National

ORLANDO, Fla. — Add another dance move to Michelle Obama’s repertoire. This one has to do with a certain celebrity platypus.

WASHINGTON — Jeanette Barraza-Galindo conspicuously left her bags of teddy bears and throw pillows on a bus during an inspection at the Texas-Mexico border — and professed ignorance about the $277,556 officers found hidden inside. The bags were handed to her at a bus station, gifts to be given to a child upon her return to Mexico, she told investigators.

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. — A man who tried for seven years to build a gift shop and delicatessen near the Vermont birthplace of Joseph Smith now wants to sell the land to a Mormon historical society that would build a museum and hospitality center.

WASHINGTON -- Conservatives are fired up, convinced that this will be a big year, but they worry that Mitt Romney will make their task harder.

The foot soldiers of the American political right have been meeting in Washington this week, and stickers and signs touting the former Massachusetts governor -- who's still the favorite for the GOP presidential nomination -- are scarce here.

SEATTLE -- The dispatcher who took a much-criticized 911 call from a social worker trying to alert authorities to danger at Josh Powell's house before he killed himself and his children says the case has been "a nightmare."

OCALA, Fla. -- A 28-year-old woman and a horse are dead after a hyperbaric chamber exploded at an equine-therapy center in Florida on Friday morning, fire rescue officials said.

SEATTLE — Police in Washington state who searched a storage unit rented by Josh Powell found a stained comforter that tested positive for blood in initial exams, according to documents filed in court Friday.