By DAN ROSS

Within a split second, life the way Elizabeth Carpol knew it was gone forever.

When Monique Langhorne-Johnson was a first-grader in Norfolk, Va., her teacher looked at the color of her skin and told her the best she could hope to become was a maid.

American Canyon's City Council race may include a familiar name -- former City Manager Mark Joseph.

A series of five small fires burned near Highway 29 in southern Lake County Monday afternoon, destroying a handful of buildings and temporarily closing the highway. The fire is still burning, but fire officials ay they expect to contain the blaze Thursday.

It's 2014, and seventh-graders from Redwood Middle School are preparing to travel to Mars. Four weeks into their trip, the power system has a problem and can only provide power for heating and lights. Crew members themselves need to provide energy.

WASHINGTON— The Senate voted Tuesday after two days of emotional debate to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, sending the measure to President Bush for a promised veto that would be the first of his presidency.

WASHINGTON — The Energy Department has a new opening date for the long-delayed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada: March 31, 2017.

FromThe Associated Press