NEW YORK (AP) – Lovers of the unusual are getting another chance to impress their Valentines this year in New York City. The Department of Environmental Protection is again offering Valentine’s Day tours of the Newtown Creek sewage treatment plant in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section. The DEP says it’s offering three tours this year due to [...]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An assault trial over a fight that cost a man his left eye ended in a mistrial Wednesday when his prosthetic eye popped out as he was testifying, startling jurors. John Huttick was weeping on the witness stand in Common Pleas Court as he testified about the impact of losing his eye in the August 2011 fight in the [...]

PETE YOST, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — An unclassified Justice Department memo reveals that the Obama administration has had more lenient rules than publicly known for when drone attacks can be launched to kill U.S. citizens working abroad with terrorists. The government does not need evidence that a specific attack is imminent, the newly disclosed [...]

JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press LEICESTER, England (AP) — He was king of England, but for centuries he lay without shroud or coffin in an unknown grave, and his name became a byword for villainy. On Monday, scientists announced they had rescued the remains of Richard III from anonymity — and the monarch’s fans hope a [...]

MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. (AP) — It’s a far cry from breaking rocks in the hot sun on a chain gang. In New York’s Adirondack Mountains, inmates break ice on a frozen lake to make a giant winter palace. A work crew from an area “shock” prison camp once again this year helped local volunteers create this [...]

ORANGE CITY, Fla. (AP) – A conversation with two passengers landed a Florida tow truck driver in jail after his cell phone pocket-dialed 911 and dispatchers listened in. Authorities say 19-year-old Matthew Dollarhide of Orange City was surprised when a Volusia County Sheriff’s deputy pulled him over on Tuesday and asked why they had been [...]

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pittsburgh police say an abandoned backpack with the word “timebomb” on it prompted a bomb scare, though it appears the alarming label was a bumper sticker from a nearby store called Timebomb Clothing. Shop owner Brian Brick tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that his store sells merchandise, including bumper stickers bearing the shop’s name. [...]

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – Small paintings of gnomes that have popped up on utility poles have become a community sensation in Oakland, prompting Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to say Tuesday that it will keep them in place for now. The hand-painted portraits on 6-inch blocks of wood began going up last year in an [...]

YORK, Pa. (AP) – Mourners at a Pennsylvania fast-food fan’s funeral wanted him to have it his way, so they arranged for his hearse – and the rest of the procession – to make one last drive-thru visit before reaching the cemetery. David Kime Jr. “lived by his own rules,” daughter Linda Phiel said. He [...]

DENVER (AP) – Authorities are hoping suspects come clean following a rash of thefts of laundry detergent and expensive face lotion across Colorado. KCNC-TV reported on Wednesday that supermarkets are installing more surveillance cameras to combat the rising tide of thefts. They are also hiring undercover agents. Authorities believe thieves are targeting those products because [...]