By The Associated Press

A regional garbage collection agency has tossed out plans to build a mega-landfill for Los Angeles' trash less than two miles from Joshua Tree National Park in the remote Southern California desert.

A Utah Army veteran was found hanging dead Friday in his jail cell as he awaited trial on charges of killing a police officer and wounding five others during a raid that netted 13 pot plants and sparked a fierce debate about what happened that night.

In the wind-swept prairie called Tornado Alley, the scene is eerily familiar: Homes smashed to splinters. Trees and telephone poles snapped like twigs. Piles of bricks, overturned cars and dazed survivors sifting through rubble in search of a precious photo or heirloom. A town in ruins.

The trucker was hauling a load of drilling equipment when his load bumped against the steel framework over an Interstate 5 bridge. He looked in his rearview mirror and watched in horror as the span collapsed into the water behind him. Two vehicles fell into the icy Skagit River.

No one answered the tax-help hotline at the IRS on Friday. And you could forget about getting advice on avoiding foreclosures at the 80 Housing and Urban Development field offices nationwide.

A California bill that would have required manufacturers to figure out how to keep the most common plastic junk out of state waterways has died in the state Assembly without a vote.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denied Friday that he smokes crack cocaine and said he is not an addict after a video purported to show him using the drug. The mayor of Canada's largest city did not say whether he has ever used crack.

A lawsuit filed by two massage therapists who sued retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre over claims he sent racy text messages has been settled, a lawyer for the women said Friday.

Teachers and students at Plaza Towers Elementary School hunkered down against the storm just as they had been taught in countless tornado drills, their principal said Friday, recounting how she walked the halls until the twister was on the doorstep, then announced on the intercom, "It's here."

The Washington Post is reporting that Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Haynes Johnson has died. He was 81.

The trucker was hauling a load of drilling equipment when his load bumped against the steel framework over an Interstate 5 bridge. He looked in his rearview mirror and watched in horror as the span collapsed into the water behind him. Two vehicles fell into the icy Skagit River.

Heather Bowie Young made five straight birdies while hop-scotching across the golf course Friday in the Bahamas LPGA Classic.

New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez has sold his Miami Beach home for $30 million.

Bayern Munich is approaching its third Champions League final in four years with the calm of a team fully in control after a season of dominance.

Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira expects to play in his first game since hurting his right wrist in early March, suiting up for a minor-league game with Double-A Trenton on Wednesday.

A person familiar with the situation tells the Associated Press that Jets running back Mike Goodson is expected to return to practice Tuesday despite his legal troubles.

WASHINGTON

Armed officers and worried parents rushed to a Denver-area high school as students hunkered down in closets and classrooms Friday after a report of a gunman near campus on the last day of class before summer vacation, but the high anxiety faded after a police search turned up nothing.

Sabrina Mitchell is used to looking for silver linings.