Next time you're stuck in traffic, wondering why an accident up ahead is taking so long to be cleared, just picture Concord police Detective Michael Cassidy on his hands and knees. He's searching for evidence, like a single shard of broken glass or a scrap of a pedestrian's clothes ground into the pavement.

The day after Senate Democrats released their version of a health care reform bill, New Hampshire's senators began staking out their positions.

THE POPE of Greenwich Village. This is a perfect movie, capturing its time and place and its hard-luck, and clueless, main characters perfectly. Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts are cousins; Rourke makes some effort to lead an honorable life, but over and over, he falls into ridiculous crime schemes with his cousin, because they both see themselves as streetwise hustlers. They are not.

A family physician who used to practice at a LRGHealthcare-owned practice has been censured by the state Board of Medicine for improperly writing prescriptions to his father and for other lapses in medical record-keeping.

For the second time in a little more than a year, a glitch at one of the two centers that handle flight plans for the nation's air travel system set off delays and cancellations for passengers around the country.

The daughter of Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, was arrested in Hollywood, Calif., early yesterday morning on suspicion of drunken driving.

California health officials yesterday reported that flu-related deaths and hospitalizations slowed last week but emphasized that the H1N1 strain remains a major problem. Deaths statewide remain in the double digits weekly, and hundreds of people are still being hospitalized each week, authorities said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada worked yesterday to nail down the votes to move to a final debate on health-care legislation, but a tepid assessment of the public insurance plan he crafted emerged as the latest potential obstacle to the passage of the plan.

The Oprah Winfrey Show, an iconic broadcast that grew from a local Chicago talk show into the foundation of a multibillion dollar media empire, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air, Winfrey's production company said last night.

The Pentagon is launching an urgent review of whether military procedures hinder the identification of servicemembers who pose a threat to their fellow troops.

A gang in the remote Peruvian jungle has been killing people for their fat, the police charged yesterday, draining it from their corpses and offering it on the black market for use in cosmetics. Medical experts expressed skepticism that a major market for fat might exist.

The U.N. climate chief has a message for naysayers about the Copenhagen, Denmark, climate conference next month: It will succeed.

The foreclosure crisis likely will persist well into next year as high unemployment pushes more people out of homes, pulls down housing prices and raises concerns about the broader economic recovery.

A city-sponsored training academy for gang intervention workers will open at least a year later than Los Angeles officials had hoped after a collision of philosophies and egos - a hitch in the city's effort to modernize its campaign against street violence.

Increasing numbers of English-language websites are spreading al-Qaida's message to Muslims in the West.

Across a patch of pineapples shrouded in smoke, Idris Hadrianyani battled a menace that has left his family sleepless and sick - and has wrought as much damage on the planet as has exhaust from all the cars and trucks in the United States. Against the advancing flames, he waved a hose with a handmade nozzle confected from a plastic soda bottle.

A landmark court ruling blaming the Army Corps of Engineers' "monumental negligence" for some of the worst flooding from Hurricane Katrina could lead to a new deluge: billions of dollars in legal action from thousands of storm victims.

The Justice Department has cleared a former top Senate staffer of wrongdoing in connection with accepting more than $10,000 in sports tickets from former powerhouse lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the man's attorney said yesterday.

The U.S. Army plans to prevent news media from covering Sarah Palin's appearance at Fort Bragg, fearing the event will turn into political grandstanding against President Obama, officials said yesterday.

The commission studying the Concord School District charter has recommended the Legislature relinquish its control, but members argued residents should style the exit strategy.

AOL LLC, an internet company struggling to adapt to an advertising-driven economy, is looking to shed as much as 36 percent of its work force as it prepares to spin off from Time Warner Inc. next month.

A small, family-owned Connecticut newspaper sued the state's largest newspaper yesterday, saying it repeatedly plagiarized stories after cutting its own reporting staff to save money.

Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.

A Boscawen man was arraigned yesterday on simple assault and criminal trespass charges for allegedly hitting his girlfriend and then fleeing into the woods.