AUSTIN — More than a dozen prominent Dallas business and civic leaders, including several who supported Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary for governor, have signed a letter backing Democrat Bill White in his effort to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Perry in the Nov. 2 general election.

The state attorney general is investigating two Florida companies over claims they offered free emergency response training for oil spill clean up work but then withheld students' training certificates unless they paid a large fee.

Calling the wording of a Republican-backed constitutional amendment on health care "manifestly misleading," a Circuit Court judge in Leon County has tossed it off the November ballot.

Yuba County's Beale Air Force Base is being put in charge of a fleet of spy planes that will bring at least 550 jobs and help boost the regional economy.

The market will speak today and say whether TransCanada Corp. has enough likely customers to justify building a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to Canada or Valdez.

Former state Sen. Gene Therriault resigned as Gov. Sean Parnell's energy adviser Thursday amid furor over the legality of Therriault signing on to the position when he was still in the Legislature.

WASHINGTON — A low-ranking Army soldier suspected of leaking thousands of classified documents had access to the documents because U.S. officials have pressed to make sure secret information is available to combat units.

WASHINGTON — A new Army report has found that inattention to rising rates of drug abuse and criminal activity among soldiers and not repeat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan is responsible for the record-high levels of suicide among troops.

WASHINGTON — Reporters covering trials of accused terrorists at Guantanamo on Monday will have their first-ever face-to-face chance to air their complaints about the U.S government's restrictive rules, which journalists say make it nearly impossible for the public to follow the proceedings.

Louisiana fishermen pray their livelihood will return, hoteliers in Alabama wait for the phones to ring, and New Orleans' finest chefs cook up public relations strategies rather than po'-boys — all because oil has touched their shorelines.

Divine intervention took on new meaning when a gunman changed his mind about robbing a Pompano Beach MetroPCS cellphone store after the store manager told him Jesus wouldn't approve.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday that he's talked with other senators about crafting a constitutional amendment that would deny American citizenship to illegal immigrants' children born in the United States.

WASHINGTON — Elective abortions will be prohibited and people with pre-existing conditions will be able to get comprehensive benefits without paying any more than healthy people under new federal regulations for high-risk health insurance pools released Thursday by the Obama administration.

WASHINGTON — More than three years into the housing crisis that helped trigger a worldwide recession, the torrid pace of home foreclosures continues to tear at the core of the American dream.

WASHINGTON — Two former top officials of Arlington National Cemetery faced hostile questioning on Capitol Hill Thursday about years of negligence that led to unmarked and mismarked graves and mishandled remains.

This is the transcript of National Incident Commander Thad Allen's briefing with reporters July 29 on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The transcript was ditributed by the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center.

WASHINGTON — The body of the second of two U.S. sailors who went missing after driving into an ambush has been found outside of Kabul, Pentagon officials said Thursday, but the circumstances that led the men to drive alone into one of Afghanistan's most dangerous regions remained unclear.

WASHINGTON — A special House of Representatives subcommittee on Thursday outlined 13 counts of ethics violations against Rep. Charles Rangel, the former chairman of the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. The charges place his political career in jeopardy and could put Democrats on the defensive as November's elections approach.

WASHINGTON — Renewable energy advocates are pushing Congress to include a renewable electricity standard in a climate bill that was proposed Tuesday in the Senate, and the idea got a boost this week when 27 Democrats and a Republican pressed for its inclusion.

WASHINGTON — In an unusual move, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis released a paper Thursday warning that the Fed's policy of keeping interest rates near zero during the economic crisis may lead to Japanese-like deflation in coming years.