Emergencies

Oh me, oh my. Finally, the payoff. And I'm not even talking about Chris Paul's exhilarating, awesome, magical, 93-91 game-winner. I begin with Lamar Odom, who is my favorite athlete, and apparently Blake Griffin's as well. Griffin has come running off the bench to throw a bear hug around Odom, and there's still much of the fourth quarter to play. OK, so Paul is a close second as my favorite athlete. Very close. And my favorite closer. But I've been waiting and waiting for Odom, the Clippers doing the same in getting someone 30 pounds overweight to start the season, and the payoff is a difference-maker.

BOSTON - As the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing continued Sunday, family members prepared to bury the victims, and hundreds of stunned and sorrowful residents prayed together for the dead and wounded and worked to reclaim the streets where the violence occurred a week ago. Federal officials had yet to file charges against 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was captured Friday and remains in serious condition under heavy guard at...

WATERTOWN, Mass. - The sounds were the most terrifying - the shots and the booms, the sirens and the whir of helicopter blades, and then, from time to time, the silence. But as a very long Friday wore to a close, it was the sound of cheering and applause that surged through the streets of this small town. "I'm so, so glad it's over," said Lori Toye, who lives with her husband and son in the house next door to the home where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found in a boat covered in a tarp.

A state Senator who has legislation that would increase the penalties for hoax 911 calls known as "swatting" was himself the victim of such a prank call Friday. Police received an anonymous text message sent through an operator that reported a shooting at the Torrance home of Democratic state Sen. Ted Lieu while the lawmaker was away but his wife was home. It turned out to be a hoax call. The 1:10 p.m. call reported "shots fired and a female down at Mr. Lieu's residence," said Torrance Police Department Sgt. Robert Watt.

WEST, Texas - Alicia McCowan had just finished her shift at the Sonic drive-in when the blast erupted nearby, leveling buildings in a wide circle. Above, a mushroom cloud bloomed against a yellow-pink sky. She knew the source - the West Fertilizer Co. plant, close to the apartment where a baby sitter was watching her two young sons. She rushed to the damaged apartment building and screamed her kids' names. She found Brayden, 4, dragging Kaegan, 2, down the stairs, and both were OK. But where was their baby sitter?

American Airlines, hoping to reinvent itself by coming out of bankruptcy with a new logo, freshly painted planes and a merger plan that will make it the nation's largest carrier, suffered a setback Tuesday when a computer outage grounded hundreds of planes across the country. The computer problem forced the airline to cancel 745 flights, frustrating thousands of passengers who were left to fume and wait at crowded terminals from Los Angeles to Dallas and New York. Even after the system was restored about two hours later, passengers waited in long lines as airline officials struggled to rebook them on new flights.

WASHINGTON - Police officers usually must have a search warrant before requiring a suspected drunk driver to have his blood drawn, the Supreme Court said Wednesday. In an 8-1 decision, the justices rejected Missouri prosecutors' contention that police should have the freedom to act quickly and dispense with a warrant because alcohol dissipates in the blood. Instead, the court said it would hold fast to its view that the 4th Amendment's ban on "unreasonable searches" means the police usually need a warrant from a magistrate before invading a person's privacy.

Los Angeles County officials overseeing the nation's largest local government unveiled a budget proposal Monday that they said marks the beginning of an emergence from years of austerity. The $24.7-billion spending plan calls for no major cuts and does not include a deficit for the first time since 2008. County officials said they expect to see the fiscal situation continue to improve as the housing and labor markets recover, boosting tax revenue and reducing demand for social services.

BOSTON - As 3 o'clock neared Monday afternoon, officials at Brigham and Women's Hospital, one of Boston's premier medical centers, expected this year's marathon would be a nonevent. "We were winding down," said Barry Wante, the hospital's emergency management director. The slow pace was welcome after last year, when unseasonably warm weather led to a rash of heat injuries among runners, inundating the city's hospitals. Full coverage: Explosions at the Boston Marathon But on Monday, the hospital's radios suddenly crackled with reports from the finish line.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) blitzed the airwaves Sunday to defend the immigration bill being written by four Republican and four Democratic senators. Speaking on seven news shows -- including two Spanish-language broadcasts -- Rubio said the draft legislation lays out a way for those in the country unlawfully to apply for legal status, includes stiff penalties for breaking the law and will make the country's border more secure than ever before. “I just hope that I can convince people that leaving things the way they are now is much worse than approaching it the way we've outlined,” Rubio said on ABC News' “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” RELATED: Is the border secure?