New York Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders have agreed to ease drug laws that were once among the harshest in the nation and led a movement more than 30 years ago toward mandatory prison terms.

Police said a customer fired one or two shots into a Salt Lake City McDonald's after the driver of the car he was in was told the restaurant was not serving lunch yet.

A Las Vegas physician was sentenced to nearly four years in prison and his wife to 2 1/2 years for treating patients with a Botox knockoff at their cosmetic clinic.

Authorities in Ohio say a man has been charged with drunken driving after crashing his motorized bar stool.

Connecticut police say thieves, who broke into Montano Cigarettes, Candy & Tobacco Inc., stole some 15,000 cartons of cigarettes worth $1 million.

An Internal Revenue Service agent who audits taxpayers in California has agreed to plead guilty to cheating on his own taxes.

Three members of a banned fraternity at the State University of New York at Geneseo were charged with criminally negligent homicide for organizing a wild night of drinking that left a college sophomore dead of alcohol poisoning.

The Israeli Army says 1,166 people were killed, of which about a quarter were noncombatants, during the 22-day war in Gaza. The Israeli advocate general has decided to close an investigation into allegations of abuses by soldiers during the recent campaign in Gaza after the military police found that “the crucial components of their descriptions were based on hearsay and not supported by specific personal knowledge.”

As a first step into ascertaining the legal accountability of top Bush Administration officials, A Spanish court has opened a criminal investigation into allegations of international law violations. The 6 Bush administration officials are accused of providing the legal framework that permitted torture and mistreatment of prisoners in the campaign against terrorism. Defenders of the officials have said their legal analyses and policy work on interrogation practices were conducted under great pressure after the 2001 terrorist attacks, and are now being unfairly second-guessed after many years without a terrorist attack on the United States. John C. Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who wrote secret legal opinions saying the president had the authority to circumvent the Geneva Convention, defended his work and warned that the Obama administration risked harming national security if it punished lawyers like himself.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in aid initiated by President George W. Bush and expanded in recent days by President Obama are being spent to counter the drug war in Mexico. The drug cartels have on their side the presence of the untold number of politicians, judges, prison guards and police officers that have joined the cartels, as well as billions of dollars more than the Mexican government spends to defeat them.

Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats accepts the apology offered by a Dallas police officer who stopped him for running a red light in order to get to the hospital where his mother-in-law was dying inside. Officer Powell wrote Moats a ticket and lectured him; Moats' mother-in-law died before he got there. Officer Powell said he didn't know why he didn't allow Moats to go into the hospital once he realized what was happening, or why he spoke to Moats the way he did. Moats explained that he had waited until there was no traffic before continuing through the red light. When Powell asked for proof of insurance, Moats grew more agitated and told the officer to go find it.

Two young women who work for the Ohio Attorney General’s office have accused the state's top lawyer and members of the Attorney General's administration of creating an environment of foul language, sexual come-ons, heavy drinking and intimidation. Some of the e-mails between Attorney General Marc Dann and his scheduler can be found at the link to this story, including the "State of Ohio, Office of the Inspector General: Report of Investigation" and testimony of witnesses.

The Khmer Rouge swept to power in 1975, and killed at least 1.7 million people in the next four years. Pol Pot and his followers sought to purge the country of city dwellers, the rich, the religious, the educated, anyone from a different ethnic group. The vision was a return to a nation of noble peasant farmers. Duch is now standing trial, facing charges that include crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and murder. He is the first former Khmer Rouge leader to stand trial.

A prison inmate scheduled for execution on April 7, 2009 wants time to gather evidence he says will prove his innocence. He also wants time to demonstrate that Ohio's method of lethal injection is unconstitutional. The prosecutor at his trial says that the inmate has not offered enough evidence to warrant delaying his execution.

After three decades in prison and being described as model prisoners, the Manson family members are continually denied parole. The followers of Charles Manson went on a killing spree in Los Angeles, California, slaying a pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in a two-night rampage in August 1969. Of the Manson family, Susan Atkins is terminally ill and Charles "Tex" Watson is an ordained minister. Even so, debate continues whether the four Manson followers should ever be freed.