Kim Murphy

POCATELLO, Idaho - When Pocatello police got a tip that Jennie Linn McCormack had ended her pregnancy by taking an abortion drug obtained over the Internet, they showed up at her apartment one cold January day in 2011 and demanded an explanation.

McCormack eventually took them out to her back porch, where the remains of her fetus were on the barbecue, wrapped up in a plastic bag and a cardboard box.

The two primary breeding females from the best-known wolf pack at Denali National Park -- a pack viewed by tens of thousands of visitors each year -- have been killed, one of them by a trapper operating just outside the boundary of Alaska's premier national park.

The incident has raised an outcry among Alaska conservationists. They're demanding an immediate halt to wolf trapping in what was formerly a buffer zone northeast of the park, an area made famous as the scene of the abandoned school bus in Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild."

SEATTLE — In her first media interview, Karilyn Bales — wife of the Army staff sergeant accused of murdering 17 Afghan civilians — says it’s hard for her to believe her husband could have committed the killings. She also says she didn’t notice behavior indicating that he could be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

SEATTLE -- The U.S. Army sergeant suspected in the deadly shooting rampage that left 16 Afghan civilians dead had been passed over for promotion and appeared to face mounting financial troubles on the eve of his last deployment to Afghanistan, according to accounts from neighbors and his wife's blog.

Anyone dreaming of a sunny winter break in Hawaii this week can forget it: Gov. Neil Abercrombie has declared a disaster on the islands of Kauai and Oahu after days of relentless rain caused flooding, mudslides, waterspouts, hail and dangerously high surf.

GRAHAM, Wash -- West Valley City Police said Monday that the death of Josh Powell -- the only person of interest in the disappearance of his wife, Susan, near Salt Lake City in 2009 -- will not necessarily hinder their continuing efforts to solve the perplexing case.

In a new package of policies criticized even by some hunters, the Alaska Board of Game on Tuesday opened the door to aerial gunning of bears by state wildlife officials. It also debated a measure that would allow more widespread snaring of bears -- including grizzlies, which are officially considered threatened across most of the U.S.