NEWRY, Maine – The crash of a light plane on a remote mountainside in western Maine killed the pilot and three high school students who taking an introductory flight lesson, authorities said. The three passengers, members of an Air Force Jr. ROTC program, were participating in a summer leadership program …

TRENTON, N.J. – Wayne Gretzky was recorded on a wiretap talking to the alleged financier of a gambling ring, discussing how the hockey great’s wife could avoid being implicated, a person with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press on Thursday. Gretzky, coach and part-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, …

LOS ANGELES – Prosecutors accused actor Tom Sizemore of failing another drug test and of getting thrown out of a drug treatment program for arguing with another person. Deputy District Attorney Sean Carney told a judge that Sizemore violated his probation by testing positive for drugs on Jan. 23 and …

HOUSTON – Long before Enron Corp. drowned in scandal, its former chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling trumpeted the company’s savvy in creating trading markets beyond energy. Now it turns out they are the subjects of futures contracts that allow investors to wager on whether they will be convicted of …

CHESTERFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Keith Carabell parked his car beside a snow-covered woodlot hemmed in by townhouses, gas stations, a McDonald’s, Kmart and other emblems of creeping suburbia on the northern fringe of metropolitan Detroit. “This is what they call a wetland,” the 78-year-old accountant said, gesturing disgustedly at the …

WASHINGTON – The Labor Department will provide $195 million to 13 regions of the country for economic development opportunities to lure businesses and create new jobs. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced the grants Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press. Each of the 13 selected regions will receive $15 …

Within a decade, an aging America will spend one of every five dollars on health care, according to government analysts who see no end to increases in the cost of going to the doctor and taking medicine. The nation’s total health care bill by 2015: more than $4 trillion. Consumers …

BURLINGTON, Vt. – A controversial ruling for a sex offender in Vermont was changed Thursday from 60 days to 3 to 10 years after a judge received pressure to extend the punishment. When Judge Edward Cashman sentenced Mark Hulett, 34, to 60 days in prison for sexually abusing a child, …

NEW YORK – Betty Friedan, who championed the once-radical assertion that women needed more than husbands and children to find fulfillment, was eulogized Monday as a feminist pioneer and loving mother — if not always an easy one to live with. “I truly believe that Betty Friedan was the most …

LOS ANGELES – Not true. That was Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes‘ response Tuesday to a Valentine’s Day report by Life & Style magazine claiming that the Hollywood superstar and his pregnant paramour have split up. “It should be known that the story is 100 percent false,” Arnold Robinson, a …