WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans are hopeful for what 2012 will bring for their families and the country, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll, though most say 2011 was a year they would rather forget.

VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) -- A lot of people who have heard the story over the years still don't believe it, Wallace Goza says of his surviving a fall from the top of an electrical pole 48 years ago.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Almost two centuries before there was a man named Obama in the White House, there was a man named Obama shackled in the bowels of a slave ship. There is no proof that the unidentified Obama has ties to President Barack Obama. All they share is a name. But that is exactly the commonality that Emory University researchers hope to build upon as they delve into the origins of Africans who were stolen from their homes and sold.

NEW YORK (AP) -- It was a good year in the ratings for cable news networks. Or a rough one. It depends on your perspective. Fox News Channel continued its dominance, with an average viewership that exceeded CNN and MSNBC combined in prime time and for the entire day, the Nielsen ratings company said this week.

To mark the 150th anniversary of Wells' birth in 2012, an effort is under way to build a sculpture to honor her legacy at the site of the housing development and renew her relevance for future generations.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Nearly one-third of St. Louis students would change schools if they were allowed to take advantage of a contested state law that allows them to transfer to better-performing districts, according to a study conducted as part of a lawsuit. If that happened, the district would have to pay millions in tuition and transportation costs.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration hopes to restore momentum in the spring to U.S. talks with the Taliban insurgency that had reached a critical point before falling apart this month because of objections from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Melody Barnes is leaving as White House chief domestic policy adviser at a time when President Barack Obama's administration is getting little notice for its work on the home front to fix the struggling economy.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Money-transfer businesses that cater to Somali immigrants in Minnesota stopped accepting money bound for the famine-stricken East African country Thursday, a day before a key bank was due to stop processing the transactions.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne has apologized for comments he made on his Twitter account about public breastfeeding.