Obama's plans to rebuild infrastructure, modernize schools and develop alternate energy are long-term investments in the economy, not quick fixes.

Steve Blake made six 3-pointers and scored 20 points, and the Portland Trail Blazers pulled away in the third quarter Friday night for a 117-94 victory over the struggling Sacramento Kings.

Remember when gas prices were hovering around $5 a gallon last spring?  It's hard to believe that prices are now dipping below $2 at the pump.

With some kids spending their last day in class before the Thanksgiving break, classes around the area were celebrating the holiday Friday.

The federal Hope for Homeowners program was expected to help 400,000 homeowners. So far, it has helped virtually no one.

AP - While U.S. automakers wait for federal action on loans they say are key to their survival, former restaurant worker Richard Thomas is waiting on his own bailout — odd jobs that barely pay the bills.

AP - A judge has told parents of two teenage girls removed from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries compound that they can have their children back if they sever ties with the community.

AP - Rochester officials say members of Saudi Arabia's royal family spent enough during a visit to the Mayo Clinic to give the area's economy a shot in the arm.

AP - Nebraska officials say a 14-year-old California boy has become the last child reported abandoned under the state's safe-haven law before it was changed to limit such drop-offs to infants no more than 30 days old.

AP - A third lawsuit claims Chicago police harassed black residents cheering President-elect Barack Obama's win on Election Night.

AP - Energy independence is still only a hypothetical goal for the U.S., but the owner of a tiny island off the coast of Connecticut says he has already achieved that feat and is offering his work as a model.

AP - The family of a college student who killed himself live on the Internet say they're horrified his life ended before a virtual audience, and infuriated that viewers of the live webcam or operators of the Web site that hosted it didn't act sooner to save him.

AP - Astronauts stepped out for the longest and hardest spacewalk of their mission Saturday to wrap up greasy repair work on a gummed-up joint at the international space station.

AP - Authorities in Michigan say a hunter's stray bullet has grazed two young boys at a day care near Cheboygan.

AP - Police in Ohio have arrested a 68-year-old woman on a bank robbery charge — and they want to know if she's the so-called "Granny Robber" they've been seeking since last May.

AP - Officials say a freight train has derailed along a rural highway in the Texas Panhandle but there are no reports of injuries or spills of any hazardous materials.

AP - An Army wife accused of setting her apartment on fire botched an attempt to collect on her husband's $400,000 insurance policy when he survived and her two children died instead, a federal prosecutor said.

AP - The Screen Actors Guild said Saturday it will ask its members to authorize a strike after its first contract talks in four months with Hollywood studios failed despite the help of a federal mediator.