The National Retail Federation says pet owners are expected to spend 370-million dollars to dress up Fido and Fluffy this year.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says the specialty pharmacy linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak may have misled regulators and done work beyond the scope of its state license.

Officials say a construction worker has been rescued after a parking garage collapsed in Miami, but another worker is still trapped in the rubble.

The Supreme Court is questioning the University of Texas' use of race in college admissions in a case that could lead to new limits on affirmative action.

Nearly all regions of the United States are reporting that stronger housing markets have helped boost economic growth since the middle of August.

A Massachusetts woman who authorities say posed as a teenage boy to prey on a West Virginia girl could face up to 30 years in prison.

U.S. deaths surpassed 2.5 million for the first time last year, reflecting the nation's growing and aging population.

Pumpkin farmers say they expect their crop to be one of a few bright spots in a year when most farms have been hit hard by a severe drought.

A Maine tourist town is on edge as residents wait to see which friends and neighbors are named as clients of a fitness instructor who pleaded not guilty to running a prostitution business out of her Zumba (ZOOM'-bah) studio.

New York City prosecutors say a drifter accused in the alleged rape a 73-year-old birdwatcher in Central Park also groped two more women.

Prosecutors have wrapped up their case in the sentencing trial of a Dallas woman who admitted beating her 2-year-old daughter and gluing her hands to a wall.

Authorities say all three women found dead inside an overturned car that went off a Newport Harbor pier in Rhode Island drowned.

Police say a Southeast Texas woman who is pregnant with her fourth child has been charged in the deaths of her two infant sons.

Jerry Sandusky has been sentenced to at least 30 years in prison in the child sexual abuse scandal that brought shame to Penn State and led to coach Joe Paterno's downfall.

Police say a man tried to rob a Pennsylvania bank of $1 because he hoped to be sent to a federal prison nearby.

Alaska Airlines says its computer connections have been restored, and operations are returning to normal at its airport gates.

Jerry Sandusky could be in particular danger of sexual assault when he is sent off to prison this week.

Authorities say a Chicago Bears fan who came to Jacksonville for the Bears-Jaguars football game had his throat slashed inside a bar.

A doctor has testified that a Texas mother who glued her 2-year-old daughter's hands to a wall also beat the toddler so badly that she suffered significant brain trauma and bleeding inside her skull.

Company officials say a computer problem is causing significant delays for all Alaska Airlines flights.

A commercial supply ship is on its way to the International Space Station.

The House Intelligence Committee is warning that China's two leading technology firms pose a major security threat to the United States.

The head of the Border Patrol agents union says the agent killed last week in a shooting in southern Arizona apparently opened fire on two fellow agents thinking they were armed smugglers and was killed when they returned fire.

The pharmacy that distributed a steroid linked to an outbreak of fungal meningitis has issued a voluntary recall of all of its products.

Pres. Obama is coming off of his strongest fundraising month of the year, but republicans are looking to downplay the fundraising success.