HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The state Senate voted Thursday voted to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut, a state that has executed only one prisoner in a half-century and is now on track to join a national trend away from capital punishment.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A White House spokesman said President Barack Obama believes women should be admitted as members to the all-male Augusta National, home of the Masters golf tournament.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Sales of the nation's two most popular prescription painkillers have exploded in new parts of the country, an Associated Press analysis shows, worrying experts who say the push to relieve patients' suffering is spawning an addiction epidemic.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Affirmative action proponents took a hit Monday as a federal appeals court panel upheld California's ban on using race, ethnicity and gender in admitting students to public colleges and universities.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yahoo is laying off 2,000 employees as new CEO Scott Thompson eliminates jobs that don't fit into his plans for turning around the beleaguered Internet company.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) -- They were learning to become truck drivers but wound up in a nightmare. In detailed accounts to a federal agency, dozens of female employees of one of the nation's largest trucking companies told of being propositioned, groped and even assaulted by male drivers during cross-country training rides.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) -- Police at a California college pepper-sprayed as many as 30 demonstrators after students angry over a plan to offer high-priced courses tried to push their way into a trustees meeting, authorities said.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Tuesday Republicans want to enforce a "radical vision" on the nation, accusing the opposition party of moving so far to the right that even one of its beloved figures, Ronald Reagan, could not win a Republican presidential primary today.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal student loan program seemed like a great idea back in 1965: Borrow to go to college now, pay it back later when you have a job.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve says Morgan Stanley will review foreclosures carried out by its old mortgage subsidiary and reimburse any homeowners who were improperly forced out of their homes.