SENECA, Mo. (AP) -- Stunned survivors picked through the little that was left of their communities Sunday after tornadoes tore across the Plains and South, killing at least 22 people in three states and leaving behind a trail of destruction and stories of loss....

MALABAR, Fla. (AP) -- Brush fires forced residents to flee more than 500 homes in central Florida on Sunday and closed a major interstate, authorities said....

WACO, Texas (AP) -- President Bush and first lady Laura Bush didn't share their daughter's wedding with the nation, but the president eagerly shared their joy on Sunday about Jenna Bush's marriage to Henry Hager....

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Four-dollar-a-gallon gas is good for business - if you run a bike shop. Commuters around the country are dusting off their old two-wheelers - or buying new ones - to cope with rising fuel prices, bicycle dealers say....

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The coyote was limping as it approached a girl in a sand box at a public park - but it was still dangerous. It snapped its jaws on the girl's buttocks and her nanny had to pry the toddler from the wild animal....

ALBERT LEA, Minn. (AP) -- On the Senate campaign trail, Al Franken frequently invokes the name of his friend, the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, as a major inspiration....

Four times between the winters of 2002 and 2005, a blue-eyed man wearing a ski mask and dark clothes crept quietly into the bedrooms of women in Bloomington, Ill., and raped them....

The solution should have been a no-brainer, voting experts say. After all, it was a badly designed ballot that enflamed the 2000 election meltdown and introduced the vagaries of chads to the political lexicon - pregnant, hanging and otherwise....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Families claiming that a mercury-based preservative in vaccines triggers autism will challenge mainstream medicine Monday as they take their case to a federal court....

ATLANTA (AP) -- From his first day at Morehouse College - the country's only institution of higher learning dedicated to the education of black men - Joshua Packwood has been a standout....

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A medical helicopter on a return flight after dropping off a patient crashed after takeoff, killing the surgeon, nurse and pilot aboard, officials said Sunday....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Increasing numbers of U.S. troops have left the military with damaged bodies and minds, an ever-larger pool of disabled veterans that will cost the nation billions for decades to come - even as the total population of America's vets has begun to shrink....