JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- Fed up with mounting legal bills and rattled by intense scrutiny of her family and work, Sarah Palin was ready to step down as Alaska's governor months before she left office in July 2009.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With no financial relief in sight, the Postal Service is pushing ahead with cuts to more than 260 mail processing centers around the nation.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said Friday he backed away from a bill requiring women to undergo an invasive procedure before receiving an abortion because he believed it might not have withstood legal scrutiny.

SEATTLE (AP) -- A prosecutor is preparing to file charges against a 9-year-old boy who brought a gun to a Washington state elementary school that went off and critically wounded a young classmate.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration declared Alzheimer's "one of the most feared health conditions" on Wednesday as it issued a draft of a new national strategy to fight the ominous rise in this mind-destroying disease.

BRISTOL, Pa. (AP) -- A Philadelphia-area man already charged with trading a tattoo for sex with an underage girl and sexually assaulting more than a dozen children is now facing additional charges.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Before the death of Don Cornelius stirred pangs of "Soul Train" nostalgia in the American public, a group of black entrepreneurs already had begun working to revive Cornelius' creation and carry it beyond the continued popularity of the show's dances and television reruns.

Newark, N.J. (AP) -- Newark Mayor Cory Booker and his top police official say the city was misled by the New York Police Department and never would have authorized such wholesale spying on Muslims if they had known about it.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Comcast will launch four minority-owned networks on its cable-TV systems in the next two years, including channels spearheaded by music mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and NBA great Magic Johnson.

ATLANTA (AP) -- A federal advisory panel wants all U.S. adults to get vaccinated against whooping cough.