CALIFORNIA

The federal government on Wednesday announced that it is now protecting 140 square miles of California shoreline for the endangered black abalone ? a type of shellfish once common in Southern California tide pools.

Occupy Oakland protestors will attempt to retake Ogawa Plaza again tonight, following the news that an Iraq war veteran was severely injured during a violent clash between police and protestors last night. As Mayor Quan is threatened with recall and mass arrests spread through occupied zones in the U.S., will the Oakland riots' violence spread?

Six-time NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver Terrell Owens finally has a contract offer--but it's from the Chicago Rush of the Arena Football League. The Rush announced Wednesday that it has extended a contract to Owens for the 2012 season.

Every year, animals die as a result of traveling in cargo hold

Sprint-Nextel, the No. 3 wireless carrier, acknowledged that selling Apple iPhones may be a costly bet: the carrier said it may require as much as $7 billion to help pay Apple for them.

The 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction -- the super committee -- held a public hearing Wednesday, after what has been two months of nearly-clandestine meetings offering little indication of progress. Things have reportedly become so uncertain, congressional leaders have intervened to hammer out a deal.

The leading cause of death in adult humans, head injuries, hardly gives a headache to birds that rapid-fire drill their beaks into hapless trees. A new study entitled Why Do Woodpeckers Resist Head Impact Injury: A Biomechanical Investigation from a team of Chinese scientists sought to answer that question.

President Barack Obama Wednesday is expected to announce the details of a new student loan repayment initiative aimed at easing the heavy debt many college graduates face.

Apple's Steve Jobs, who continues to make headline news after his death, criticized Fox News and its owner Rupert Murdoch for being a destructive force in America.

Terrell Owens, the 37-year-old receiver, held a workout in Calabasas, California. No talents scouts were there.

Rockstar Games released an enigmatic image of its upcoming Grand Theft Auto (GTA) V, promising a trailer in under a week. Though GTA IV was a critical and commercial success, it dropped a lot of features that past GTA games had.

The Copiale Cipher could be something out of a Dan Brown novel or a 21st-century update on the Indiana Jones story arc. A yellowing 18th-century manuscript consisting of a mystifying mix of alien symbols and Greek and Roman letters, the Copiale Cipher has been confounding cryptographers since its discovery in the archives of a university in the former East Germany immediately following the Cold War.

The comet discovered in December became popularized as a doomsday comet since astronomers expected it to fly close to the Earth and the comet resembled ancient apocalyptic prophesies.

Republican presidential nomination candidate Herman Cain proudly touts his unconventional campaign, which produced an ad featuring his chief of staff on a smoke break. But Cain's campaign is far from the only campaign to release an ad that left politicos scratching their heads.

Come on, America! Who wants to go to a fake haunted house for Halloween when you can experience real haunted houses (and some terrifying haunted roads) that have years of ghostly visitations and paranormal happenings to their names? Our top 13 picks span the U.S., choosing only those haunted locales with the most documentation, the scariest histories, and the creepiest happenings.

Hundreds of protesters in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement clashed with dozens of police in riot gear in Oakland on Tuesday. Police used teargas, rubber bullets and flash bang to disperse the protesters.

The Obama administration is seeking to seize almost $71 million in allegedly corrupt assets from the son of the leader of Equatorial Guinea, including $1.8 million worth of pop star Michael Jackson memorabilia.

President Barack Obama took issue on Tuesday with the broadcasting of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's bloody demise, saying even those who had done terrible things deserved decorum in death.

The cost of college in the United States rose sharply for the 2011-2012 school year, continuing a multiyear pattern in which public school increases outpaced private school hikes and both eclipsed the average rate of inflation by significant amounts, the College Board reported on Wednesday.

Police arrested at least 85 people and cleared a camp used by anti-Wall Street protesters near the Oakland, California, city hall early on Tuesday, a city spokeswoman said.

Action movie star Sylvester Stallone is accused in a lawsuit of copying another writer's screenplay to make The Expendables, a movie about mercenaries hired to defeat a military dictator.