ATLANTA (AP) -- U.S. births apparently have declined for a third year in a row, probably because of the weak economy. Births had been on the rise for years, and the number hit an all-time high of more than 4.3 million in 2007.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The man expected to be in the running to become the first African-American in the No. 2 position of the nation's largest Protestant denomination didn't choose to become a Southern Baptist. By Fred Luter Jr.'s account, it just sort of happened.

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) -- Crews are trying to beat floodwaters expected to arrive in Hamburg on Tuesday by building up a secondary barrier to protect the small Iowa town after the swollen Missouri River punched a massive hole in the main levee.

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- President Barack Obama pledged Monday to push business-friendly policies on issues including free-trade agreements and worker pension funds as he sought to make good on promises to grow the economy and jobs by boosting competitiveness.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- As America embarks on four years of Civil War commemorations, it revives an unsettling debate that lingers 150 years after the conflict: how to view the role of African Americans in the Confederacy.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Forty years after the explosive leak of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government study chronicling deception and misadventure in U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War, the report is coming out in its entirety on Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal budget deficit is on pace to break the $1 trillion mark for a third straight year. Record deficits are putting pressure on Congress and the Obama administration to come up with a plan to rein in government spending.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- North Carolina House Republicans are trying to pass legislation that demands people show photo identification before they enter a voting booth, even though it appears the measure would face a veto from Gov. Beverly Perdue.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- New government test results show that a proposed high-speed wireless broadband network could jam GPS systems used for everything from aviation to public safety and military operations.

Two executives at what had been the nation's largest private mortgage lender were sentenced to six and two-and-a-half years for their roles in a $3 billion fraud that officials have called the biggest criminal case to develop out of the nation's housing and financial crises