Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of its English-language articles, joining Google, Boing Boing, Reddit and other sites to protest pending U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content.

Wikipedia will black out the English language version of its website Wednesday to protest anti-piracy legislation under consideration in Congress, the foundation behind the popular community-based online encyclopedia said in a statement Monday night.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The expansion in public prekindergarten programs has slowed and even been reversed in some states as school districts cope with shrinking budgets. As a result, many 3- and 4-year-olds aren't going to preschool.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum and front-runner Mitt Romney are trading barbs over who's the toughest on canceling voting rights for convicted felons.

As Congress returns from a three-week holiday break, those are a few of the ideas for how to pay for extending an average $20-a-week Social Security payroll tax cut through the end of 2012 without adding to the government's long-term debt.

As Americans honor King's memory 44 years after he was assassinated, the image of the slain civil rights leader is evolving.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A Muslim man was sentenced Friday to life in prison for joining a failed plot to firebomb John F. Kennedy Airport in 2007 by blowing up jet fuel supplies with the help of a notorious al-Qaida explosives expert.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- In mailboxes across South Carolina in 2007, likely Republican voters received a Christmas card signed by "The Romney Family" with a quotation from a 19th century Mormon leader suggesting God had several wives.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Seeking more power to shrink the government, President Barack Obama on Friday suggested smashing six economic agencies into one, an election-year idea intended to halt bureaucratic nightmares and force Republicans to back him on one of their own favorite issues.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Controversy over a Cook County ordinance that forbids the sheriff from notifying federal officials when they're about to release suspected illegal immigrants from jail is heating up after a suspect charged in a fatal hit-and-run posted bail and disappeared.