MITFORD, S.C. (AP) — The dust from the gravel parking lots has settled, the cigarette smoke has long since escaped and the neon signs no longer draw attention to the Magic Mall. What was once a place to play video poker is now a place to pray, Touching Lives Ministries. Gambling “is like the enemy,…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Guard is stretched so thin by simultaneous assignments in Iraq and the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast that leaders in statehouses and Congress say it is time to reconsider how the force is used. Republicans and Democrats alike worry about the service’s ability to balance its federal and state missions of fighting…

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Hurricane Katrina ripped jagged holes in some Mississippi Gulf Coast casinos and beached others, crippling the area’s thriving tourist trade and erasing half a million dollars a day in tax revenue. State leaders expect the devastation to prompt a politically volatile debate: Whether to allow casinos on land rather than over…

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A federal judge lifted a gag order Friday that shielded the identity of librarians who received an FBI demand for records about library patrons under the Patriot Act. U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall ruled in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued that the gag order prevented their…

LOS ANGELES (AP) — ABC viewers will get “Lost” in translation as part of a plan to make all the network’s primetime entertainment available in Spanish starting this season. The move is an acknowledgment of the expanding U.S. Hispanic population and its potential as a source of viewers. Previously, “George Lopez” was the only ABC…

WASHINGTON (AP) — As soldiers, hikers and students can testify, it takes energy to haul around a heavy backpack. Now, researchers have developed a backpack that turns that energy into electricity. It doesn’t crank out a lot of juice — just a bit more than 7 watts — but that’s enough to run things like…

WASHINGTON (AP) — One storm could end up costing almost as much as two wars. Although estimates of Hurricane Katrina’s staggering toll on the treasury are highly imprecise, costs are certain to climb to $200 billion in the coming weeks. The final accounting could approach the more than $300 billion spent in four years to…

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Katrina roared into the Gulf of Mexico, emergency planners pored over maps and charts of a hurricane simulation that projected 61,290 dead and 384,257 injured or sick in a catastrophic flood that would leave swaths of southeast Louisiana uninhabitable for more than a year. These planners were not involved in the…

The Foo Fighters, from left, Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl and Chris Shiflett are photographed before their concert in Duluth, Ga., Sept. 8, 2005. (AP Photo/John Amis) LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dave Grohl, who describes himself as a 36-year-old teenager, may be growing up. True, the Foo Fighters frontman espouses whiskey as a cure-all…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress will investigate the “flagrant abuse” of a federal loan program designed to help businesses recover from the Sept. 11 attacks and make sure such problems don’t occur with Hurricane Katrina relief, a key Senate Republican announced Friday. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, announced…