Bill Chappell

In a resolution that could have wide effects, California's prison system has agreed to change how it handles solitary confinement — and to review the cases of nearly 3,000 prisoners who are currently in solitary. The changes are part of the terms of a newly settled class-action lawsuit.

As part ...

Kim Davis, the Rowan County clerk in Kentucky who has repeatedly refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, lost her bid for a stay Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court denied her application.

As is often the case in such rejections, the decision came without comment: "The application for ...

A jury has found Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., also known as Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., guilty of murder for killing three people in attacks at a Jewish community center and a Jewish retirement home near Kansas City, Mo. The jury will next decide whether he should be executed.

In their ...

Terry Loewen, who pleaded guilty to attempting to drive an explosives-laden vehicle and detonate it at an airport in Wichita, Kan., has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Loewen, an avionics technician, had an employee access card at the airport.

Loewen was arrested in 2013; investigators said he ...

The ride-hailing service Uber has served more than 1 million customers in Philadelphia, despite operating under disputed terms for nearly a year. Now the city's regulators are taking the company to court.

Uber says it doesn't plan to stop operating in the city where it first launched service last October.

Wayne Dyer, the writer, philosopher and motivational speaker who encouraged millions of people to look at their lives in a new way, died this weekend at age 75. Over four decades, Dyer sought to motivate people to explore their passions and turn away from negativity.

Dyer died late Saturday in ...

After a last-ditch effort to reach a settlement in the legal dispute over the NFL's four-game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady, a federal judge says he'll issue his ruling on Brady's appeal on either Tuesday or Wednesday.

On Monday morning, Brady and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell attended discussions about a ...

Both the song and its video fit many people's idea of Canada: clever and smiling. But the man who wrote lyrics telling Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, "It's time for you to go," has been put on leave from his job as a federal scientist at Canada's environmental agency.

Tony ...

Al Arbour, who set an NHL record by coaching 1,500 games, has died at age 81. As the head coach of the New York Islanders, he led the team to four Stanley Cup championships in 19 seasons. He also won four NHL titles as a player.

"Al will always be ...

One week before the school's football season starts, the University of Illinois has fired head coach Tim Beckman, saying a review had found "efforts to deter injury reporting and influence medical decisions that pressured players to avoid or postpone medical treatment and continue playing despite injuries."

Illini Director of Athletics ...

With a rare mix of blazing speed, safety and energy efficiency, the new Tesla Model S P85D left the folks at Consumer Reports grasping for ways to properly rate the car, after it scored a 103 — out of 100. "It kind of broke the system," says Jake Fisher, director ...

His power and talent tested the nuts and bolts of basketball — literally. Darryl Dawkins, who became famous for backboard-shattering dunks after he was the first NBA player to skip college altogether, has died at age 58.

Lehigh Carbon Community College, where Dawkins coached for two seasons, says:

"LCCC ...

For elite Jamaican runner Usain Bolt, Thursday's 200-meter sprint was like many other races he's won — until a mobile cameraman lost control of his Segway and took the world's fastest man down from behind. Bolt, who had been waving to the crowd, collapsed in a heap. He had been ...

Seven deputies in Klamath County, Ore., have been on leave this week, after county commissioners agreed to their request. The move comes a month after Klamath County Sheriff Frank Skrah learned he was being investigated by Oregon's Department of Justice.

Citing an attorney who represents the Klamath County Peace Officers ...

The U.S. financial markets finally closed on a high note Wednesday, with gains of nearly 4 percent seen in both the Dow Jones index and the S&P 500 — and even higher gains for the Nasdaq index.

The rally follows six days of losses for markets that have been shaken ...

Vester Lee Flanagan, who police say shot and killed two of his former colleagues from a Virginia TV station before dying hours later of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, seems to have sent a 23-page fax to ABC News that discusses his reasons for the attack.

The network says a man ...

"We are sad to report that the smaller of the two panda cubs has died," the National Zoo announced Wednesday, in an update on the twin giant pandas that were born Saturday.

The two cubs were born hours apart; the zoo staff had been attempting to give both of them ...

Amelia Boynton Robinson, who went from being beaten on a bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965 to being pushed across the bridge in a wheelchair alongside the president of the United States, has died at age 104.

Her daughter, Germaine Bowser, confirmed to Troy Public Radio's Kyle Gassiott that Boynton ...

Nearly one month after its release, the Windows 10 operating system has been installed on more than 75 million devices, according to Microsoft. That figure reflects worldwide adoptions of the OS that, for now at least, is a free upgrade. Windows 10 is Microsoft's most substantial update since 2012.

Microsoft ...

More than a month after Sandra Bland died in a Texas jail, a city is naming the street on which Bland was arrested after her. Bland, 28, was found dead in her cell on July 13; her mother and other supporters were present for Tuesday night's Prairie View City Council ...