CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Jurors found a former University of Virginia lacrosse player guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday in the slaying of his ex-girlfriend that was fueled by jealousy over her relationship with another lacrosse player.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia (AP) — A jury convicted a former University of Virginia lacrosse player Wednesday of second-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend in a drunken, jealous rage, rejecting a first-degree murder verdict and a possible life sentence.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A jury convicted a former University of Virginia lacrosse player Wednesday of second-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend in a drunken, jealous rage, rejecting a first-degree murder verdict and a possible life sentence.

EAGLE POINT, Ore. (AP) — Last weekend, 14-year-old Ashley Long told her parents she was going to a slumber party. But instead of spending the night watching videos and eating popcorn two blocks away, she piled into a car with a bunch of her friends and rode to a condo in Medford, Ore., where police say the big sister of one of her friends was throwing a party with booze and marijuana.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is reaping political benefits from the country's brighter economic mood. A new poll shows that Republicans and Democrats alike are increasingly saying the nation is heading in the right direction and most independents now approve the way he's addressing the nation's post-recession period.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is reaping political benefits from the country's brighter economic mood. A new poll shows that Republicans and Democrats alike are increasingly saying the nation is heading in the right direction and most independents now approve the way he's addressing the nation's post-recession period.

GADSDEN, Ala. (AP) — The grandmother and stepmother of a 9-year-old Alabama girl who died after witnesses said she was forced to run for three hours as punishment for lying have been charged with murder and are being held in jail.

ATTALLA, Ala. (AP) — At the end of a dirt road leading to a doublewide trailer in rural Alabama, authorities say 9-year-old Savannah Hardin was being forced to run for three hours as punishment for having lied to her grandmother about eating candy bars. The severely dehydrated girl had a seizure and died days later, her death ruled a homicide.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Free speech cases before the Supreme Court often lead justices to consider far-fetched scenarios, and Wednesday's argument over a law making it a crime to lie about having received top military honors was no exception.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court appears to be sharply divided over a law that makes it a crime to lie about having been awarded top military honors.

DALLAS (AP) — Billy Wright plunked down dime after dime for comic books while growing up in the late 1930s and early 1940s, caring for the collection he started around the age of 9 until his death more than half a century later. On Wednesday, most of that collection sold for a whopping $3.5 million.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The housing market is flashing signs of health ahead of the spring-buying season.

NORCROSS, Georgia (AP) — A man who was asked to leave a Korean health spa in an Atlanta suburb earlier in the day came back with a gun and shot two of his sisters and their husbands and then killed himself, police said Wednesday.

NORCROSS, Ga. (AP) — The gunman who fatally shot two of his sisters and their husbands inside a Korean spa in an Atlanta suburb had been asked to leave and came back hours later, authorities said on Wednesday.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The mayor and police director of New Jersey's largest city said Wednesday the New York Police Department misled their city and never told them it was conducting a widespread spying operation on Newark's Muslim neighborhoods. Had they known, they said, they never would have allowed it.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The mayor and police director of New Jersey's largest city said Wednesday the New York Police Department misled their city and never told them it was conducting a widespread spying operation on Newark's Muslim neighborhoods. Had they known, they said, they never would have allowed it.

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state cannot force pharmacies to sell Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, saying the state's true goal was to suppress religious objections by druggists — not to promote timely access to the medicines for people who need them.