 On tour: Hanford nuclear waste site
 Associated Press
In a cramped control room, a bright yellow sticker cautions workers about critical radiation alarms. Now a novelty stuck on a wall between dials that haven't spun in decades, the sign hints at the enormity of the plant's mission.
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Texas assesses whether sect 'girls' are adults
SAN ANTONIO, 5:59 p.m. May 16 (AP)
When Texas child welfare authorities released statistics showing nearly 60 percent of the teen girls taken from a polygamist sect's ranch were pregnant or had children, they seemed to prove what was alleged all along: The sect commonly pushed girls into marriage and sex.
But in the past week, the state has twice been forced to admit “girls” who gave birth while in state custody are actually adults. One was 22 and claims she showed state officials a Utah birth certificate shortly after she and more than 400 minors were seized from the west Texas ranch in an April raid.
More National News
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo, 7:51 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Mo. lawmakers approve anti-illegal immigrant bill: Missouri lawmakers gave final approval Friday to a bill that adds new restrictions and requirements for illegal immigrants, the cities in which they live and the businesses that employ them.
TRENTON, N.J., 7:46 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Police find 3 decomposing bodies inside NJ home: Police found three decomposing bodies with multiple stab wounds inside a northern New Jersey home Friday night, a prosecutor said.
CLEVELAND, 7:11 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Ohio township to feds: We don't want your money: The federal government isn't used to being snubbed when it offers to help local governments.
BRYAN, Texas, 7:10 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Texas minister charged in Internet sex sting: A minister from a Dallas-area Baptist megachurch was caught in an Internet sex sting and charged with online solicitation of a minor, police said Friday.
FRESNO, 7:08 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Chemist gets life for killing husband in acid vat: A biochemist was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday for killing her estranged husband by knocking him out and stuffing him into a vat of acid, possibly while he was still alive.
HOUSTON, 6:53 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Colombian paramilitary member appears in U.S. court: A member of a right-wing paramilitary group who was extradited from Colombia made his first appearance in Houston federal court Friday on a charge he participated in a $25 million arms-for-cocaine deal.
CHICAGO, 6:19 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Court rules Chicago not liable in club stampede: An Illinois appellate court ruled Friday that the city of Chicago cannot be held liable for a 2003 nightclub stampede that killed 21 people and injured dozens more.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., 5:55 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Mo. lawmakers vote to bar Internet harassment: Responding to the suicide of a Missouri teenager who was teased over the Internet, state lawmakers Friday gave final approval to a bill making cyber harassment illegal.
RENO, Nev., 5:40 p.m. May 16 (AP)
CDC: Syringe reuse linked to hepatitis C outbreak: A hepatitis C outbreak was caused by workers improperly reusing syringes and medicine vials at a Las Vegas clinic, federal health officials said Friday.
JUNEAU, Alaska, 5:25 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Interior Department to hold Alaska oil lease sale: The Interior Department said Friday it is moving forward with an oil and gas lease sale covering nearly 4 million acres in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve.
PROVIDENCE, R.I., 5:02 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Student suspended over pie thrown at NYT columnist: A Brown University student says she's been suspended for hitting a New York Times columnist with a pie during an Earth Day speech.
NEW YORK, 4:52 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Palestinian-Americans mark 60 years displaced: Palestinians call it the “nakba” – the catastrophe. As Israel marked the 60th anniversary of its independence Friday, Americans of Palestinian descent rallied near the United Nations to mark six decades of displacement from the sliver of land uneasily shared by Jews and Arabs.
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J., 4:36 p.m. May 16 (AP)
NJ sex offenders charged for MySpace, Facebook use: Three convicted sex offenders have been arrested for surfing social networking Web sites and are believed to be the first charged under the state's new law that restricts their use of the Internet, authorities said Friday.
NEW YORK, 4:00 p.m. May 16 (AP)
ACLU president to resign in October after 18 years: American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen announced Friday that she will step down in October after leading the group for nearly two decades.
NEW ORLEANS, 3:59 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Court sides with MySpace in suit over sex assault: Federal law gives MySpace.com immunity from a lawsuit over the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl by a man she met on the social networking Web site, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
NEW YORK, 3:22 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Survival of quake victims depends on many factors: A nurse survived eight days in the wreckage of a Turkish hospital destroyed by an earthquake in 1992. A newborn was rescued after more than a week in the rubble of Mexico City's 1985 quake. Now, in China, rescuers are pulling out victims days after they were buried by a powerful earthquake.
RICHMOND, Va., 3:20 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Wilder won't run for 2nd term as Richmond mayor: L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, announced Friday that he would not seek re-election as Richmond's mayor, likely bringing his storied political career to a close.
CHICAGO, 3:08 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Food stamp recipients pinched by high food prices: Danielle Brown stands outside a South Side market at midnight, braving the spring chill for her first chance to buy groceries since her food stamps ran out nearly two weeks ago.
COFFEEVILLE, Ala., 2:50 p.m. May 16 (AP)
3.1-magnitude quake reported in Coffeeville, Ala.: The southwest Alabama town of Coffeeville has been shaken by a small earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey says the 3.1-magnitude quake struck about 1:39 p.m. Friday in the rural area about 75 miles north of Mobile.
RALEIGH, N.C., 2:44 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Ailing fugitive headed back to Md. years after prison escape: An ailing 81-year-old North Carolina man who escaped from a Maryland prison 43 years ago was taken into custody Friday to face extradition, a move his attorneys decried as a waste of time because he is ill and aging.
CLEVELAND, 2:29 p.m. May 16 (AP)
FBI: Man wrote threats because ex left him for black man: A man who wrote hundreds of hateful letters to black and mixed race men seen with white women apparently was motivated by a girlfriend who left him for a black man, the FBI said Friday.
2:05 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Texas: Immigration checks, hurricanes don't mix: McALLEN, Texas – Federal border agents say they will search for illegal immigrants at inland Texas checkpoints even during a hurricane evacuation, a plan state and local officials say could lead to disastrous delays and discourage some people from getting out.
JONESBORO, Ark., 1:41 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Half-eaten Snickers bar implicates hungry burglar: Police say DNA found on a half-eaten candy bar helped them zero in on a robbery suspect. Detective Jason Simpkins says Brian D. Bass' DNA matched the sample found on the bar left on the counter at Cato Animal Hospital during a January robbery. Bass was being held in jail Friday on $50,000 bond.
12:34 p.m. May 16 (AP)
Intel agencies seek help recruiting recent immigrants: McLEAN, VA – The U.S. is its own worst enemy when it comes to the desperately important task of recruiting immigrants as spies, analysts and translators in the war on terror, new Americans are telling intelligence officials.
WASHINGTON, 11:44 a.m. May 16 (AP)
Texas officials sue U.S. over border fence: Texas mayors and business leaders filed a class-action lawsuit Friday alleging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hoodwinked landowners into waiving their property rights for construction of a fence along the Mexican border.
SAN JACINTO, Calif., 11:41 a.m. May 16 (AP)
Tribe meets with SoCal deputies on fatal shootout: Leaders of a Southern California Indian tribe are meeting with sheriff's deputies to calm tensions over the killings of three people on the reservation.
HAMILTON, Ohio, 11:20 a.m. May 16 (AP)
Father jailed over daughter's truancy to be freed: A judge says he will release a man who was jailed last week for failing to make sure his daughter earned her high school equivalency diploma.
CHEYENNE, Wyo., 11:17 a.m. May 16 (AP)
Hotels seek workers on eve of summer travel season: The shortage of workers at Ted Blair's three hotels near Yellowstone National Park is so severe that Blair himself might soon be busing tables and stripping beds.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., 11:06 a.m. May 16 (AP)
Alabama sheriffs feed inmates on $1.75 a day: Back in the day of chain gangs, Alabama passed a law that gave sheriffs $1.75 a day to feed each prisoner in their jails, and the sheriffs got to pocket anything that was left over.
ATLANTA, 10:00 a.m. May 16 (AP)
Correction: Elderly Shootout story: In a May 15 story about an Atlanta police officer on trial in a raid that led to an elderly woman's death, The Associated Press erroneously reported the date she was killed. It was Nov. 21, 2006, not Nov. 26, 2006.
PHOENIX, 9:56 a.m. May 16 (AP)
Arizona man charged in serial predator investigation: A suspected serial predator accused of sexually assaulting four women, killing two of them, was described by co-workers as a polite, soft-spoken car salesman who mostly kept to himself.
WASHINGTON, 8:56 a.m. May 16 (AP)
Fannie Mae scraps higher downpayment requirements: Fannie Mae is doing away with higher minimum down-payment requirements for borrowers in parts of the country where home prices are dropping.
NEW YORK, 8:41 a.m. May 16 (AP)
Former U.N. translator gets year for visa fraud: A United Nations translator was sentenced to a year in prison for using U.N. stationery and fraudulent documents to smuggle people into the United States from Uzbekistan.
HOUSTON, 3:41 a.m. May 16 (AP)
Spree of jewel heists puts Houston dealers on edge: Brazen jewel thieves are robbing traveling dealers around Houston in a spree of heists that has jewelers on edge.
SHEBOYGAN, Wis., 12:03 a.m. May 16 (AP)
Wis. man won't buy gas for 31 days, maybe longer: Brian LaFave couldn't care less how high gasoline prices climb these days – he's parked his pickup truck and is refusing to buy gas for a month, possibly longer.
FARGO, N.D., 8:56 p.m. May 15 (AP)
Flight attendant accused of setting fire on plane: A flight attendant angry about his work route set a fire in an airplane bathroom, forcing an emergency landing, authorities said.
WASHINGTON, 8:13 p.m. May 15 (REUTERS)Taliban member convicted in U.S. for 'narco-terrorism': A member of an Afghan Taliban cell was convicted by a federal jury Thursday on charges of narco-terrorism and narcotics distribution, the Justice Department said in a statement.
