In the foreclosure-battered inland stretches of California, local government officials desperate for change are weighing a controversial but inventive way to fix troubled mortgages: Condemn them.

Ford Motor Co. is recalling 8,266 redesigned 2013 Escape SUVs in the U.S. to fix carpet padding that could get in the way of braking.

Obama and Romney trade barbs over job issues..Feds OK Fla. access to citizens list...

Wildfire destroys 1 home, threatens 170 others in Northern California...NYC seaport fire doused without any injuries...Shell vessel re-anchors after moving toward shore...Romneys sit down for interview with Oprah Winfrey...Family fears for Mass. pastor abducted in Egypt...Letters of SC soldier killed in Vietnam come home...Weather stops tandem lawn chair balloon flight...Alaska town: Feline mayor is the cat's pajamas...

UN: Assault in Syria village hit opposition homes...US role in post-Mubarak Egypt still unclear...Clinton to Egypt's Morsi: Find way out of crisis...Libya recount in some districts week after vote...Soyuz rocket launches on mission to space station...Poles honor Reagan, John Paul II with new statue...No new cholera deaths in Cuba...At least 1 million in evangelical march in Brazil...More than 500 penguins show up dead in Brazil...

Forget the bathing suits...People in California are turning to their birthday suits to get some relief from the summer heat.

A woman in Brooklyn, New York is 113-years-old and still partying...

A 19-year-old man in Athens was arrested after he called attention to himself by joking with a police officer.

A 15-year-old faces a murder charge after the body of a 21-year-old woman was found in the backyard of the home where he lives.

Authorities say one man died and another was injured in a possible lightning strike at Lake Peachtree.

A church in Augusta called in a master beekeeper to help relocate some buzzing intruders.

The federal government has approved disaster unemployment assistance for victims of Tropical Storm Debby in three more Florida counties.

Contestants will take center stage as they compete for the title of Miss Florida USA.

The body of a missing 80-year-old man has been found an old grove in central Florida.

The South Dakota Highway Patrol says authorities are searching the Spencer area for a Florida prisoner who escaped from a transport van at an interstate fuel stop.

About 300 snorkelers and divers have submerged to listen to a local radio station's music broadcast beneath the sea in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

The children of an abused woman acquitted of shooting her retired police officer husband to death have published a book about their mother's ordeal.

Alejandro Ramirez was 15 when he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to work alongside his father and brother in California's strawberry fields.

President Barack Obama is prodding Congress to "skip the unnecessary drama" and pass his proposal to extend Bush-era tax cuts to families earning less than $250,000 a year but not for those who earn more.

An officer has been injured as police in riot gear attempt to break up a crowd of about 200 protesters who are filling Los Angeles streets during downtown's monthly Art Walk,

Two goats named Goatee and Pismo are wowing California beachgoers with their surfing skills.

Tropical Storm Fabio is strengthening in the Pacific and could become a hurricane by Friday night or Saturday but is expected to stay well offshore of Mexico.

Hackers posted online what they say is login information for more than 450,000 Yahoo users.

It seems there's always a new feature popping up on Facebook, but this latest change has a serious aim.

An internal probe into the Penn State child sex abuse scandal found that top university officials, including former president Graham Spanier and then-head football coach Joe Paterno, concealed allegations of abuse by ex-assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.