AP - The pace of layoffs slowed in April when employers cut 539,000 jobs, the fewest in six months. But the unemployment rate climbed to 8.9 percent, the highest since late 1983, as many businesses remain wary of hiring given all the economic uncertainties.
AP - President Barack Obama said Friday there have been "somewhat encouraging" improvements in the country's stricken labor markets, but the rate of joblessness is "still a sobering toll."
AP - The crown of the Statue of Liberty will reopen July 4 for the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Friday.
Police investigating the slaying of Wesleyan University junior Johanna Justin-Jinich discovered a composition book with an entry, "Kill Johanna. She must Die," an arrest affidavit said. The composition book is believed to belong to murder suspect Stephen Morgan, the affidavit said. Morgan surrendered to police Thursday and was arraigned today in Connecticut.
The Rev. Michael Pfleger has ordered the American flag at St. Sabina Church hung upside-down -- a historic sign of distress -- to symbolize the growing death toll among Chicago's youngsters. So far this school year, 36 children and teens have been slain -- more than one a week -- and Pfleger is among a chorus of Chicagoans who say the slayings aren't getting the attention they deserve.
A former police sergeant who authorities call the prime suspect in the disappearance of his wife, Stacy Peterson, has been indicted on murder charges, the Illinois state attorney's office said. A prosecutor told CNN a grand jury indicted Drew Peterson in the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. State police said Peterson was taken into custody Thursday. Savio's death had been ruled an accidental drowning after her body was found in a bathtub.