HOMOSASSA, Fla. – A registered sex offender has confessed to killing Jessica Lunsford (search), the 9-year-old Florida girl who has been missing since February, police said Friday. “I’ve got my man,” Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy (search) told a news conference. Authorities said that John Evander Couey (search) admitted that …

ATLANTA – Ashley Smith (search), the single mother who led police to alleged courthouse gunman Brian Nichols, will receive a reward of at least $10,000, the governor said Tuesday. “In my opinion, she absolutely deserves it,” Gov. Sonny Perdue (search) said. The reward fund reached $60,000 on Friday, hours after …

NEW YORK – JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) agreed to a $2 billion settlement on Wednesday, becoming the last major bank to settle claims in a class action suit brought after the collapse of WorldCom Inc (search). A lawyer for the state retirement fund confirmed the settlement before Judge Denise …

NEW YORK – John Grisham (search)’s next legal thriller will have a new twist: It will all be true. The author of “The Firm” (search), “The Client” (search)and other best sellers is writing a work of nonfiction, his first, about a death-row inmate who nearly died for a murder he …

NEW YORK – Martha Stewart (search), now serving five months of house arrest, will be coming into your living room in a new CBS (search) movie, based on the last six years of her life. Stewart was convicted in March 2004 of lying to the government about why she sold …

WASHINGTON – The admission rate for those who seek treatment for marijuana (search) use nearly tripled between 1992 and 2002, according to the latest data compiled by the federal government. The numbers released Friday reflect a growing use of marijuana in the 1990s and an increase in the potency of …

ROME – Pope John Paul II (search) is breathing more easily and could be fit enough by Sunday to make his weekly address to the faithful over an audio hookup from the Rome hospital treating him for the flu and respiratory troubles, the Vatican (search) said. The 84-year-old pope spent …

DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. (F) is recalling 358,857 Focus cars because their rear passenger doors may not latch properly, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (search) and a Ford spokeswoman said Monday. The recall affects four- and five-door Focus cars from the 2000-2002 model years. All of the vehicles …

WASHINGTON – A real estate settlement firm will pay $6.2 million in fines and revamp its corporate practices to settle government allegations that it falsified loan documents, federal housing and banking officials said Monday. Government investigators accused Chicago Title Insurance Co. (search) of failing to accurately list closing costs and …

Watch “The Big Story” weekdays at 5 p.m. ET Iraq’s election results are in. But with no clear winner, can the factions work together to form a working government? That’s the big question for Les Campbell, program director of the National Democratic Institute. Will it be possible to find an …