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The Standard Heights neighborhood sits next to the nation's second-largest gasoline refinery. Recently, residents learned a new truth about the plumes of exhaust they see every day: Exxon Mobil's aging refinery and petrochemical facilities — like many others — are pumping out far more pollution than the law allows.

In 2004, Peter Obetz was in the middle of a divorce when he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He says the news was not only a wake-up call for him to change his life, but it also brought him closer to his friend Jeff Jarrett. He's been cancer-free since 2009.

Children's librarian Mara Alpert recommends 10 titles that will send youngsters off on brand-new adventures. In these books, kids will learn what baby animals do on their first day of life, what baseball games are like in Japan, and what happens when you read a poem from bottom to top.

This week, the European Union gave some of its member nations more time to meet deficit-reduction targets — in other words, to ease back on austerity. The programs have crushed growth and sent European unemployment to a record high 12 percent.

The letters were sent to President Obama, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a gun control group the mayor supports. Investigators say they were postmarked in Louisiana, near where the man being questioned lives.

Yanira Maldonado of Goodyear, Ariz., was taken into custody last week after 12 pounds of marijuana were found under her seat on a bus in Mexico. Her case drew international attention. She was released late Thursday after a judge saw video of her boarding the bus without the drugs.

When Congress voted on federal relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, five of the seven Oklahoma representatives and senators voted no. Rep. Tom Cole, who voted yes, warned that someday Oklahoma would be asking for help. That day came last week after a massive tornado hit his district.

When a single-engine plane apparently ran out of fuel, it nose-dived into an apartment building near Washington, D.C. Amazingly, both the pilot and passenger walked away. And, no one in the apartment was seriously injured. The plane just missed the bedrooms where people were sleeping.

Also: Russia will reportedly sell fighter jets to Syria; Obama will press Congress on student loan rates.

Arvind Mahankali, a 13-year-old from Bayside, N.Y., won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday after correctly spelling "knaidel." It's a yiddish term of German origin meaning "dumpling." Mahankali had stumbled on German words two years in a row. This year, he said, "the German curse has turned into in a German blessing."