Day by day, name by name, President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet is taking shape, and other top jobs are being filled. (More)

NEW YORK A Manhattan appeals court says federal judges can give extra-stiff penalties to people who help bring illegal guns to big cities. (More)

LAS VEGAS If O.J. Simpson is looking for a break from the Nevada judge who will sentence him for kidnapping and armed robbery, he may be in the wrong courtroom. (More)

NEW YORK Drivers in New York City would pay to cross the East River and companies would be taxed on their payrolls under a proposal to stanch financial bleeding at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. (More)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. Special court-appointed investigators are seeking fines against Gov. Matt Blunt, alleging he "knowingly and purposely" violated Missouri's public-records law by denying access to e-mails. (More)

NEW YORK Amanda Barrett, content coordinator for Multimedia and Graphics for The Associated Press, has been promoted to the new position of deputy East editor, helping lead the news organization's new regional desk in Philadelphia. (More)

AUSTIN, Texas In the last months of his administration, President Lyndon Johnson voiced worry over the Vietnam peace talks and stridently suggested that associates of Richard Nixon were attempting to keep South Vietnam away from the table until after the 1968 election, recordings of telephone conversations released Thursday show. (More)

WASHINGTON Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on Thursday took the first step toward a run for governor, setting the stage for a contentious challenge in 2010 against fellow Republican Rick Perry, the longest-serving leader in state history. (More)

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. Three men, including a small-town police chief, were indicted Thursday on involuntary manslaughter counts in the gun-fair death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi that a prosecutor said he never should have been allowed to handle. (More)

NEW YORK A New York City firefighter, critically injured when a colleague hit him with a metal chair during a firehouse fight, has reached a $3.75 million settlement with the city. (More)

NEW YORK Authorities say a high school freshman in New York City has been struck and killed by a school bus. (More)

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. A fire on Thursday burned through the roof of The Body Shop, a landmark West Hollywood strip club mentioned in a Motley Crue hit. (More)

MAYS LANDING, N.J. Former Atlantic City Council President Craig Callaway has been sentenced to three years in prison for helping set up a political rival in a videotaped sex session. (More)

ALBERT LEA, Minn. Two teenage girls who worked at a nursing home have been charged with abuse, accused of taunting, spitting on and groping residents who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. (More)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. A scientist-turned-van driver in Alabama whose work helped two other men win this year's chemistry Nobel Prize is headed to Sweden to watch them collect the award. (More)

PHILADELPHIA A 16-year-old accused of smashing into a police car during a chase in Philadelphia, killing an officer, has been ordered to stand trial as an adult for murder. (More)

LOS ANGELES Prosecutors in Los Angeles County say a security guard won't face criminal charges for fatally shooting a sword-wielding man at a Hollywood Scientology building. (More)

MIAMI Despite his conviction for murder, former FBI agent John Connolly angrily insisted Thursday he is innocent of passing sensitive information to Boston mobsters that led to the 1982 slaying in Miami of a former gambling executive. (More)

LOS ANGELES A homeless woman who died after writhing in pain on a hospital floor for nearly an hour could have survived if she had received proper treatment, a county report concedes. (More)

NEW YORK For those hard-to-please people on your holiday gift list this year, consider some unusual presents: the chance to hang out with Bill O'Reilly, sing with Aretha Franklin or tour the Capitol with Nancy Pelosi. (More)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska A conservation group is going to court to force the federal government to consider adding the Pacific walrus to the list of threatened species. (More)

NEW YORK When football star Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg, police were surprised to learn of it from TV - not from the hospital, as required by law. (More)

SAN FRANCISCO Voters' economic status and religious convictions played a greater role than race and age in determining whether they supported the Nov. 4 ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage in California, a new poll shows. (More)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. With Arnold Schwarzenegger's governorship entering its final years and his ability to attract the spotlight intact, one question is arising more frequently: What will Arnold do? (More)

DETROIT Federal prosecutors twice pursued a former autoworker suspected of running a multimillion-dollar drug operation. The first attempt fizzled when Clarence Carson died shortly after an indictment. The second? Blame it on the collapse of Detroit's real-estate market. (More)