HALF MOON BAY, Calif. – A giant pumpkin from Iowa is the prize of the patch after squashing the competition in a heavyweight championship on California's coast. The gigantic gourd tipped the scales at 1,658 pounds to win the 36th annual World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay on Monday.

The pumpkin set a new weight record for California. Contest spokesman Tim Beeman says the old state record was 1,535 pounds.

At $6 a pound, Des Moines grower Don Young will take home a $9,948 prize. He says he didn't expect to win and is very happy.

The sizable squash falls short of the world record apparently set last week at an Ohio weigh-off by one registering 1,725 pounds.

Young's winning gourd will be shown off this weekend at the Half Moon Bay pumpkin festival.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Native Alaskans say a fourth-grader may have become the youngest person to kill a whale, delivering the fatal blow to a 32-foot bowhead during a hands-on hunting lesson from his uncles.

The crew landed the whale last Tuesday as hunters approached the city of Barrow's annual quota of 22 bowheads.

His uncle and whaling crew captain, Qulliuq Pebley, says 9-year-old Paul Patkotak is the youngest whaler in memory credited with a kill. He says the youngest before Paul was a 15-year-old.

Paul's father, Ellis Patkotak, describes him as a shy kid who loves snowmobiling, playing the "Rock Band" video game and hunting.

Paul joined his uncle's crew during the city's largely unsuccessful spring whaling season. The crew came home empty-handed, but Paul proved himself.

The uncle asked Paul if he wanted to play a bigger role in the fall season. The boy said he did.

"This day we were very, very fortunate... Read more »

UPHAM, N.M. – Officials say Lockheed Martin successfully launched a test flight vehicle over the weekend at New Mexico's spaceport.

Spaceport officials say the brief flight Saturday was not publicized in advance because Lockheed Martin is testing "proprietary advanced launch technologies."

The launch was overseen by UP Aerospace, the third launch this year by the Colorado-based firm. The company plans to double its number of customer launches from Spaceport America to six or more in 2010 as demand for the company's services increases.

In May, UP Aerospace provided services for an educational launch for New Mexico students, and in August, the firm did a successful test flight launch for Florida-based Moog-FTS. UP Aerospace first launched from Spaceport America in September 2006.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk will get a special day of recognition in California, making him only the second person in state history _ in addition to conservationist John Muir _ to gain such a designation.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signing of the bill establishing "Harvey Milk Day" each May 22, Milk's birthday, was announced Monday.

The Republican governor vetoed similar legislation a year ago. In the interim, Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August and was the subject of a movie for which Sean Penn won the Academy Award for best actor.

Penn spoke out in favor of the bill last spring, saying he didn't want to insult Schwarzenegger's intelligence by assuming the governor would again oppose creating Harvey Milk Day.

"He has become much more of a symbol of the gay community than he was a year ago because of those things," Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLea... Read more »

GREENWICH, Conn. – A Connecticut family made up claims that it rescued three immigrant relatives from a kidnapper by showing up with baseball bats at a ransom exchange meeting, according to police reports.

Instead, the reports say, the family had arranged transportation to Connecticut for their relatives after they entered the country illegally, and a melee broke out when a driver asked for an additional fee of $60 per person to bring them to the family's home.

Greenwich Officer Martin O'Reilly wrote in a report that a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent told him that "the entire kidnapping story was completely fabricated." The report was obtained by Hearst Connecticut Newspapers through a public records request.

Police say they detained nearly 20 people after the Aug. 2 fight in a Greenwich shopping center parking lot.

The three illegal immigrants were identified as Antonio Gonzales, Nicolas Gonzales-Ceron... Read more »

VERNON, Conn. – Vernon police said they arrested a man who was dressed as a ninja and waving nunchucks while yelling about wanting to beat up U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman. The man, 30, was charged Sunday with breach of peace. Police said he was brought to Rockville General Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and later released.

Authorities said they received several emergency calls about the man, who witnesses say was standing at the corner of Route 83 and Regan Road at about 11 a.m.

Officers said they pulled out bean bag and taser guns, and the man became polite and cooperative.

The man couldn't be reached Monday. He has no public phone listing, and it's not clear whether he has a lawyer.

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Information from: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com

HAYSVILLE, Ind. – Talk about one tough owl. Police in southern Indiana said a great horned owl flew through the pre-dawn darkness into the front of a moving Ford F-250 pickup truck _ and survived even as the collision mangled the truck's radiator.

The bird was left trapped inside the grill of the truck driven by James Ellis of Shoals. A Dubois County sheriff's deputy called a state Department of Natural Resources officer to the scene Thursday on U.S. 231 near Haysville to remove the owl

Conservation Officer Tony Mann said the bird was conscious and appeared to have a broken or dislocated wing and assorted scrapes. He was able to free the owl and sent it to a wildlife rehabilitator in Vincennes for treatment.

A wrecker was called for the truck.

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Information from: The Herald, http://www.dcherald.com

WASHINGTON – One scholar studies how best to manage resources like forests, fisheries and oilfields. A fellow American looks at why some companies grow so large. Together they're winners of this year's Nobel Prize in economics for groundbreaking work that could affect efforts to prevent another global financial crisis.

Elinor Ostrom, 76, known for her work on the management of common resources, is the first woman to win a Nobel in economics. She shares this year's prize with Oliver Williamson, 77, who pioneered the study of how and why companies structure themselves and how they resolve conflicts.

Monday's final prizes of 2009 capped a year in which a record five women won Nobels. And it was an exceptionally strong year for the United States, too. Eleven American citizens, some of them with dual nationality, were among the 13 Nobel winners, including President Barack Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

The Royal Swe... Read more »

WASHINGTON – The Taliban are in much stronger financial shape than al-Qaida and rely on a wide range of criminal activities to pay for attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, a senior Treasury Department official said Monday.

David Cohen, the department's assistant secretary for terrorist financing, said the extremist group extorts money from poppy farmers and heroin traffickers involved in Afghanistan's booming drug trade. The Taliban also demand protection payments from legitimate Afghan businesses, he said during a speech at a conference on money laundering enforcement.

Cohen's assessment came as President Barack Obama and his top advisers discuss whether many more troops may be needed in the 8-year-old Afghanistan conflict. A critical part of the deliberations is whether the fight should be a more narrow one against al-Qaida or a broader battle against the Taliban-led insurgency.

According to Cohen, al-Qaida is... Read more »

BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Protesters brought some different songs Monday to an elementary school where students sang in praise of President Barack Obama, bringing criticism from conservative commentators who said children were being indoctrinated.

About 70 protesters stood on a sidewalk across the street from the B. Bernice Young School waving flags and homemade placards, singing "God Bless America" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and chanting slogans such as "No indoctrination" and "Free children, free minds."

A smaller group of counter-protesters watched and occasionally heckled them.

The school is in a diverse suburb 15 miles northeast of Philadelphia and landed in an uncomfortable national spotlight last month when the video, shot last school year during an author's visit, surfaced. In it, second-graders sang a medley that began, "Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama/He said that all must lend a hand/To make this co... Read more »