MIAMI (AP) -- The U.S. Justice Department could bring a hate crime charge against the shooter in the killing of black Florida teenager Trayvon Martin if there is sufficient evidence the slaying was motivated by racial bias and not simply a fight that spiraled out of control, legal experts and former prosecutors say.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The recession and its hangover may have turned bill-paying habits upside down. Cash-strapped Americans are paying off their car loans before they pay credit card bills and make mortgage payments, a study finds.

MIAMI (AP) -- The funeral director who oversaw slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin's burial says he saw no signs of a fight on the body.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- A nightclub in Alabama's capital city has come up with a unique theme night involving food support for needy families.

As a club that prides itself on tradition, Augusta National again is in the middle of a membership debate it thought it was done with nearly a decade ago.

HARRISON, Ark. (AP) -- When a black man supposedly broke into a white man's home in 1905, a mob ran most black people out of town - and instantly gave this community a lasting reputation as being too dangerous for minorities.

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) -- The fatal shooting of a black teenager by a neighborhood watch captain who then went free has led to nationwide protests calling for the shooter's arrest.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans are ready to ram through the House an election-year, $3.5 trillion budget that showcases their deficit-cutting plan for revamping Medicare and slicing everything from food stamps to transportation while rejecting President Barack Obama's call to raise taxes on the rich.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- When Roy James needed money to buy equipment and dig an irrigation well for his father's Mississippi farm, he applied for a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture - but was turned down.

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Passengers aboard an early morning flight from New York bound for Las Vegas first noticed something wrong when the plane's top pilot came out of the cockpit, didn't close the door and tried to force his way into an occupied bathroom.