Mark Memmott

Now, something completely unrelated to the heavy news of recent days:

"I clearly had one drink too many and I am deeply embarrassed about the things I said," actress Reese Witherspoon says in a statement sent to Entertainment Weekly and other news outlets about her arrest Friday in ...

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Boston Bombings: Monday's Developments; (our running coverage).

-- Midwest's Floods Aren't Over, But So Far, So Good.

-- Book News: E.L. Konigsburg, 'Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler' Author, Dies.

Other stories making headlines:

-- "Plant Explosion Unites ...

The good news is that "the big river didn't get too big," The St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes this morning.

"Sandbags held back the cresting Mississippi River from several towns north of St. Louis on Sunday," it adds, "while the forecast for the immediate vicinity remained high but manageable."

But ...

(Most recent update: 7:00 p.m. ET.)

The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was charged Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill three people and wound more than 200 in what FBI investigators said evidence shows was a coldly calculated attack.

With chilling detail, the criminal ...

Al Neuharth died Friday at his home in Cocoa Beach, Fla.

He was 89.

Al's name may not be familiar to you, but this blogger hopes that you are acquainted with the newspaper he willed to life in 1982: USA Today.

From 1984 to 2009, I was either ...

"A powerful earthquake jolted China's Sichuan province Saturday near where a devastating quake struck five years ago," The Associated Press writes. According to CNN, early estimates put the death toll around 100. More than 1,000 other people were reportedly injured. Both figures could change substantially as ...

(Most recent update: 5:10 p.m. ET)

With the capture Friday night of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old surviving suspect in the bombings at the Boston Marathon, the story moves into a new phase — one of trying to answer critical questions.

-- Why?

-- How?

-- Was ...

The scene around Boston Friday was chaotic. Police were going house to house in Watertown as they searched for "suspect No. 2" in the bombings. "Suspect No. 1," known as "black hat," ...

Jokes weren't on his mind Thursday morning when Car Talk funny guy Ray Magliozzi was a guest on WBUR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook.

The Boston native's thoughts were focused on Monday's bombings at his city's marathon and in particular on the way emergency ...

"Small, stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build" do not understand that "a bomb can't beat us," President Obama said Thursday in Boston.

His emotional vow came during an interfaith service to remember the victims of Monday's marathon bombings. It was also a service that served as ...

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Texas Fertilizer Plant Blast Killed Several, Injured Dozens

-- Boston Marathon Explosions: Thursday's Developments

-- Ricin Suspect Described As Conspiracist, Elvis Impersonator

-- Jobless Claims Rose Slightly Last Week

-- Book News: Vast 'Digital ...

There were 352,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, up by 4,000 from the week before, the Employment and Training Administration reports.

The "4-week moving average" that gauges the trend rose by 2,750, to 361,250.

Bloomberg News characterizes the news this way: "The number of ...

Paul Kevin Curtis, the 45-year-old Mississippi man arrested Wednesday in connection with the possibly ricin-tainted envelopes sent to President Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is "better known to some as a celebrity impersonator," The Clarion-Ledger writes.

The Jackson, Miss., newspaper adds:

"According

Throughout the day, we'll be updating with the latest news about the two explosions Monday near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The blasts killed three people and injured about 180. We'll also be publishing related posts as the day continues. (See this note about ...

As the day dawned, officials said an estimated 5 to 15 people were killed and more than 160 were wounded. It was feared those numbers might go higher. The cause of the fire that led t...

Update at 8:44 p.m. ET. Authorities Make An Arrest:

Authorities have made an arrest in connection to the suspicious envelopes sent to a senator and President Obama.

The FBI identified the suspect as Paul Kevin Curtis.

The The Clarion Ledger reports:

"The letter, received by [Sen. Roger ...

"The wife of a former justice of the peace is being held on a capital murder charge in the killings of the Kaufman County District Attorney, his wife and a top prosecutor," The Dallas Morning News reports.

WFAA-TV says that "Kim Williams, [46] the wife of ...

Pat Summerall was the "voice of football and always will be," longtime broadcasting partner John Madden said Tuesday.

But Summerall, who died Tuesday at the age of 82, was not a man who used many words when few would do. Here's how The Dallas Morning News ...

Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister whose time leading Great Britain in the 1980s brought joy to conservatives and despair to liberals, was remembered Wednesday for "a life lived in the heat of political controversy."

With her death last week at the age of 87, "there is great calm" ...

(Note at 7:50 a.m. ET, April 18: We've begun a new post to track Thursday's developments.)

Investigators made progress Wednesday, as they tried to determine who planted two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, leaving three people dead and injuring about 180.

NPR's Tom Gjelten ...