Oregon State Police now say nine people have died in the Sunday morning bus crash along an icy Oregon highway.

Authorities say the bus careened through a guardrail and down a steep embankment, killing nine and injuring about 20 others.

The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84.

The bus came to rest at the bottom of a snowy slope. More than a dozen rescue workers descended the hill and used ropes to help retrieve people from the wreckage in freezing weather.

Police say a 74-year-old Maine man faces charges in the shooting deaths of two tenants inside an apartment he rented at his home over a possible dispute about where they were parking their cars during a snowstorm.

Maine State Police say James Pak was arrested at about 10 p.m. Saturday following a standoff at his home in Biddeford. He is charged with killing 19-year-old Derrick Thompson and Thompson’s girlfriend, 18-year-old Alivia Welch.

Officials say police were called Saturday evening regarding a dispute over cars being parked in Pak’s driveway during the snowstorm. Minutes after police left, they received a call reporting the shootings.

Thompson’s mother, 44-year-old Susan Johnson, was being treated for a gunshot wound at Maine Medical Center in Portland. Johnson’s 6-year-old son was not hurt.

Authorities are investigating after a Lincoln newspaper carrier found a dead body.

The newspaper carrier found the 25-year-old man’s body in a rural area north of Lincoln around 4:45 a.m. on Sunday.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s office is investigating the death.

Officials say it does not appear the man died of natural causes, but they released few details about his death.

Two teenagers and a 12-year-old girl have been charged in the shooting death of a North Carolina man during a carjacking.

Investigators say the three approached 35-year-old Johnny Danilo Villatoro of Durham on Friday night and asked him for a ride before carjacking and shooting him. Authorities found Villatoro lying in the street, and he later died at a hospital.

Police say the 12-year-old suspect accidentally shot herself in the stomach and leg while inside Villatoro’s car. She was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries and was expected to survive.

Authorities say the 12-year-old and two other suspects, ages 14 and 16, are being charged with murder. It wasn’t known if any of them had attorneys or when they would appear in court.

A Nebraska state law that let local governments decide whether to allow fireworks sales for the New Year’s Eve holiday is proving to be a bit of a dud.

The number of stands declined this year to 27, down from 28 last year. The Nebraska State Fire Marshal’s office says there 45 in 2010, the year the law went into effect.

Assistant State Fire Marshal Jim Heine says he can’t point to a specific reason for the decline, but he speculates that low temperatures are a factor.

Heine says some retailers told him they would only try selling fireworks in winter for five years after the law went into effect to see what would happen to sales.

The number of homicides in the city of Chicago has reached 500 in 2012, according to Chicago Police Superintendent, Garry McCarthy.  This is a horrifying number, even in a city notorious for it’ violent crime.

In a statement made Friday, McCarthy called it a “tragic number that is reflective of the gang violence and proliferation of illegal guns that have plagued some of our neighborhoods.”

Chicago police were apprehensive to confirm the number, but finally confirmed that a 40-year-old Chicago man who had been shot in the head was officially the 500th homicide victim of the year.  2008 was the last time the city reported more than 500 homicides with 512.  In 2011, 435 murders were reported.

Authorities say nearly two miles of copper wiring have been stolen off a pivot irrigation system near Blue Springs in southeast Nebraska.

Gage County sheriff’s officers have been investigating the theft, which likely occurred between Dec. 17 and Christmas Day, just north of the Blue Springs Cemetery.

The the loss is estimated at around $10,000. No arrests have been reported.

An Omaha middle school student is facing charges because police say he threatened to kill some of his classmates who teased him.

A police report says the 12-year-old boy was booked into the Douglas County juvenile detention center after he made threats on Dec. 18 after being teased by his peers.

Police say a physical education teacher took the boy and two other students to the Lewis and Clark Middle School office after an altercation between the boys.

The boy who was arrested threatened to exceed the recent Newtown, Conn., school shooting where 20 children were killed.

The boy’s mother told school officials that there weren’t any guns in the home.

The boy has been charged with making terroristic threats. Police did not identify him.