Bill Chappell

The author of the YA novel Holes and the Wayside School series has written his first novel for adults. It's a fairy tale involving a princess and potions – but one focused squarely on growing old.

Dan Fesperman's spy caper Pariah follows a disgraced comic-politician who's recruited by the CIA. The Dancing Face, by Mike Phillips, is a crime caper that confronts the spoils of colonialism.

Conservative Christian leader James Dobson, who founded Focus on the Family and was once called "the nation's most influential evangelical leader," died Thursday.

One of the goals of controversial wolf hunts in the Western U.S. is to help reduce the burden on ranchers, who lose livestock to wolves every year. A new study finds that those hunts have had a measurable, but small effect on livestock depredations.

An extreme heat warning will remain in effect until at least 8 p.m. Saturday for county deserts. In addition, heat advisories will remain in effect until at least 8 p.m. Friday for the mountains and valleys.

Erik and Lyle Menendez were both denied parole eligibility for three years. The brothers, now in their 50s, have spent more than three decades in prison for their parents' murders.