COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A black college student who drew complaints for displaying a Confederate flag in his dorm room window said he sees the banner as a symbol of Southern pride and not racism.

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A former lawyer has been sentenced to five months in federal prison for running a fraud scheme that paid women to have babies for sale.

The House Ethics Committee announced Friday it will continue its investigation into allegations Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. or someone acting on his behalf offered to raise campaign cash for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in exchange for a Senate appointment in 2008.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's little doubt President Barack Obama has won high esteem among Native Americans by breaking through a logjam of inaction on issues that matter to them.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture has acquired two Ku Klux Klan robes that will be exhibited in its future home on the National Mall.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union says the FBI has been using community outreach programs, which are intended to build partnerships, to collect information on Muslims.

NEW YORK (AP) -- An undercover police officer who touched off the fatal shooting of an unarmed man outside a rowdy strip club after his bachelor party should be fired, according to a recommendation made Wednesday by the police department official in charge of departmental discipline.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- High winds flipped over trees and trucks and knocked out power to more than 300,000 California customers before moving inland early Thursday, where schools in a Utah town closed because of 100 mph wind gusts.

WEST CHESTER, Ohio (AP) -- His campaign rocked anew, a feisty Herman Cain claimed a "groundswell of positive support" from backers on Wednesday and accused critics of trying to derail his White House bid as he worked to stem the fallout from allegations of a 13-year extramarital affair.

ATLANTA (AP) -- Only about 1 in 4 Americans with the AIDS virus have the infection under control with medications, federal health officials said Tuesday.