WASHINGTON (AP) — If snow keeps 230,000 government employees home for the better part of a week, will anyone notice?With at least another foot of snow headed for Washington, Philadelphia and New York, we're about to find out. The federal government in the nation's capital has largely been shut down since Friday afternoon, when a storm began dumping up to 3 feet of snow in some parts of the region. Offices were remaining closed at least through Wednesday.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. David Paterson, defying calls from even fellow Democrats to drop out of the race for a full term, said Tuesday that he would leave only if the voters turned him out through the ballot box, or he's carried out "in a box."Paterson spoke to reporters after several days of rumors sweeping the state Capitol about carousing in the governor's mansion, all of which Paterson strongly denied.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In his push to move stalled health care reform, President Barack Obama is appealing to American pocketbooks by calling one health insurer's major rate hike in California a harbinger of rising premiums.Anthem Blue Cross' 30 to 39 percent rate hike in California will affect an unknown number of its 800,000 individual policyholders — the insurer has declined giving specifics. But Obama said the rate hike is a sign of what will happen to many Americans without reform.

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. (AP) — A new winter storm washed over the wildfire-scarred foothills north of Los Angeles Tuesday, leaving some residents to flee their homes in baggage-laden cars while others used shovels and buckets to try to hold back the muddy deluge.Officials issued evacuation orders for 541 homes on the hillsides of La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Acton and two canyons. Several streets in the city of Sierra Madre spent several hours under evacuation orders that were lifted in the evening.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Ronald "Loony" Barron urged a young graffiti tagger to put away his paint cans, he was doing what he viewed as his mission — steering kids away from crime — but he paid for it with his life.Los Angeles police arrested a 16-year-old boy on Tuesday, saying he would be charged with murder for shooting Barron to death Sunday night after Barron confronted him.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Target Corp. said Tuesday it was pulling its Valentine's Day "Message Bears" from store shelves after California's attorney general raised concerns that the toys have illegal levels of lead.The response comes a day after a letter sent by Attorney General Jerry Brown said testing of the holiday toys revealed lead levels that violate federal law.

BOSTON (AP) — The family of Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan insisted Tuesday that they do "not blame anyone" for her father's death and criticized a medical examiner's finding that Daniel Kerrigan died of a heart rhythm problem after a fight with his son.Daniel Kerrigan's death was ruled a homicide by a state medical examiner.

ALBANY, N.Y (AP) — The New York Senate voted Tuesday night to expel a senator convicted of a misdemeanor charge of assaulting his girlfriend, a resolution the lawmaker assailed as an injustice to the people who elected him.The Senate voted 53-8 to oust Sen. Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat who at trial last year was convicted of dragging girlfriend Karla Giraldo through his apartment lobby in December 2008 but acquitted of felony assault. A felony conviction would have automatically cost him his job.

TYLER, Texas (AP) — A spate of recent fires that destroyed or damaged several churches in eastern Texas were intentionally set, likely by the same person or group, federal authorities said Tuesday.Fires that broke out at two churches near Tyler on Monday have not yet been ruled arson, but authorities are investigating them as such. They were reported within an hour of one another and there were signs that at least one of the churches had been broken into.