National News [External Sources]

A fourth-grade field trip to a Mississippi River park popular with fossil hunters turned deadly Wednesday when gravel saturated by persistent rain gave way, killing one child and injuring two others.

A report shows responders didn't adequately train for the situation.

A 37-year-old man arrested Wednesday has pleaded not guilty to mailing a threatening communication, after a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin were discovered in Washington state last week.

Jurors in the Jodi Arias murder trial said Wednesday they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether she should be sentenced to life in prison or death.

The horrific attack that left a U.K. soldier dead on the streets of London could have been worse.

Hundreds of youth have torched cars and attacked police in four nights of riots in immigrant suburbs of Sweden's capital, shocking a country that dodged the worst of the financial crisis but failed to solve youth unemployment and resentment among asylum seekers.

The Chicago Board of Education voted on Wednesday to close 50 schools - including about 10 percent of all elementary schools - in the largest mass school closing in the nation. The closings in mainly Hispanic and African-American neighborhoods have drawn protests by parents and teachers union leaders who say the closures will expose children to greater gang violence in a city that recorded 506 murders in 2012. ...

Zach Sobiech's "Clouds" became a YouTube sensation with more than 4 million views.

It promises full refunds for trips that are canceled due to mechanical failure.

Authorities in South Florida say a man is charged with murder because he was overheard discussing the killing when his cellphone pocket-dialed 911.

Even teens who once craved iPhones are turning on the company.

It seeks to legalize most of the country's 11 million unauthorized residents.

Attorney General Eric Holder informed Congress on Wednesday that the U.S. had killed four Americans in drone strikes since 2009 – radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and three others who were “not specifically targeted.”

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — The Boy Scouts of America has started its meeting in which members of its national council are to decide whether to change the group's long-standing ban on openly gay boys.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia couple who believe in faith healing over medicine and who were on probation in their son's pneumonia death were charged with murder Wednesday after a second young child died under what a prosecutor called "eerily similar" circumstances.

The panel considers a change that may encourage more victims to step forward.

The judge sends jurors back to deliberations to work through their differences.

Ibragim Todashev was linked to bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and an unsolved triple murder.

CHICAGO (AP) — The attorney for an 87-year-old woman who accuses Donald Trump of cheating her in a skyscraper condo deal told Chicago jurors on Wednesday that he was personally repulsed by the "Apprentice" star whom he said lied on the witness stand.

By Catherine Koppel Berezniki, Russia (Reuters) - A member of the Pussy Riot band who was jailed over a protest against President Vladimir Putin in a Russian cathedral said on Wednesday she was starting a hunger strike after she was barred from a parole hearing. Maria Alyokhina also told her lawyers to quit the proceedings. ...