Bill Chappell

After a vote on a controversial bill to restrict abortion in Texas was deemed to have fallen outside of the state's legislative session, Gov. Rick Perry has called for a special session to take up the issue, along with other topics. The session is scheduled to begin July 1 at ...

Roger Federer, who last year won his seventh Wimbledon title, is out of the 2013 tournament after falling to Ukrainian Sergei Stakhovsky, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, 7-6. The upset comes two days after Rafael Nadal, who was in the same side of the bracket as Federer, was upset in the ...

Pro football player Aaron Hernandez, who until today was a member of the New England Patriots, was charged with murder and other crimes in a Massachusetts courtroom Wednesday. He was arrested this morning and formally charged this afternoon, with authorities blaming him for the death of Odin Lloyd, 27, whose ...

First there was Rusty, the red panda. Now there are reports that a bear was captured after roaming around in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, prompting (mostly unserious) concerns of a possible siege on the nation's capital.

The bear is described as being about a year old, weighing nearly 100 pounds. It ...

John Hammergren, the chairman, president, and CEO of drug distributor and health care services company McKesson, may have the largest pension for an individual on record, at a reported $159 million. The Wall Street Journal reported on Hammergren's pension Tuesday, citing company filings made last week.

From The Journal:

With just days remaining before Google pulls the plug on its Reader RSS feed service, reality is sinking in. And the market for free or low-cost replacements is growing, as Digg has rolled out its new reader in the past week. Other companies report a burst of new customers after ...

The Senate has taken another step toward approving a sweeping immigration overhaul bill, as the legislation passed an essential test Monday evening. By a vote of 67-27, the chamber voted to include an amendment on border security to the final bill.

The margin of the vote means the measure cannot ...

Author Richard Matheson, whose injection of humanity into science-fiction tales engaged audience for more than five decades, has died. Matheson's work included The Shrinking Man, I Am Legend, and numerous other movie and TV scripts, including episodes of The Twilight Zone.

Matheson was 87. His death Sunday was announced online ...

Rafael Nadal has been bounced from Wimbledon, after being dismissed in three sets by Belgium's Steve Darcis, who is ranked No. 135 in the world. Nadal's upset loss by 7-6(4), 7-6(8), 6-4 stunned tennis fans, shook up the men's bracket, and raised questions about the Spanish star's health.

Nadal, 27, ...

Online retail sales are cutting into tax revenue in counties and cities, according to a report issued by the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Friday. They estimate the lost revenue for America's largest cities and counties came to about $2.8 billion for 2011 and 2012, combined.

The mayors' group released ...

There were no miracles for Tahiti at the Confederations Cup Thursday. After all, they were facing Spain, currently the No. 1 soccer team in the world. But even a stark 10-0 loss, a record result this late in a FIFA tournament, didn't dampen the enthusiasm the Tahitians have brought to ...

Actor James Gandolfini died of cardiac arrest, The Los Angeles Times reports, citing the doctor in charge of the emergency department at the hospital in Rome where the Sopranos star was admitted.

Dr. Claudio Modini told the Times that Gandolfini, 51, was already in cardiac arrest when he arrived ...

A jury has been settled upon in the trial of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The six-member panel is made up entirely of female jurors; five of them are white women, according to reports.

Attorneys in the trial finished questioning potential jurors around mid-day Thursday; they ...

Actor James Gandolfini, 51, has died, HBO and other sources confirm. The former star of the HBO series The Sopranos was reportedly on holiday in Italy when he died. The cause of death is not yet known with certainty, but HBO says the actor may have suffered a heart attack. ...

Two men in upstate New York have been arrested for planning to build a "radiation particle weapon" that could be mounted on a vehicle and used to target people, according to a report by the Albany Times-Union Wednesday. The men allegedly planned to sell the device to either the ...

Edward Snowden, the man commonly called "the NSA leaker" for his role in publishing documents that exposed a secret U.S. surveillance program, would reportedly not receive special treatment from the United Nations if he applies for asylum. The AP says Snowden is in "informal talks" with Iceland about applying for ...

The National Hurricane Center has issued coastal warnings in the Gulf of Mexico regarding Tropical Storm Barry. The second named storm of the 2013 hurricane season, Barry is currently in the southwest corner of the gulf; it is expected to make landfall in Mexico Thursday morning.

The center says an ...

The Federal Reserve will continue its program of purchasing $85 billion in securities and will leave the target interest rate for federal funds untouched to support the U.S. economy, the U.S. central bank said in a policy update issued Wednesday afternoon.

Here's a summary of the state of the U.S. ...

Michael Hastings, the journalist whose candid interviews of Gen. Stanley McChrystal led to the officer's eventual removal from his post, has died in a car crash. The news was announced Tuesday by BuzzFeed, which employed Hastings, 33. He was reportedly killed in an accident this morning in Los Angeles.

In ...

Weeks before Minnesota's new sales tax law takes effect, online retailer Amazon is cutting its ties to members of its Associates program who live in the state. The new law requires businesses that have a presence in Minnesota to collect sales tax.

Amazon has taken similar steps in other states ...