Boy Scouts approve plan to accept openly gay boys
GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) -- In one of their most dramatic choices in a century, local leaders of the Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to ease a divisive ban and allow openly gay boys to be accepted into the nation's leading youth organization.... 5/23/2013 6:30 PM

Latest deadly tornado tests Oklahoma town's mettle
MOORE, Okla. (AP) -- Having lived most of her life in this Oklahoma City suburb, Barbara Bryen never feared twisters. They were just part of life in a particularly deadly stretch of Tornado Alley.... 5/23/2013 3:12 PM

Kids, teachers from devastated school reunite
MOORE, Okla. (AP) -- Students from a suburban Oklahoma City elementary school destroyed by this week's tornado reunited with their teachers Thursday and collected whatever could be salvaged from the ruins.... 5/23/2013 6:06 PM

Boston suspect under scrutiny in unsolved killings
WALTHAM, Mass. (AP) -- A year and a half before the Boston Marathon bombing, the man Tamerlan Tsarnaev called his best friend died in a grisly crime: He was one of three men found nearly decapitated in an apartment, their throats slashed ear to ear, marijuana sprinkled over their bodies.... 5/23/2013 6:29 PM

Tornado took town's youngest as it swept through
MOORE, Okla. (AP) -- One loved the spotlight. Another was nicknamed "The Wall" because of the force he brought to the soccer field.... 5/23/2013 6:36 PM

Obama sees narrower terror threat, defends drones
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama sought Thursday to advance the U.S. beyond the unrelenting war effort of the past dozen years, defining a narrowing terror threat that still imperils the nation but now is defined by smaller networks and homegrown extremists rather than the grandiose plots of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida. He defended his controversial drone-strikes program as a linchpin of the U.S. response to the evolving dangers.... 5/23/2013 6:27 PM

Birth control coverage up for federal appeal
DENVER (AP) -- In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. asked a federal appeals court Thursday for an exemption from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill.... 5/23/2013 6:24 PM

Weiner gets started stumping in NYC mayoral race
NEW YORK (AP) -- Anthony Weiner set out to reintroduce himself to voters Thursday as he embarked on a mayoral bid after leaving Congress in a sexting scandal. He found a much more supportive reception in his first campaign stop than he did from his party's leadership, who bluntly criticized his candidacy a day earlier.... 5/23/2013 5:51 PM

Investigator: Missing Iowa girl's blood found
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- Investigators have discovered the blood of a missing 15-year-old Iowa girl on the truck of a registered sex offender suspected of kidnapping her Monday, diminishing the chances of finding her alive, a lead investigator said Thursday.... 5/23/2013 6:02 PM

Swim coach sentenced to 7 years for sex abuse
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) -- A once-prominent swimming coach who trained thousands of children was sentenced to seven years in prison Thursday for sexually abusing one of the girls he instructed.... 5/23/2013 6:00 PM