. The partisan vote was a defeat for Senate Democrats and gay rights advocates, who saw the bill as their last chance before November's elections to overturn the law known as "don't ask, don't tell." With the 56-43 vote, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation. It also would have authorized $726 billion in defense spending including a pay raise for troops.

A judge on Tuesday sentenced former Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez to three years in prison for taking a bribe and attempted extortion, saying he had to be held accountable for his actions despite all his good deeds. Hartford Superior Court Judge Julia Dewey said Perez also must serve three years of probation after the jail time.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A defense lawyer says a student accused of cutting a Muslim taxi driver's neck in New York City has post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic alcoholism. A Manhattan judge said Monday he'll decide at arraignment whether to grant bail for Michael Enright, of Brewster, N.Y.

Memo sent to AP staff From: Kent, Tom Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 11:53 AM Subject: Standards Center guidance: Planned Sept. 11 Quran burning Colleagues, As you know, a group known as the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., has announced that it intends to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11. -snip- Should the event happen on Saturday, the AP will not distribute images or audio that specifically show Qurans being burned, and will not provide detailed text descriptions of the burning.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, accused people who wrongly believe Obama is Muslim of catering to political enemies during a fiery speech Sunday in Arkansas. In his sermon at New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Wright criticized supporters of the Iraq war and defended former state Court of Appeals Judge Wendell Griffen for speaking out against it. Griffen serves as the church's pastor. Wright's only reference to Obama came when he compared Griffen's opponents to those who incorrectly think Obama is Muslim....

<p>AP Orders Staff: ‘Stop Using the Phrase “Ground Zero Mosque”’ By Alana Goodman Created 08/19/2010 - 16:10 In an unusual move, the Associated Press has publicly released an advisory memo [1] to its reporters on how to cover of the Ground Zero mosque story - and the first rule is that journalists must immediately stop calling it the "Ground Zero mosque" story.</p>

Congress: Charlie Rangel's world The AP takes a long look at the personal side of Charlie Rangel and his relationship with other members of Congress: "His wife, Alma, warns him not to be naive about the glad-handling. 'You know,' she tells him, 'they're putting you on.' ... 'She says it's unseemly,' Rangel says of his wife's advice. 'I say, 'Suppose it's not real. As long as they keep saying these things until I die, what difference does it make?' But he admits, 'It's still painful. It's times like this when I have to reinforce the facts: I'm alive, I'm well,...