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LOS ANGELES – Page Kennedy, who plays a fugitive from the law on “Desperate Housewives,” was fired from the hit ABC drama for improper conduct, a series spokeswoman said Tuesday. Kennedy, who joined the show this season, was let go Friday after a “thorough investigation by the studio” of the …

NEW YORK – A New York Stock Exchange seat sold for $3.025 million, a record high for the 213-year-old Big Board. In announcing the sale Monday, the NYSE three seats have been sold for the previous high of $3 million, the last on Nov. 1. There are 1,366 membership seats …

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A blogger’s depiction of Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (search) in minstrel makeup has brought to surface issues of race — and fidelity to one’s race — as the Republican seeks to become Maryland’s first black senator. A black man in New York who runs a left-leaning news …

PHILADELPHIA – For two tense hours last month, it looked as if a tragic new chapter in Philadelphia’s long history of corruption was about to be written when a councilman under federal investigation climbed to the City Hall observation deck 500 feet above the street and set off a suicide …

WASHINGTON – Hoping to reverse the deterioration of pension plans covering 44 million Americans, the Senate voted Wednesday to force companies to make up underfunding estimated at $450 billion and live up to promises made to employees. The action came a day after the federal agency that insures such plans …

A pair of big-spending, notably nasty races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey entered their final hours Monday, as candidates made last-minute blitzes and brought in political heavy-hitters to help campaign. In New Jersey, Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine and Republican Doug Forrester spent the day stumping for votes …

CHICAGO – An accountant for the Fox network TV show “Prison Break” was found dead at the landmark Drake Hotel, authorities said Tuesday. Matthew Houbrick, 42, of Calabasas, Calif., was found Monday lying on the floor of his hotel room unresponsive and with no pulse, Chicago Police spokesman Pat Camden …

NEW YORK – U.S. crude oil prices rose to a fresh four-month high over $53 a barrel Wednesday as refinery problems in Texas propelled gasoline up to an all-time peak. U.S. light crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange (search) touched $53.09 per barrel, a level not seen since …

BERKELEY, Calif. – Students in the Berkeley (search), California, school district may be seeing some benefit to an ongoing teachers’ contract dispute. Teachers have decided they won’t assign written homework, under a job action aimed at getting a cost-of-living increase. After two years without a raise, the teachers say they’ll …

ACCRA, Ghana – A Greek fuel tanker went up in flames in Ghana’s main port on Friday, trapping at least 15 people who now are feared dead and disrupting fuel production at the West African nation’s sole oil refinery, officials and witnesses said. Sparks from welding ignited a fuel leak …