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Oakland and hundreds of other police departments across the country are equipping officers with tiny body cameras to record anything from a traffic stop to a hot vehicle pursuit to an unfolding violent crime. The mini cameras have even spawned a new cable reality TV series.

“It’s going to be a slow force on the economy,” said Tom Stinson, a University of Minnesota professor who is laid off from his job as the state economist. “But it’s not going to be something that would create a recession or anything like that in Minnesota. It’s clearly not good the longer that it goes on.”

Thousands of families are walking for days in search of food in a triangle of hunger where the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia meet. Hundreds already have died, and images of children with skinny, malnourished bodies are becoming commonplace in this corner of Africa. WITH VIDEO

Experts say an extended shutdown won’t send the state back into a recession but would have ripple effects statewide both predictable and unforeseen.

With Minnesota’s state government closed for business, the focus shifted Friday to who’s to blame. The shutdown started at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Now the heads of the state’s Republican and Democratic parties each say the other side is responsible.

China is marking the 90th birthday of the Communist Party with celebrations — and an unusually rancorous debate about whether the government needs a major change in direction to sustain the country’s resurgence.

Americans seem not to have awakened to the fast-looming debt crisis that could summon a new recession, imperil their stock market investments and shatter faith in the world’s most powerful economy.  They’re divided on whether to raise the federal debt limit, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that found 41 percent opposed to the idea and 38 percent in favor.

The tornadoes and floods that pummeled much of the South and Midwest  have dealt a serious blow to struggling state budgets, still reeling from the economy.

Defense attorneys for Omer Abdi Mohamed, 26, accused of helping other young Somalis in Minnesota travel to their war-torn homeland to fight with a terrorist group, have a week to verify an FBI report about a suicide bomber that’s being used to support charges against their client, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The warning labels illustrate negative health effects of smoking.

The head of the child protection committee for U.S. Roman Catholic bishops insisted Wednesday that no significant changes were needed in the church’s abuse prevention policy despite recent revelations that two dioceses allowed priests accused of misconduct to remain in jobs where they had access to young people.