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Pit bulls raised to be vicious fighters by former pro football quarterback Michael Vick are slowly getting used to life outside the ring and moving toward adoption with help of a southern Utah animal sanctuary. One of the dogs has even been adopted as a "paw" pal by a group of special-needs students in Louisville, Ky. Best Friends Animal Society's Barbara Williams said this week that the animals are making steady progress since 22 of the 47 seized from Vick's property arrived scared and confused in Kanab on Jan. 2, 2008. The remaining dogs were sent to other animal sanctuaries...

ANNAPOLIS | President Obama on Friday promised the U.S. Naval Academy's graduating class that he will not send them into combat unless absolutely necessary and will always make sure they are properly prepared and equipped, in an apparent swipe at the Bush administration and the Iraq war.

We had our first annual Bacon Day this past Saturday. As a huge fan of bacon, and all the great bacon blogs out there, I decided it was time for me to make my own bacon creation. I came up with the BA-K-47, a 1:1 scale AK-47 made out of bacon. It took a total of eight hours to create, a lot of bacon, and a blowtorch... oh yeah, and our good friend beer helped too.

RICHMOND | Like many dogs introduced to new environments, Gracie was a bit hesitant when she arrived at Sharon Cornett's home in Chesterfield County. From the sights, sounds and smells in the kitchen to the layouts of the various rooms, Gracie needed some time to find a comfort zone. "She was a little bit shy," Miss Cornett said. "But she quickly discovered that sitting on the sofa was her most favorite activity." These days, Gracie clearly is comfortable with her home. She seems to relish her role as the official laid-back greeter when strangers visit, and if they spend some...

Eric Peterson of Brookings is a rescuer times two. First, he rescued Eve, a 2-year-old American Pit Bull Terrier. Now, with a demanding training regimen behind them, he's ready to undertake some search-and-rescue missions - with a lot of help from his pawed pal and partner. Eve is now qualified in "tracking and trailing ." She and Peterson are part of the Brookings County Sheriff's Department K-9 Search and Rescue program. A scenario for her and Peterson might be a situation where a nursing-home resident suffering from dementia wanders off or a child wanders away from home and becomes lost.

January 26, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- When we think of police canine units, the breed that most commonly comes to mind is the German shepherd. But rookie canines on the job now are anything but ordinary. The two newest members of the Cook County Sheriff's K9 unit are unique and are already performing beyond expectations. A big bloodhound puppy named Melanie helped police rescued a suicidal man from a forest preserve earlier this month.

A dog owner from the Forest of Dean has been saved from burning to death after his Staffordshire pitbull leapt on the bed to wake him. Nathan Williams, 29, owes his life to his dog "The Hoff" - named after Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff - who battled to rouse him as flames licked around the bedroom door. Mr Williams, who suffers from health problems, was asleep when a fire broke out in his ground floor flat. But as the fire swept through the living room, kitchen and bathroom, the bulky pet jumped onto the bed to alert him. Nathan then...

Those who have attended the Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) shareholder meeting know Charlie Munger as a man who chimes in with "I have nothing to add" to at least three-quarters of questions asked to his longtime business partner, Warren Buffett. The Wesco Financial -- where Munger is chairman -- shareholder meeting is a completely different story. Free from the overwhelming spotlight cast on Buffett, Munger spends a few hours every year sharing his thoughts and opinions on, well, just about everything. Below is a summary of my notes from Munger's three-hour meeting in Pasadena, lightly edited for clarity.

CLEVELAND (AP) - Five years ago, a shotgun blast left a ghastly hole where the middle of her face had been. Five months ago, she received a new face from a dead woman. Connie Culp stepped forward Tuesday to show off the results of the nation's first face transplant, and her new look was a far cry from the puckered, noseless sight that made children run away in horror. Culp's expressions are still a bit wooden, but she can talk, smile, smell and taste her food again. Her speech is at times a little tough to understand. Her face is...

The influenza virus can survive on paper money for 10 or more days — suggesting that when we shop, spend and bank, there’s more than cash that is changing hands. The link between flu virus and paper currency is explained this week in a story on SmartMoney.com. The findings don’t mean we should fret about handling currency — but it does illustrate why health officials repeatedly tell people to wash hands frequently. From the SmartMoney report:

The question of evil and where it lurks has been largely ignored by the scientific community, which is why a recently released study titled “The Spatial Distribution of the Seven Deadly Sins Within Nevada” is groundbreaking: Never before has a state’s fall from grace been so precisely graphed and plotted. Geographers from Kansas State University have used certain statistical measurements to quantify Nevada’s sins and come up with a county-by-county map purporting to show various degrees of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride in the Silver State. By culling statistics from nationwide databanks of things like sexually transmitted...

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico emerged from its swine flu isolation Tuesday as thousands of newspaper vendors, salesmen hawking trinkets and even panhandlers dropped their protective masks and joined the familiar din of traffic horns and blaring music on the streets of the capital. There were still signs, however, of the virus that set off world health alarms. A Texas woman who lived near a popular border crossing was confirmed as the 28th person -- only the second outside Mexico and the first U.S. resident -- to die from the virus. Across Mexico, people were eagerly anticipating this week's reopening...

WHEN the quietly spoken Danish chef Rene Redzepi stood before a Melbourne audience last month and said he considered the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants list more valuable to his business than even the hallowed European Michelin Guide, little did he know Noma, his Copenhagen eatery, was about to be elevated from No.10 to No.3 in the latest rankings, announced this week. Good times ahead for the Dane. But this year the real intrigue was not in the elevations or inclusions to the exalted list but the deletions. For the first time since the list began in 2002, Gordon Ramsay...

NBC is currently exploring the possibility of leasing out part of its longtime headquarters in Washington D.C. to an outside organization, according to sources familiar with the situation. One possible partner? American University. The longtime home of NBC News, MSNBC, and WRC-TV Channel 4—NBC’s owned and operated station in D.C.—is located on Nebraska Avenue, a short walk from the university’s bucolic campus in Northwest Washington.

WASHINGTON, DC - April 6, 2009: Amidst charges that embattled American Honda is systematically suppressing its compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle program, the company has suddenly fueled that impression by throwing into bankruptcy its wholly-owned CNG refueling company, Fuelmaker. Toronto-based Fuelmaker was arguably the lynchpin of CNG’s future as a bridge solution to alternative fuel. The firm manufactured and distributed the essential refueling appliance that allowed home-based and fleet refueling of CNG vehicles, including the Honda Civic GX, heralded as the “greenest car in America.”

NEW YORK (AP) - Advocates of the female condom are promoting a less costly, more user-friendly version that they hope will vastly expand its role in the global fight against AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. An early version of the female condom was introduced in 1993, and it remains the only available woman-initiated form of protection against both STDs and unintended pregnancy. Yet despite global promotion by the United Nations and other organizations, its usage is still minuscule, even as women bear an ever-growing share of the AIDS epidemic.

In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles County coroner official says an autopsy has failed to determine the cause of death for adult film star Marilyn Chambers. Los Angeles County coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter said Tuesday that 56-year-old Chambers probably died of natural causes, but additional testing will be required. Chambers was found dead Sunday at her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Canyon Country. Chambers starred in the explicit 1972 movie "Behind the Green Door," which helped bring hard-core adult films into the mainstream. Her appearance in the film cost the then-aspiring model and actress her job...

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called for hearings on the mounting piracy threat as the fate of an American cargo-ship captain remained in limbo Thursday.

NCAA investigations into former USC stars in football and basketball have been combined into one probe of the Trojans' athletic program, sources connected to one of the cases said Wednesday.