MANCHESTER, Conn. (AP) -- Amy Russell isn't expecting her walk across Connecticut to pose much of challenge. It's child's play compared to the 7,000-mile, two-year trek across Africa she starts in January in an effort to raise money to help provide clean drinking water for people in underdeveloped countries.

Growing up black in the segregated 1960s, Deborah Goldring slept two to a bed, got evicted from apartment after apartment, and watched her stepfather climb utility poles to turn their disconnected lights back on. Yet Goldring pulled herself out of poverty and earned a middle-class life — until the Great Recession. First, Goldring's husband fell ill, and they drained savings to pay for nursing homes before he died.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Prosecutors said Wednesday they will not file charges against a University of New Mexico football player who was arrested after wearing saggy pants on a plane at San Francisco airport.

Last week, an Orlando, Fla., jury found Casey Anthony not guilty of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, bringing to a stunning end a trial that had fixated the nation for weeks.

MOENCHENGLADBACH, Germany (AP) -- Somehow, the Americans seem to find a way to win.
And more often than not, Abby Wambach has something to do with it.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.— Life in Bakersfield after a brief NFL stint had not been kind to running back David Lee "Deacon" Turner.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) -- Rodney King has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Southern California.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Budget talks between President Barack Obama and his GOP rivals are at a frustrating standstill, leading a top Republican to launch a long-shot proposal to give Obama sweeping new powers to muscle through an increase in the government's debt limit without the approval of a bitterly divided Congress.

ATLANTA – If the United States is going to regain its global leadership position in higher education, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) will need to play a major role, says a White House official on education.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nasir Ahmad Ahmadi was hired to work as an interpreter alongside American troops in Afghanistan. But soldiers were alarmed by his strange behavior, his inability to do the job and the foul condition of his living quarters, and they suspected he used drugs.