NEW YORK (AP) -- President Barack Obama deployed Big Bird in a new campaign ad Tuesday mocking Mitt Romney's vow to end federal funding for public broadcasting. Romney's campaign dismissed it as an example of Obama being small-minded while the foundation behind Big Bird's program, "Sesame Street," asked that the ad be taken down.......

DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Politicians aren't the only ones looking for a debate-related boost when Joe Biden and Paul Ryan go toe-to-toe in Kentucky.......

ATLANTA (AP) -- Dick Pettys, a longtime political reporter for The Associated Press who was a fixture at the Georgia state Capitol for more than three decades and a well-respected mentor to other journalists, died Monday. He was 66.......

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A 23-year-old Illinois man accused of planning to attack dozens of churches in Oklahoma with Molotov cocktails has struggled with mental illness, substance abuse and grief, said his cousin, who expressed relief that no one was hurt in the plot.......