Updated: Thu, May 16, 2013

___ Wal-Mart's 1Q profit, sales disappoint NEW YORK (AP) — The first few months of the year were tough for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The world's largest retailer reported Thursday that its first-quarter profit edged up just slightly, and the company struggled with a sales slump in its namesake...

Updated: Thu, May 16, 2013

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The state Senate approved a bill on Thursday that would require education officials to create lesson plans about violence in American culture — the Legislature's latest reaction to mass shootings last year elsewhere in the nation. Under SB552, individual schools...

Updated: Thu, May 16, 2013

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas hasn't contaminated drinking water wells in Arkansas, according to a new study, but researchers said the geology there may be more of a natural barrier to pollution than in other areas where shale gas drilling takes place. The most...

Updated: Thu, May 16, 2013

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republican Ken Cuccinelli proposed cuts to taxes and regulations on energy in the second policy statement of his campaign for governor Thursday in Virginia coal country. In outlining his energy policy proposals in Bristol, Va., Cuccinelli also said he would compel the...

Updated: Thu, May 16, 2013

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri prosecutors want a judge to let them keep closer tabs on the former head of a failed artificial sweetener plant in Moberly. Attorney General Chris Koster's office said Thursday it has filed a motion in St. Charles County Circuit Court seeking to monitor...

Updated: Thu, May 16, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball appears set for a vast expansion of video review by umpires in 2014 and is examining whether all calls other than balls and strikes should be subject to instant replay. Replay has been in place for home run calls since August 2008. Commissioner Bud Selig...

Updated: Thu, May 16, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball appears set for a vast expansion of video review by umpires in 2014 and is examining whether all calls other than balls and strikes should be subject to instant replay. Replay has been in place for home run calls since August 2008. Commissioner Bud Selig...

Updated: Thu, May 16, 2013

CORVALLIS, Mont. (AP) — From monstrous African Goliath beetles to whip scorpions from Thailand to the famous iridescent blue morpho butterflies that haunt the jungles of Peru, there is hardly a rare bug in the world that Corvallis insect importer Mike Fehr hasn't collected in the past four...

Updated: Thu, May 16, 2013

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (AP) — Time is up for the 13 students in Stephanee Stephens' 8th grade Spanish class. For the last few minutes they've been conjugating verbs, each typing away on a small tablet when a message pops up on the screen: "Eyes on the Teacher." Stephens, with tablet in hand, asks...

Updated: Thu, May 16, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market: NYSE Kohl's Corp., up $2.35 at $52.03 The department store chain said that its first-quarter net income fell 5 percent, but its results still beat Wall...