New Orleans has yet to rebuild a single fire station more than two years after Katrina destroyed or damaged 22 of the city’s 33 firehouses. Appalled by the city’s lack of action, an actor is leading the way in reconstruction of the fire stations.

U.S. taxpayers would get checks of several hundred dollars from the government under a plan to stimulate the economy, sources said today. Sources on Capitol Hill and at the Treasury Department said negotiators agreed to cut checks for $600 per individual and $1,200 per couple.

A grand jury in Jacksonville, North Carolina, indicted a Marine corporal on first-degree murder charges in the slaying of a 20-year-old pregnant Marine who had accused him of raping her, CNN affiliates reported.

Ever since we got into the thick of the presidential race, reporters, anchors, pundits, columnists and writers have spent a considerable amount of time on the fact that nearly 50 percent of the people who will vote in the South Carolina primary are black.

Heavy snow kept a mountain stretch of Interstate 5 closed Thursday, as several hundred vehicles were stranded south of Bakersfield to north of Santa Clarita, the California Highway Patrol said.

Tests on a $20 bill found at the Lower Manhattan apartment where actor Heath Ledger died yielded no drug residue, police said. The bill was tested to see whether it had been used to snort illegal drugs because of the way it was folded, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

Just days away from the Florida primary, Rudy Giuliani has lost his grip on the state he once called “crucial” to his presidential chances.

Prices of homes sold in December registered the biggest year-over-year decline on record, according to an industry trade group, and 2007 is the first year on record that has seen a drop. A report issued Thursday showed the problems in the housing market have not yet bottomed out.

U.S. taxpayers would get checks of several hundred dollars from the government under a plan to stimulate the economy, sources said today. Sources on Capitol Hill and at the Treasury Department said negotiators agreed to cut checks for $600 per individual and $1,200 per couple.