AP - A defense attorney for former Orange County sheriff Michael Carona said the government's sweeping public corruption case against his client is riddled with holes and built on the testimony of witnesses who lied to save themselves.

AP - Minnesota's grueling U.S. Senate race, already dragging on two months past Election Day, has now moved even further from the voters — and into the hands of lawyers.

AP - No one claims to know what happened that summer in 1999 when 11-year-old Adam Herrman disappeared from the mobile home park where he lived with his adoptive parents.

AP - Two men and a teenager were charged Tuesday in the alleged gang rape of a lesbian in the San Francisco Bay area.

AP - Senate Democrats are looking for ways to defuse the standoff that has denied Roland Burris the vacated Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama of Illinois, but maybe not much longer.

AP - It was very windy when a Continental Airlines jet was destroyed while trying to take off in Denver last month, leading aviation safety experts to cite crosswinds as a likely factor in the accident.

AP - Electronic unemployment filing systems have crashed in at least three states in recent days amid an unprecedented crush of thousands of newly jobless Americans seeking benefits, and other states were adjusting their systems to avoid being next.

AP - Former eBay executive Meg Whitman brings intrigue and a big bank account to California's beleaguered Republican Party.

AP - Sgt. Faron White's job running a squad that targeted drug dealers, gamblers and other organized crime in a northern Alabama city earned him accolades but was filled with pressure.

AP - Roland Burris failed to capture President-elect Barack Obama's old Senate seat Tuesday in a wild piece of political theater, but the Democrats' opposition cracked when a key chairwoman said seating him was simply the legal thing to do.

AP - Republican Norm Coleman filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging Democrat Al Franken's apparent recount victory in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race, delaying a resolution of the contest for weeks or months.

AP - A former Orange County sheriff gave power and influence to those who helped him win his first election through bribes and kickbacks laundered as campaign contributions, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday in closing arguments.