Top Stories

• Transformer fire disrupts operations at Ellis Island in New Jersey; no injuries reported

  JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — Fire officials say operations at Ellis Island have been widely disrupted by a transformer fire. more

• Police report says wrong-way driver in NY crash that killed 8 was a regular marijuana smoker

  WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — New York State Police investigators said in a written report that a woman who killed seven people plus herself in a crash on the Taconic State Parkway was a regular marijuana user. more

• Slain New Mexico nun laid to rest, remembered for her passion for the poor

  GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — A slain Catholic nun who lived and worked on the Navajo Indian reservation of western New Mexico was remembered for her passion for the poor at funeral services. more

• Minn. teen who fled to avoid chemo treatment undergoes last radiation session, is cancer-free

  MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota teen who fled the state to avoid chemotherapy has finished his cancer treatment. more

• Philly transit union says report of tentative pact 'premature' although progress being made Photo

  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A national spokesman for the Philadelphia transit system's largest union says reports of a tentative agreement were "premature" and the negotiations aimed at ending a five-day strike continue. more

• Memorial to Conn. 9/11 victim halted as town refuses to make reference to 'Muslim terrorists'

  HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A memorial to honor a Sept. 11 victim from a small northwestern Connecticut town has been halted by the unexpected conflict arising from his father's insistence it say his son was murdered by "Muslim terrorists." more

• Woman hit, killed on Calif. highway trying to recover fallen boxes

  SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A 36-year-old woman has died after she was struck several times while retrieving boxes on a Sacramento freeway. more

• Wisconsin authorities say inmate had threatened deputy with knife before being shot

  WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — Authorities in Wisconsin say an inmate somehow armed himself with a knife and threatened a sheriff's deputy before the officer shot and wounded him. more

• Killings still unsolved as Va. prepares to execute sniper Muhammad; families plead for answers Photo

  McLEAN, Va. (AP) — It galled her to do it, but Sarah Dillon was desperate for answers, so she wrote letters to convicted snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo: If you murdered my son, please confess, she wrote. more

• NYC case spotlights Dead Sea Scrolls scholar debate, whether Internet hoaxes are crimes

  NEW YORK (AP) — Students and university officials started getting e-mails last year in which a prominent Judaic studies scholar seemed to make a startling confession: He had committed plagiarism. more