SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) – A Hinesville man accused of taking hostages at Fort Stewart is expected to make his first appearance before a federal judge on Wednesday in Savannah. Robert Anthony Quinones, 29, is being held on charges in connection with assault of a federal officer, kidnapping, threatening to kill President Barack... 

Paul Owen, Matthew Weaver and agencies The gun-toting pastor at the centre of international outrage over his plans to stage a Qur’an burning day to mark the 9/11 attacks says he is determined to go ahead in the face of fierce condemnation from the Obama administration. The Rev Terry Jones said more than 100 death threats... 

By Cyntia Barrera MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Hermine strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday as it approached landfall near the U.S.-Mexico border, but oil and gas operations in the Gulf were unaffected. Hermine, the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, may reach hurricane strength before it... 

NEW ORLEANS – Unlike the blast that led to the massive BP spill, the latest oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico killed no one and sent no crude gushing into the water. The Mariner Energy-owned platform that erupted in flames Thursday was just 200 miles west of the spill site, but everything from the structures to the operations... 

BUXTON, N.C. – A weakened Hurricane Earl delivered only a glancing blow to North Carolina’s Outer Banks early Friday on its way up the East Coast, flooding roads on the narrow vacation islands and knocking out power but staying farther offshore than feared. There were no immediate reports of any injuries. But the storm... 

WASHINGTON – The agency that oversees offshore drilling will investigate the fire on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Thursday’s fire came less than five months after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 people and spurred the worst offshore oil spill in the nation’s history. This... 

By LAUREN EFFRON and RUSSELL GOLDMAN A radical enviornmentalist who took three hostages at the Discovery Channel headquarters while wearing what police may be explosives was shot and killed by officers, police said. The gunman, identified as James Lee, was killed by police following four hours of negotiations but the hostages... 

CHICAGO – The idea seemed simple though bold: Call reputed gang leaders to a meeting with top police and federal prosecutors and deliver an ultimatum to end killings in the nation’s third-largest city. But Chicago police Superintendent Jody Weis is facing mounting criticism for holding a so-called “gang summit”... 

CNN) — Hurricane warnings and watches stretched from North Carolina to Delaware and covered parts of Massachusetts on Wednesday as forecasters upgraded Hurricane Earl to a Category 4 storm and warned it will be approaching the East Coast by late Thursday. Hurricane models have Earl passing close to North Carolina’s... 

By Penny Starr (CNSNews.com) – Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said requests by Arizona law enforcement personnel and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) for 3,000 National Guard troops along the state’s border with Mexico have been answered so far with 1 percent of that number deployed there this week. “We... 

Steve Thompson/Reporter Two Dallas City Council members have proposed charging a $25 fee next year to anyone who wants to have a garage sale in city limits. City managers have floated the idea of charging $5, as a way to help balance next year’s tough budget. Council members Delia Jasso and Dwaine Caraway upped the ante... 

BY Joe Mathews City officials in Half Moon Bay say the municipal budget is such a mess that it may make sense to disincorporate and turn the place over to San Mateo County. I’m not sure if disincorporation is right for Half Moon Bay. But it may be the answer for many California cities struggling with too many spending... 

By Jerry Seper and Matthew Cella The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state. The... 

Residents of still-struggling New Orleans will be joined by President Barack Obama Sunday to mark five years since flood waters driven by Hurricane Katrina inundated the famous jazz capital. Obama was to fly straight to New Orleans Sunday, without so much as a stop in Washington, from his beach vacation in Martha’s Vineyard,... 

(Reuters) – The U.S. government told staff at its consulate in Monterrey to send their children out of the northern Mexican city where drug violence has been escalating, the consulate said on Friday. The decision follows an apparent kidnap attempt outside an elite private school attended by children of U.S. consulate staff,... 

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE The U.S. birth rate has dropped for the second year in a row, and experts think the wrenching recession led many people to put off having children. The 2009 birth rate also set a record: lowest in a century. Births fell 2.7 percent last year even as the population grew, numbers released Friday by the National... 

A judge sentenced a former Faulkner University student to join the military and perform community service for a post he made on Facebook that led to a campus lockdown. Zachary Lambert, 23, agreed to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge of harassing communications for a message that made reference to a deadly campus attack... 

By Daniel Tencer An advocacy group working on behalf of Vietnam veterans has asked a federal judge in California to sanction the CIA, saying the spy agency has been blocking efforts to uncover its role in alleged experiments on US soldiers from the 1950s to 1970s. The Vietnam Veterans of America filed a lawsuit on behalf... 

By Peggy Venable The state’s slogan is “Don’t mess with Texas.” But the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing just that, and at stake is whether the Obama administration can impose its global-warming agenda without a vote of Congress. President Obama’s EPA is already well down... 

YouTube – Former FBI Agent Breaks His Silence On JFK.  Read More →