It’s December 1985 in Sydney, Australia. Two parents are at wits’ end. Something is not right with their 16-month-old child. For months, they have visited doctor after doctor. No one can tell them what is wrong. On the night before Christmas Eve, with their child more unsettled than unusual, they …

One of America’s greatest but underutilized assets is former presidents. In the majority of countries in the world the only way leaders exit the stage is through death or a firing squad. Perhaps their greatest value is on diplomatic missions outside the norm — they have stature so their word …

The GOP is like the lady who goes shoe shopping. She can only buy one pair, and it’s got to be shoes she can wear all year long, and in every circumstance….and can afford. She knows what she needs is a practical pair of black leather pumps. But once she’s …

SALINAS, Calif. – A Northern California man has filed a legal claim over a police baton beating captured on video and posted online. The Monterey Herald (http://tinyurl.com/o8ss7o7 ) reported Thursday that Jose Velasco is demanding unspecified damages from the city of Salinas, California. If the city denies the claim, Velasco …

BILLINGS, Mont. – An escalating legal fight over a $59 million federal dam project on Montana’s lower Yellowstone River could decide the fate of an endangered, dinosaur-like fish population that has been blocked from its spawning grounds for decades. Construction on the dam northeast of Glendive is set to begin …

ORLANDO, Fla. – A medical examiner has ruled as accidental the death of a man who fell from an elevated tram at Orlando International Airport last month. The medical examiner in Orlando released a report Monday showing that 32-year-old Adam Lee died from blunt trauma to the head. Lee was …

BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana’s attorney general is showing no signs of backing off his effort to retry the last imprisoned member of the “Angola Three.” Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said Wednesday that he is convinced Albert Woodfox is guilty of the 1972 slaying of Louisiana State Penitentiary prison guard …

ROME – Police say they have arrested a Pakistani man suspected of helping organize the 2009 attack on a market in Peshawar that killed more than 100 people, the latest arrest in a decade-long investigation into an Italy-based terror network with ties to al Qaida. State police said in a …

ESKI MOSUL, Iraq – Inside the Islamic State’s realm, the paper testifying that you have “repented” from your heretical past must be carried at all times. Many people laminate it just to be safe. It can mean the difference between life and death. Bilal Abdullah learned that not long after …

BALTIMORE – Authorities say a mother placed her living toddler in a swing at a Maryland park one morning and he remained there until he was found dead of cold and thirst two days later when someone spotted the mother pushing her lifeless child in the swing. The Charles County …