US Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) , Brett D. Shadle always had wanted to be a member of the Navy's most elite special forces unit. A year after enlisting, he made it happen and went on to become a highly decorated member of the Navy's famed SEAL Team 6.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) , The recovering drug addict with a long rap sheet who had just sat down on the bench at a north Philadelphia train station often wondered if he was a good person, and perhaps never considered that anyone thought he was a hero to anybody.

WASHINGTON (AP) , Veterans groups are rallying to fight any proposal to change disability payments as the federal government attempts to address its long-term debt problem. They say they've sacrificed already.

KABUL, Afghanistan , U.S. special operations forces handed over their base in a strategic district of eastern Afghanistan to local Afghan special forces on Saturday, senior U.S. commanders said. The withdrawal satisfies a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that U.S.

MONTGOMERY, Ohio (AP) , Here in Cincinnati's suburbs, where people tend to be polite, one finds seeds of the bitter partisanship that gnaws at Washington, 500 miles away. If any Republican House members might be open to compromise with President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers, Rep. Steve Chabot would seem near the top of the list.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) , Police say a pair of eyeballs found in a medical box in a Kansas City gas station's trash bin aren't human. Police spokesman Steve Young said Thursday that the police lab examined the eyeballs and determined they likely came from a pig.

WASHINGTON (AP) , TV ads show smiling seniors enjoying an "active" lifestyle on a motorized scooter, taking in the sights at the Grand Canyon, fishing on a pier and high-fiving their grandchildren at a baseball game. The commercials, which promise freedom and independence to people with limited mobility, have driven the nearly $1 billion U.S. market for power wheelchairs and scooters.

Offended by the decision of Starbucks chief Howard Schultz to support gay marriage, a Christian organization is seconding the CEO's demand that Christian shareholders sell their stock in the ubiquitous coffee chain.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) , A cache of weapons including guns, more than a thousand rounds of ammunition, a bayonet and several swords was found in the home of the gunman who carried out the Newtown school shooting, according to search warrants released Thursday.

BOSTON (AP) , Boston Mayor Thomas Menino wasn't the smoothest of political figures, but during his nearly two decades in office he earned a reputation as one of the hardest working, from filling potholes to shaping the city's skyline.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) , A man already charged in a deadly house explosion in Indianapolis tried to arrange for a key witness to be killed, despite signs in the jail warning inmates that their phone calls were recorded, prosecutors said Thursday.

A group of senior Army officers in December appeared before reporters at the Pentagon to rebut charges from a congressman that the bureaucracy was sabotaging requests from war fighters for an off-the-shelf intelligence processor.

NEW YORK (AP) , Young adult author John Green has written an introduction for a book about the teen cancer victim to whom he dedicated his best-selling novel "The Fault in Our Stars." Penguin Young Readers Group announced Thursday that it will publish "This Star Won't Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl" in early 2014.

An Idaho biology teacher is being investigated by the state's professional standards commission after complaints by parents that he used the word "vagina" during a lesson on human reproduction. Tim McDaniel is being investigated after a complaint was filed by a handful of parents, Dietrich Superintendent Neil Hollingshead told Times-News.

WASHINGTON (AP) , President Barack Obama urged lawmakers Thursday to remember the children gunned down in America and not "get squishy" in the face of powerful forces against gun control legislation, as supporters struggle to win over moderate Democrats before a Senate vote expected next month.