She's petite, she's middle-aged, she's bookish, and if she gets a chance, she'll knock you on your keister. By day, she's Beth Hollis, a 53-year-old reference librarian in Akron, Ohio. By night, she's MegaBeth, an ageless dynamo on the roller derby rink. "All my life, when I tell people I'm a librarian, they say, 'You don't look like a librarian,' " Hollis said. "And now that I'm a roller derby girl, they say, 'You don't look like a roller derby ...

When cancer invades the brain, the prognosis is usually grim. Despite his treatment at highly regarded medical centers, Edward "Ted" Kennedy, who served as a Democratic senator from Massachusetts for nearly 47 years, died just over a year after his surgery. (CNN) -- When cancer invades the brain, the prognosis is usually grim. Despite his treatment at highly regarded medical centers, Edward "Ted" Kennedy, who served as a Democratic senator from Massachusetts for nearly 47 years, died just over ...

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge says he successfully countered an effort by senior Bush administration officials to raise the nation's terror alert level in the days before the 2004 presidential vote. "An election-eve drama was being played out at the highest levels of our government" after Osama bin Laden released a pre-election message critical of President George W. Bush, writes Ridge in his new book, "The Test of Our Times." Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Defense ...

The White House sought to reassure jittery supporters Monday that President Obama is not abandoning the fight for a public health insurance option. The assurance came amid a media firestorm ignited over the weekend by administration officials seeming to indicate a willingness to drop such an option in order to secure congressional approval of a health care reform bill. The verbal maneuvering reflected the steep political challenge facing an administration trying to balance the competing priorities of the more conservative ...

The Philadelphia Eagles welcomed Michael Vick back into the National Football League on Friday after the quarterback spent almost two years in federal prison on a felony dogfighting conviction. Vick, formerly with the Atlanta Falcons, has signed a two-year deal with the Eagles. "I think everybody deserves a second chance," Vick said at a news conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Friday. "Now I want to be part of the solution and not the problem." The league suspended Vick indefinitely in ...

Michael Vick, recently reinstated to the NFL after being freed from federal prison after a dogfighting-related conviction, has signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, according to his agent, Joel Segal. The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback reports to Philadelphia on Friday, Segal told CNN. Details of the deal were not immediately available Thursday night. The league suspended Vick indefinitely in August 2007 after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home ...

The Federal Aviation Administration has suspended two air traffic controllers from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport over Saturday's collision of two aircraft over the Hudson that killed nine people, a spokeswoman said Thursday. The controller handling the flight of a Piper PA-32 Saratoga carrying three people "was involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident," said spokeswoman Laura Brown in a written statement. In addition, "the supervisor was not present in the building as ...

President Obama complained Tuesday about opposition scare tactics against a proposed health care overhaul but said that failing to fix problems in the current system would be the scariest outcome of all. Obama addressed a supportive town hall meeting that contrasted with combative events held by Democratic Congress members, which have generated heated and sometimes disruptive responses. Also Tuesday, hostile crowds shouted questions and made angry statements against proposed health-care legislation at meetings in Pennsylvania and Missouri led by ...

A hostile crowd shouted questions and made angry statements Tuesday at a town hall meeting on health care in Pennsylvania led by Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter. The meeting drew an overflow of about 250 people, with more gathered outside the hall to demonstrate for and against President Obama's push to expand health insurance for 46 million people without coverage while bringing down costs. It was the latest in a series of emotional public meetings on the health care issue that ...

Divers will make another attempt Monday to find two remaining victims from the collision of a small plane and a sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River. Nine people, including five Italian tourists, were aboard the aircraft when they collided shortly before noon Saturday. Seven bodies have been pulled from waters up to 50 feet deep by divers working in near-zero visibility. The search was put on hold as a storm approached Sunday evening, police said. Investigators had raised ...