A tornado fueled by an unusually warm winter air sliced through parts of northwestern Arkansas early on New Year's Eve, killing three people, injuring several others and knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses.

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.