MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Civil rights groups sued Friday in federal court to block Alabama's new law cracking down on illegal immigration, which supporters and opponents have called the strictest measure of its kind in the nation.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- The Union's first black hero of the Civil War wasn't one of the African-American soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, famously depicted in the 1989 film "Glory," but rather a merchant ship's cook who took up arms to prevent being sold into slavery after a Confederate raider captured his vessel.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A leading Democratic state governor is warning debt negotiators in the nation's capital against cutting Medicaid for low-income people.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- When Verizon Wireless kills off its unlimited data plan for new smartphone customers on Thursday, it will mark another blow for endless Web surfing and video streaming.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court refused to block Texas from executing a Mexican citizen despite a White House-backed appeal that claimed the case could affect other foreigners arrested in the U.S. and Americans in legal trouble abroad.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- A Michigan man who went on a shooting spree that killed seven people targeted each of his victims, which included two ex-girlfriends and his 12-year-old daughter, police said Friday.

HOUSTON (AP) -- The end of the space shuttle program is hitting its Florida launch home in the pocketbook with some areas practically becoming economic ghost towns. But Houston, home of Mission Control, is getting hit somewhere else: in the ego.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- They've been spotted in the suburbs and in New Orleans' biggest park, along river levees and on some streets. Coyotes - some possibly driven from their territories along the levee by the Mississippi River's spring flooding - are being targeted by SWAT teams in suburban Jefferson Parish. Officials are considering deploying sound systems that mimic the noises of cougars - a traditional coyote enemy.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In 1995, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent. Now, all but one does. An annual obesity report by two public health groups looked for the first time at state-by-state statistics over the last two decades. The state that has the lowest obesity rate now - Colorado, with 19.8 percent of adults considered obese - would have had the highest rate in 1995.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level in seven weeks, although applications remain elevated.