Updated: 9:41 AM A parade of beauties from every state are primping and prepping to compete for the Miss America crown Saturday night.

Updated: 11:55 PM The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is advising people to temporarily disable the Java software on their computers to avoid potential hacking attacks.

Posted: 7:20 PM WASHINGTON (AP) - Regulators say they have closed a small lender in Washington state, making it the first U.S. bank failure of 2013 following 51 closures last year.

Updated: 2:04 PM At least three men have been hurt in an explosion that destroyed a home and scattered debris throughout a North Texas neighborhood.

Posted: 12:32 PM A rural school district in Ohio is drawing attention with its plans to arm a handful of its non-teaching employees with handguns this year - perhaps even janitors.

Updated: 2:00 PM Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is calling for state-funded, specialized firearms training for teachers and administrators to guard against school shootings.

Updated: 10:45 AM President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai say in a statement that the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan is expected to shift to a support role later this spring - a few months earlier than expected.

Posted: 10:12 AM A Republican congressman and OB-GYN says former Rep. Todd Akin was "partly right" when he said women's bodies can avoid pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape."

Posted: 9:26 AM An American Airlines flight heading from Las Vegas to Dallas has made an emergency landing in Albuquerque.

Posted: 8:34 AM A judge has granted authorities permission to exhume the body of a Chicago lottery winner who was fatally poisoned with cyanide just as he was about to collect his $425,000 payout.

Updated: 8:33 AM The man accused of the Colorado theater shooting won't have to enter a plea until March.

Updated: 8:34 AM House Speaker John Boehner (BAY'-nur) has invited President Barack Obama to deliver the State of the Union speech on Feb. 12.

Updated: 8:25 AM Federal regulators say they are ordering a comprehensive review of the critical systems of Boeing's 787s, the aircraft maker's newest and most technologically advanced plane, after a fire and a fuel leak earlier this week.

Posted: 5:32 AM Vice President Joe Biden is reaching out to the video game industry as the White House seeks to assemble proposals to combat gun violence in response to last month's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school.

Updated: 4:10 AM Connecticut's chief medical examiner says he doubts toxicological tests and genetic analysis of the body of the gunman who fatally shot 20 children and six educators at an elementary school will explain his actions.

Updated: 2:36 AM NASA says a big asteroid is no longer even a remote threat to smash into Earth in about 20 years.

Updated: 6:36 PM Warner Bros. has won another significant victory in its epic legal struggle over the commercial rights to the Superman comic franchise.

Posted: 5:54 PM A Colorado judge says there's enough evidence for James Holmes to face trial on charges that allege he killed 12 people and injured 70 others in a movie theater last summer.

Updated: 5:28 PM Authorities in central Florida say a man was shocked with a stun gun, beaten, tied to the bumper of a truck and then dragged a half-mile down a dirt road.

Posted: 2:40 PM The captain of a commuter ferry that crashed into a New York City dock says the vessel suffered a mechanical failure.

Updated: 4:32 PM The nation's largest gun-rights lobby says some participants at its White House meeting seemed more interested in demonizing the Second Amendment than keeping students safe.

Posted: 12:26 PM The parents of a New Jersey infant who died of heroin intoxication in 2008 have pleaded guilty to manslaughter after admitting they rubbed heroin on the baby's gums because he was teething.

Posted: 12:08 PM Some parents in Newtown are calling for police to stay at town schools indefinitely, saying the sight of uniformed officers is a comfort to their children in a town reeling from last month's massacre inside an elementary school.

Updated: 12:22 PM President Barack Obama is joking that Jack Lew's nomination as treasury secretary nearly fell through because of Lew's loopy signature.

Updated: 11:26 AM A commuter bus heading to New York City and a mini school bus crashed in in New Jersey, and at least seven people are hospitalized.