Authorities said they would continue their search Thursday for a Minnesota child who remained missing after a gravel slide swept several children on a school fossil-hunting trip into a pit, killing one.The fourth-graders from a St. Louis Park elementary school were hiking in Lilydale Regional Park on Wednesday when a steep slope soaked by rain gave way, authorities have said. Two trapped children ...

New census estimates show that most of the nation's largest cities further enhanced their allure last year, posting strong population growth for a second straight year. Big cities surpassed the rate of growth of their surrounding suburbs at an even faster clip, a sign of America's continuing preference for urban living after the economic downturn quelled enthusiasm for less-crowded expanses. Farth...

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — A little treasure in the debris of a home that once welcomed Rebecca Garland's four grandchildren gave her such a delight as her friends and family scoured the mountain of rubble for any mementos left behind by Monday's powerful tornado.“This is where we measured the kids' height!” she exclaimed as her son Lee held up a piece of a wall showing the rising tick-marks as his th...

After years of emotional debate, the Boy Scouts of America are considering a proposal at their annual meeting to allow gay youths to participate openly in the popular organization for the first time.The exclusion of gay Scouts has been the subject of much wrangling and soul searching in the century-old organization -- from local troops and councils to online petitions to national board meetings. T...

When a devastating tornado touched down in Moore, Okla., on Monday afternoon, Shayla Taylor was on the upper floor of the local hospital, in active labor with her second child.As the floor shook “like an earthquake” beneath her and ceiling tiles and insulation fell overhead, the 25-year-old huddled with four nurses, braving both the peak contractions of childbirth and the wrath of the worst twiste...

SPOKANE, Wash. -- A 37-year-old man was arrested Wednesday after a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin were discovered in Washington state last week.A grand jury indictment accuses Matthew Ryan Buquet of mailing a threatening communication to U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle at the federal courthouse on May 14.The indictment did not say anything about ricin. However, the U.S. Pos...