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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Expanding the prostitution investigation, the Secret Service acknowledged Thursday it is checking whether its employees hired strippers and prostitutes in advance of President Barack Obama's visit last year to El Salvador....

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- A jury deliberated for about five hours Friday in John Edwards' campaign corruption trial involving money from wealthy donors that was used to hide his pregnant mistress during his 2008 White House bid. Talks will resume Monday, but the jury has already made several requests for evidence and office supplies, a sign they may be settling in for detailed discussions....

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) -- A military judge refused on Wednesday to throw out the charges against an Army private accused of providing reams of sensitive documents to Wikileaks in the biggest leak of government secrets in U.S. history....

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A 5-year-old boy in need of a heart transplant was found safe with his father and paternal grandmother at a motel near Chicago early Wednesday, hours after his father allegedly took him without permission from a St. Louis hospital where he was being treated....

MIAMI (AP) -- The U.S. Capitol Police force is investigating a reported threat against U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is often mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick for likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican presidential nomination all but in hand, Mitt Romney is refocusing his efforts on challenging President Barack Obama, raising cash for the battle ahead and reconciling with one-time primary rival Rick Santorum....

The movement by U.S. food corporations toward more humane treatment of animals experienced a whopper of a shift Wednesday when Burger King announced that all of its eggs and pork will come from cage-free chickens and pigs by 2017....

The movement by U.S. food corporations toward more humane treatment of animals experienced a whopper of a shift Wednesday when Burger King announced that all of its eggs and pork will come from cage-free chickens and pigs by 2017.

The decision by the world's second-biggest fast-food restaurant raises the bar ...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis police have issued arrest warrants for the father and paternal grandmother of a 5-year-old boy taken from a hospital where he was on a heart transplant waiting list.

The department issued a statement Wednesday saying it had issued felony warrants for kidnapping, interfering with ...

DNA testing of arrestees violates the Fourth Amendment, applying a balancing test. King v. State, 2012 Md. LEXIS 211 (April 24, 2012):

Although previously we upheld the constitutionality of the Act, as applied to convicted felons, in State v. Raines, 383 Md. 1, 857 A.2d 19 (2004), the present case presents an extension of the statute, not present in Raines. Thus, we evaluate here rights given to, and withdrawn from, citizens who have been arrested, including the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Under the totality of the circumstances balancing test, see Knights v. United States, 534 U.S. 112, 122 S. Ct. 587, 151 L. Ed. 2d (2001), we conclude, on the facts of this case, that King, who was arrested, but not convicted, at the time of his first compelled DNA collection, generally has a sufficiently weighty and reasonable expectation of privacy against warrantless, suspicionless searches that is not outweighed by the State's purported interest in assuring proper identification of him as to the crimes for which he was charged at the time. The State (through local law enforcement), prior to obtaining a DNA sample from King following his arrest on the assault charges, identified King accurately and confidently through photographs and fingerprints. It had no legitimate need for a DNA sample in order to be confident who it arrested or to convict him on the first-or second-degree assault charges. Therefore, there was no probable cause or individualized suspicion supporting obtention of the DNA sample collection for those charges. We conclude that the portions of the DNA Act authorizing collection of a DNA sample from a mere arrestee is unconstitutional as applied to King. Although we have some trepidation as to the facial constitutionality of the DNA Act, as to arrestees generally, we cannot exclude the possibility that there may be, in some circumstances, a need for the State to obtain a DNA sample to identify an arrestee accurately.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican presidential nomination all but in hand, Mitt Romney is refocusing his efforts on challenging President Barack Obama, raising cash for the battle ahead and reconciling with onetime primary rival Rick Santorum....

Arrest outside the threshold of the home led to invalid protective sweep of the house. The officers failed to articulate any facts or reason to justify going in the house. United States v. Barsoum, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56218 (M.D. Fla. April 5, 2012):

Against these standards, the government offers nothing to suggest the Defendant or anyone in the residence (his family) likely posed a danger to the agents, and certainly nothing that a reasonably prudent officer would accept. Instead, the main reason the government seemingly gives is that the agents took the Defendant inside to avoid the rainy morning and to offer him the opportunity to put on some clothes and shoes. Frankly, I find another reason is more obvious. As Agent Zdrojewski admitted, he wanted to secure the Defendant's consent to search his house. Indeed, he specifically chose that location for the Defendant's arrest, as opposed to the pharmacy, to increase his odds that he could search the residence.11 Because I find the government has failed to meet its burden under Buie, I find the agents' entry into the Defendant's house and their subsequent protective sweep illegal.

11 I do not suggest that this tactic is illegal; on the contrary, the approach is commonplace. But as Payton and Buie make clear, an arrest warrant and a search warrant are not synonymous. Without a search warrant, the government must present an exception to the warrant requirement.

Defense counsel was not ineffective for not challenging the length of a stop where the stop was lengthened by the wait for the owner of the car to come to the scene. Defense counsel also was not ineffective for not challenge the stop where the car was indisputably speeding. Owens v. United States, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56416 (M.D. Pa. April 23, 2012).*

The same pro se defendant’s motion to suppress was denied where he never, after being invited to do so, said what it was he was trying to suppress. United States v. Goodrich, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56472 (W.D. Mo. April 23, 2012),* R&R 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56470 (W.D. Mo. April 11, 2012).*

Pro se defendant’s claim that a search warrant could not issue without a criminal complaint also being issued is denied as without any legal basis. United States v. Goodrich, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56470 (W.D. Mo. April 23, 2012).*

BOSTON (AP) -- He was a skilled fisherman, a veteran of two wars and an accomplished hunter. Oh, and Ted Williams also played baseball....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- No excessive drinking - and no alcohol at all within 10 hours of working. Disreputable establishments are off limits, as is entertaining foreigners in the hotel room....

HANFORD, California (AP) — A nondescript building in the heart of California's dairy country has become the focus of intense scrutiny after mad cow disease was discovered in a dead dairy cow.

The finding, announced Tuesday, is the first new case of the disease in the U.S. since 2006 — ...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A 5-year-old heart patient who was on a transplant waiting list when he was taken from a St. Louis hospital by his father has been found safe just outside Chicago, authorities said....

HANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- A non-descript building in the heart of California's dairy country has become the focus of intense scrutiny now that mad cow disease has been discovered in a dead dairy cow....

HANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- A non-descript building in the heart of California's dairy country has become the focus of intense scrutiny now that mad cow disease has been discovered in a dead dairy cow....

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A doctor says a 5-year-old heart patient is in danger after police say his father, who does not have custody of the boy, took him from a St. Louis hospital where he is on a transplant waiting list....