SULTAN, Wash. – A man whose friends felt he was too drunk to drive home after his 55th birthday party was struck and killed by a car as he walked home. Police in Sultan, Washington, say friends and family took Benjamin Wright’s keys away from him and told him to …

CHICAGO – Spectrum Brands Inc. (SPC) said on Monday that federal prosecutors are investigating recent disclosures by the consumer products company regarding earnings and financial forecasts, sending Spectrum’s shares to their lowest level in two years. The investigation is related to disclosures regarding results for its third quarter ended in …

NEW YORK – AOL (search) said on Thursday it bought Circuit City Stores Inc.’s (CC) digital music subscription service MusicNow LLC, a move that thrusts Time Warner Inc.’s (TWX) Internet unit into competition with RealNetworks, Yahoo, Napster and other subscription services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but …

Named after the slang term for a U.S. Marine, “Jarhead,” (search) which opens this weekend, goes behind the lines to give audiences a glimpse of life in the armed forces overseas. The film, based on Anthony Swofford’s (search) 2003 Desert Storm memoir, chronicles a squad shipped out to the Persian …

NEW YORK – E.L. Doctorow’s “The March,” his novelization of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s bloody Civil War campaign, and Joan Didion’s “The Year of Magical Thinking,” her memoir of grief for her late husband, were among the finalists for Wednesday night’s National Book Awards. Two of the country’s most revered …

This is a partial transcript of “The Big Story With John Gibson,” November 4, 2005, that has been edited for clarity. JOHN GIBSON, HOST: I am joined now by Loretta Napoleoni who is the author of “Insurgent Iraq, Al-Zarqawi and the New Generation” and Ms. Napoleoni has written a book …

PARIS – France‘s lower house of parliament voted Tuesday to extend a state of emergency for three months, after the government said the extra powers are still needed to end the country’s worst civil unrest in four decades. The government also moved to deport 10 foreigners convicted during the 19 …

ARNOLD, Md. – President Bush, pushing for more flexibility in job training programs, said Wednesday that the federal government needs to support community colleges (search) because they are available and affordable to meet the needs of modern-day workers. “We must never lose sight of the need to have an education …

Watch “Hannity & Colmes” at 9 p.m. ET tonight! Monday, Feb. 28: The Supreme Court considers two potentially explosive cases focusing on the Ten Commandments controversy this week. The man who found himself at the center of one of the ten commandments controversies last year, author of the new book …

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – State health officials said Friday that at least 15 people, 11 of them children, who visited central Florida festivals have since tested positive for a dangerous strain of E. coli (search) or a potentially fatal kidney disease caused by the bacterium. While local health officials have said …