MOBILE, Ala. -- A one-time Alabama judge checked male inmates out of jail and forced them to engage in sexual activities, spankings and whippings, authorities allege. Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas was arrested Friday and later released on bond after a grand jury indicted him on 57 counts, including kidnapping, extortion, sex abuse and sodomy, CNN reported Tuesday. The indictment, posted on the Web site of a Mobile television station, alleges Thomas forced prisoners to ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. computer researchers say they hope a computer worm called "Conficker.c" turns out to be an April Fool's Day bust like the "millennium bug" of 2000. Conficker.c has led to predictions that infected computers will shut down Wednesday in a digital "time bomb." But while experts say it is a malicious program thought to have infected between 5 million and 10 million computers, some doubt it will cause mass problems, CNN reported. Don DeBolt, ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday the government would not allow the industry to "simply vanish." "We cannot, we must not, and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish," Obama said in remarks explaining the government's tentative response to General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC's request for additional loans. The U.S. government gave General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC 60 days and 30 days, respectively, to make drastic changes or face bankruptcy. The government ... [full story]

INDIANAPOLIS -- Walter Palmer, one of the Tuskegee Airmen from World War II, has died in Indianapolis at the age of 87, his daughter says. Janice Carter said her father, who flew a P-51 Mustang dubbed "the Duchess" in honor of his wife during World War II, was proud to serve in the famed military group of black fighter pilots, The Indianapolis Star said Monday. "He was very proud of his service to his country," Carter said ... [full story]

LAWRENCE, Mass. -- Police in Lawrence, Mass., say a toddler who fell 40 feet from an open window owes her life to two men who caught her before she hit the ground. Robert Lemire, 45, and Alex Day, 23, bolted toward Caliah Clark from separate sides of the street as she dangled Sunday from a third-story apartment with two children trying to pull her inside, The (Lawrence, Mass.) Eagle Tribune reported reported. When she fell, Day caught ... [full story]

RIVERHEAD, N.Y.-- Members of the Bethesda Wesleyan Church in Greenlawn, N.Y., say they want an Evangelical Christian denomination to reopen their religious facility. Church members gathered in front of the Greenlawn church Sunday to offer prayers that Wesleyan Church International will decide to allow them to resume their religious practices in the chapel, Newsday said. "We want the church to be opened," founding church member Marie Armand said. "We don't want to be outside. Nobody understands this." "It ... [full story]

LEESBURG, Va. -- An estimated 200 men, women and children held a pre-dawn vigil to honor a Leesburg, Va., couple attacked during a routine morning stroll. Sunday's march was one week after retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. William Bennett, 57, was beaten to death and his wife, Cynthia, was found critically injured in a ditch, The Washington Post reported Monday. "We're taking our neighborhood back," said march organizer Beverly Bradford. "We're not going to be intimidated by ... [full story]

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The death toll rose to six Monday in an apparent murder-suicide in a home in California's Silicon Valley, police said. Santa Clara, Calif., Police Lt. Phil Cooke said an infant girl found wounded in the home Sunday night died at a hospital while a seventh victim remained hospitalized. The identities of the victims weren't released; however the San Francisco Chronicle said they were believed to be members of the family that resided in ... [full story]

DALLAS -- The wife of running back Ryan Moats says she wants a personal apology from a Dallas police officer who detained her at gunpoint while her mother lay dying. Tamishia Moats, her husband and two other relatives were driving with hazard lights on to Baylor Regional Medical Center when Officer Robert Powell pulled them over outside the hospital, The Dallas Morning News reported Monday. "I was afraid for her because he was pointing a gun ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Washington lawyer Thomas Dunlap says he no longer represents the owner of a tape that purports to show Vice President Joe Biden's daughter snorting cocaine. "I don't have any involvement," Dunlap told New York's Daily News. Dunlap, a managing partner at Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, had been trying to sell the tape to British and U.S. news organizations for $250,000-$2 million, the Daily News reported. Dunlap, on behalf of the unidentified tape's owner, previously had shown ... [full story]

ROANOKE, Va. -- U.S. prosecutors say they are getting ready to try a Nevada man whom they contend idolized Virginia Tech mass killer Cho Seung-hui. Authorities say a Roanoke, Va., trial is set for April 28 for Johnmarlo Balasta Napa, 27, of Henderson, Nev., who allegedly sent threatening e-mail messages to two Virginia Tech students who had arguments with Cho before his April 2007 rampage, in which he killed 32 people before killing himself, The Washington ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- An array of U.S. lawmakers and interest groups are rallying around a new push to re-examine economic sanctions imposed on Cuba, observers say. Politicians such as Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Richard Lugar, R-Ind., as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Human Rights Watch, are teaming up on an effort to change Cuba policy, The ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Investigators are probing whether an influential lobbyist used straw campaign contributors to funnel illegal donations to U.S. lawmakers, sources say. The lobbyist, Paul Magliocchetti of the PMA Group, is closing the doors of his once-booming practice next week amid reports that federal prosecutors have raided his office and his home, The New York Times reported Monday. The newspaper, quoting unnamed former PMA staff members familiar with the inquiry, said the prosecutors' initial direction appears ... [full story]