If you've recently lost a loved one—and even if it happened not so recently—the holidays can be heart-wrenching. The stark contrast between glowing lights and the darkness of your sorrow is difficult to take.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Blacks made up nearly two-thirds of the Democrats removed from Louisiana's voter rolls because they hadn't voted in at least two years.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York Gov. David Paterson commuted the sentence last week of a black man imprisoned for the racially charged shooting death of a white teenager on Long Island, a decision in the final days of his administration that infuriated the lawyer who prosecuted the case.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- This month's early, under-the-radar campaigning by potential Republican challengers to President Barack Obama is a reminder of something too easily forgotten: Running for president is harder than it looks.

HONOLULU (AP) -- Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie wants to find a way to release more information about President Barack Obama's Hawaii birth and dispel conspiracy theories that he was born elsewhere.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Big cot encampments and huge lines gave way to orderly, single-file queues and thawing tensions as flights left New York-area airports on time Wednesday, but clusters of tired, resigned passengers were still camped out waiting to go home.

WAYNE, Mich. (AP) -- A family-owned furniture store in suburban Detroit exploded and collapsed in what appeared to be a natural gas explosion Wednesday, trapping three people in the rubble.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The end of the year means a turnover of House control from Democratic to Republican and, with it, Congress' approach to immigration.

SOUTH BEND — The changes lawmakers will likely make to Indiana's insolvent unemployment system concern construction worker Finis Patterson and business owner Judy Nagengast, though for different reasons.

WASHINGTON – For the third straight year, President Barack Obama ranks as the man most admired by people living in the U.S., according to an annual USA Today-Gallup poll.