News on The Associated Press

Budget woes force state parks to delay maintenance

2010-12-30T12:00:42Z

At many state parks, toll of budget crisis is seen in crumbling roads, deteriorating restrooms

At state parks across the nation, this is the toll of the deepening budget crisis and years of financial neglect: crumbling roads, faltering roofs, deteriorating restrooms.

Electrical and sewer systems are beginning to give out, too, as are scores of park buildings, some of them built by the France.

Baby Khroma, one of the oldest intact mammoths ever found, went on display in a French museum Friday — after it underwent special tests to ensure it was no longer bearing the anthrax believed to have killed it.

Khroma is on display at the Musee Crozatier in Puy-en-Velay in a special cryogenic chambe...

Health Highlights: March 18, 2010

2010-10-25T11:27:13Z

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AP IMPACT: Drug gangs taking over US public lands

2010-06-25T15:47:46Z

AP IMPACT: Mexican gangs take over US public lands for pot, smuggle immigrants to grow crops

Not far from Yosemite's waterfalls and in the middle of California's redwood forests, Mexican drug gangs are quietly commandeering U.S. public land to grow millions of marijuana plants and ...

Ukrainian museum claims it owns a Titian portrait

2010-04-16T08:46:27Z

Ukrainian museum says portrait of Venetian Doge in its collection is Titian's work

The director of a Ukrainian museum claimed Tuesday that a portrait of a Venetian Doge in its collection is a work of Titian, even as an expert warned that art historians are best placed to make that call.

Vladimir Ostrovsky said the State Hermitage Museum in NC Museum of Art 'tunnels' through to new building, uses unusual elements to move works

The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh is on the move. And it's taking about 750 works of art with it.

The museum is in the process of moving sculpture, paintings and other artwork from its current building to a new, 127,000-square-foo...

Gettysburg chief reassigned over explicit images

2010-04-16T09:40:50Z

Gettysburg park chief being transferred because he used work computer to view sexual images

The superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park told a newspaper he is being reassigned because U.S. Interior Department inv...

AP EXCLUSIVE: Grass to be greener on National Mall

2010-04-16T10:25:37Z

AP EXCLUSIVE: Vietnam memorial fund takes over care of 13 acres of weed-infested National Mall

Frustrated with poor maintenance by the federal government, the group that built the Vietnam War memorial is aiming to improve its little corner of the National Mall by taking over lawn care for 13.5 acres marred by weeds, moss and brown spots.

Officials with the...

AP Enterprise: Neglected National Mall languishes

2010-04-16T11:10:13Z

AP Enterprise: National Mall neglected after Congress spends extra money on projects back home

Crumbling sidewalks near the Jefferson Memorial are sinking into the Tidal Basin. Reflecting pools are filled with green, smelly water. And millions of visitors have trampled the soil into virtual concrete where grass can't grow.

The Nationa...

Think pink: Galapagos' rosy lizard is new species

2010-04-16T17:32:53Z

Think pink: Galapagos' rosy lizard declared new species after 5 million years

Hard to believe a giant, pink lizard could be overlooked for almost two centuries.

Charles Darwin missed it during his 1835 study of the Galapagos Islands that led to his theory of evolution. Park rangers ignored the pink and black-striped reptiles after acc...

Senior citizens pursuing education from home

2010-04-16T13:14:32Z

Eds: Minor edits.

AP Photo NYMA201, NYMA202, NYMA203

By ULA ILNYTZKY

Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Kathy Leeds grows animated as she describes the courses she is taking this fall, including classes in current events, art and literature.

But Leeds will never step foot on a campus or i...

Egypt will fight for ancient artifacts

2010-09-07T10:19:36Z

Antiquities Chief Says Egypt Will Fight for Nefertiti Bust Germany Says Too Fragile to Travel

Egypt's antiquities chief says if persuasion doesn't work, he will fight for an ancient bust of Nefertiti that a Berlin museum maintains is too fragile to ever travel.

Nationals LaRoche Baseball

2011-01-04T21:31:22Z

In this April 7, 2010, photo, Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Adam LaRoche catches a throw during a baseball game against the San Diego Padres in Phoenix. A person familiar with the negotiations tells Donna Lawlor shows Associated Press staffer Lynn Dombek as she pauses while snowshoeing up a hill on snow-covered logging roads in Hancock County, Maine. The solitude, q...

SC Legacy

2010-12-27T09:01:16Z

In this Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010 photo, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford talks with Associated Press reporters in his office in Columbia, S.C. about his time in office and his future. (AP Photo/Virginia Postic)

Austria Opera Gruberova

2010-12-27T06:01:18Z

In this photo taken Oct. 11, 2010, Soprano Edita Gruberova speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Vienna, Austria. At the dizzying heights of her stellar operatic career, Gruberova has unexpectedly chosen to stoop and return to the role of the fallen woman who helped make her fame. Gruberova is not portraying just any wayward female. By rediscov...

Austria Edita Gruberova

2010-12-27T03:31:19Z

Edita Gruberova speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Vienna, Austria, on Monday, Oct. 11, 2010. The 64-year-old SLovak diva sees no problem in returning to the role of a 20-something as Violetta Valery in Verdi's "La Tr...