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WASHINGTON - Wholesale prices bolted ahead in May at the fastest pace in six months as energy and food costs marched higher. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its Producer Price Index, which measures the costs of goods before they reach store shelves, shot up 1.4 percent in May. That was up from a modest 0.2 percent rise in April and marked the biggest increase since November. However, stripping out energy and food prices, which can swing widely from month to month, the "core" rate of inflation rose 0.2 percent in May, an improvement from the prior month's 0.4 percent...

Now risen to the level of an insurgent war, the battle between the falling Kleptocratic Mexican government and supra-wealthy organized crime groups who now control much of Mexico's land areas, police forces, and even some of its military has hit a new milestone. Exasperating political climates, the violence, bloodshed, and hatred for Americans South of the border, coupled with rising injustices and racism against and by US citizens, compounded by an incompetent federal government North of the border, are propagating the fires of civil discontent on both sides and about to strip-away the last veneers of civility. Toss into the...

Workers shifting to 4-day week to save gas By Andrea Hopkins 1 hour, 8 minutes ago CINCINNATI (Reuters) - When Ohio's Kent State University offered custodial staff the option of working four days a week instead of five to cut commuting costs, most jumped at the chance, part of a U.S. trend aimed at combating soaring gasoline prices. "We offered it to 94 employees and 78 have taken us up on it," said university spokesman Scott Rainone. The reason is simple: rising gas prices. And while so far only the university's custodians are eligible, Rainone hopes the option will be...

Cayne apologizes as Bear's takeover approved By Joseph A. Giannone 51 minutes ago NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bear Stearns Cos Inc Chairman James Cayne told employees and shareholders he was sorry for the demise of the 85-year-old investment bank, as shareholders voted on Thursday to sell the company to JPMorgan Chase & Co for less than $10 a share. In a five-minute meeting at Bear's Manhattan headquarters, Cayne apologized and said a "hurricane" in the markets brought down the bank, according to attendees. Members of the press were excluded from a session that attracted roughly 400 shareholders, many of them...

NEW YORK - The gasoline price record keeps getting broken with each passing day. AAA puts the national average for a gallon of regular at a record $3.95. It's jumped 35 cents in the past month and is 76-cents-a-gallon higher than a year ago. If you need premium, it's also never been more expensive. The auto club says the national average for premium is $4.35. That's an 84-cent-a-gallon jump over last year. Oil prices fell back Thursday ahead of a report expected to show U.S. inventories of crude and petroleum products grew last week. Prices remained volatile, though, buffeted about...

Naked pilot, flight attendant arrested in woods 39 minutes ago HARRISBURG, Pa. - An airline pilot was found hiding behind a shed wearing only flip-flops and a wristwatch as a nighttime romp in the woods with a flight attendant ended with both under arrest, police said. Jeffrey Paul Bradford, 24, and Adrianna Grace Connor, 24, both employees of Pinnacle Airlines Inc., were at a diner on the outskirts of Harrisburg on Sunday night before they apparently decided to walk into the woods, police said. "They told the officer they wanted to go do it in the woods, essentially," said Lower...

TOMBSTONE, Ariz (Reuters) - Gunslinger Bob Krueger blasts away at his outlaw rivals at a tourist show in this storied Old West town, although rising ammo costs may force him to choose his shots. Krueger and his gnarly band of pistoleros are among millions of shooters, hunters and even lawmen across the United States feeling the pinch as sky-high metals prices and demand from wars abroad are driving up the price of bullets. Ammo prices for many popular guns have more than tripled in the last three years, driven in large part by surging demand for metals in rapidly industrializing...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Record-high fuel prices and a slowing economy will shrink travel in the United States over the coming Memorial Day holiday for the first time since 2002, auto and travel group AAA said Thursday. Some 37.87 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home for the holiday, which falls this year on May 26. That would be down 0.9 percent from 38.23 million last year, according to AAA's survey which was conducted on more than 2,000 Americans. "This is the first time we've seen a decrease since 2002, after the downturn that followed the September...

US slashes reward for al-Qaida Iraq leader By MATTHEW LEE and PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer 24 minutes ago WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has slashed its reward for the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq from $5 million to $100,000 because it feels he's lost effectiveness and is no longer worth such a steep price, officials said Tuesday. Over the course of the last year, the government first reduced the bounty for Abu Ayyub al-Masri from $5 million to $1 million and then removed him entirely from the State Department's Rewards for Justice Program, which pays tipsters for information leading...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new company hopes drivers will kick the oil habit by brewing ethanol at home that won't spike food prices. E-Fuel Corp unveiled on Thursday the "MicroFueler" touting it as the world's first machine that allows homeowners to make their own ethanol and pump the brew directly into their cars. The portable unit that sells for $10,000 resembles a gasoline station pump and nozzle -- minus the slot for a credit card, or the digital "SALE" numbers that whir ever faster at retail pumps as global demand pushes fuel prices to record levels. Instead of tapping...

WASHINGTON - The House Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday to compel a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney to testify to the committee about the Bush administration's interrogation practices. David Addington, Cheney's chief of staff, refused to testify without a subpoena. No date has been set for his appearance before Congress. Addington is one of several lawyers believed to have played a key role in crafting the administration's interrogation policies shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, policies which some say amounted to torture. John Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who wrote a now-repudiated memo allowing the harsh interrogations...

WASHINGTON - The government's plan to crack down on illegal workers could cost employers more than $1 billion a year and legal workers billions in lost wages, a study commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says. Those costs are enough to trigger a federal law that would require the Homeland Security Department to analyze more thoroughly the effect of its proposal, said Richard Belzer, a consultant hired by the chamber to do the study. It was made available to The Associated Press on Thursday. The department's proposed "no match" rule would require employers to fire workers who can't resolve...

<p>For 20 years now, workers in Palm Beach County, Fla., have been counting cars with sensors at strategic points along the county's 4,000 miles of roads. And as sure as the tide flows in the nearby Atlantic, nearly every year traffic volume has climbed at least 2%. But in 2007 there was a slight decline in the number of vehicles on the roads. And this year, traffic is down 7.5% through March. "We're seeing a very significant change," says county engineer George Webb. "We're having a good time speculating why."</p>

U.S. gun stores and gun shows are the source of more than 90 percent of the weapons being used by Mexico's ruthless drug cartels, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials. "It's a war going on in Mexico, and these types of firearms are the weapons of war for them," said Bill Newell, the special agent in charge of the Phoenix field division of the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which has primary law enforcement jurisdiction for investigating gun smuggling to Mexico. "It's virtually impossible to buy a firearm in Mexico as a private citizen,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Misleading research is often published in major medical journals and doctors are lending their names to it, the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association said on Tuesday. Doctors, regulators, publishers and others are all taking money, information and small presents from pharmaceutical companies and being influenced in the process, said Dr. Catherine DeAngelis. "It goes for all of us," DeAngelis, whose journal is influential nationally and globally, said in a telephone interview. Her journal, commonly known as JAMA, published a paper accusing Merck and Co. of suppressing data that showed its now-withdrawn pain drug...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court let stand on Monday a sentence of 30 years in prison for a youth who killed his grandparents when he was 12, rejecting his appeal arguing that it was cruel and unusual punishment. Attorneys for Christopher Pittman said he is the nation's only inmate serving such a harsh sentence for a crime committed at such a young age. Pittman was tried as if he were an adult. The high court declined to hear his appeal without any comment. In 2005 a jury convicted Pittman of the double murders committed four years earlier when...

Va. Tech families reach $11M settlement By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer 44 minutes ago ROANOKE, Va. - Families of the victims in the Virginia Tech shootings have reached a tentative $11 million settlement with the state, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Thursday. The deal is designed to prevent future lawsuits. Kaine said a "substantial majority" of families of victims of the Virginia Tech shootings agreed to the settlement. Peter Grenier and Douglas Fierberg, who represent 21 families, also confirmed the settlement but would not discuss its terms until final papers are drawn in a few days. Kaine spokesman Gordon...

State NAACP leaders said Wednesday that federal courts in North Carolina have not freed enough inmates under new laws meant to reduce the disparity in prison sentences between black and white drug offenders. The civil rights group sent a letter to the federal Bureau of Prisons saying hundreds of crack cocaine offenders prosecuted in North Carolina may qualify for immediate release but remain behind bars. The issue stems from the U.S. Sentencing Commission's decision to retroactively shorten sentences for crack cocaine offenders. Supporters argue stiffer penalties for crack are discriminatory because crack defendants are more likely to be black and...

Can a conservative former congressman who helped impeach President Clinton, is a board member of the National Rifle Association and has done contract work with the ACLU dent Sen. John McCain's presidential bid? That's exactly what Mr. McCain would face if Bob Barr, the former Republican who joined the Libertarian Party two years ago, wins his adopted party's presidential nomination. "Barr obviously is dangerous. At least he negates any possible Nader benefit," said David Norcross, a New Jersey member of the Republican National Committee and its Rules Committee chairman, arguing Mr. Barr would hurt Republicans at least as much as...

People as young as 18 can now buy and own handguns in South Carolina. Gov. Mark Sanford signed a bill into law Wednesday to lower the minimum age from 21. "People who are old enough to fight and die in the military should be able to purchase handguns, and the bill will put our laws more in line with those of other states," Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said. The law went into effect immediately. Federal law still prohibits firearm retailers and dealers from selling handguns to people younger than 21. But the state law now allows individuals to sell handguns...