BOSTON – Inspectors need to quickly assess the nearly 3,000 dams in Massachusetts, and the state must be prepared to spend tens of millions of dollars on improvements, a legislative report released Tuesday says. The report by the Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee found emergency plans are lacking for …

A story on May 2, 2006, stated incorrectly that Vincent Pastore, who played Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on “The Sopranos,” had “pleaded guilty to punching his former girlfriend.” Pastore pleaded guilty on Nov. 21, 2005, to attempted assault in the case.

WASHINGTON – Immigration and its politically controversial cousin, amnesty, are co-starring in the closing act of a House race with national implications, a close and costly production in Republican-friendly San Diego. In a conservative district roughly 30 miles from the Mexican border, Democrat Francine Busby is under attack from Republican …

LOS ANGELES – A Charlie Chaplin hat-and-cane set sold for nearly $140,000 at auction on Sunday, according to a spokeswoman for Bonhams & Butterfields. The $139,250 bid broke a record for the most ever paid for a Chaplin hat-and-cane set, of which there are several, said Bonhams spokeswoman Janelle Grigsby. …

NEW YORK – Sheryl Crow has made a few adjustments since returning to the stage after battling breast cancer. She still performs more than two hours each night, but the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter is more apt to take a nap during the day. And she’s added a private chef to …

PARAMARIBO, Suriname – Authorities in Suriname have broken up a criminal network that smuggled arms, ammunition and cocaine from Colombia to Europe and the United States, an official said Sunday. The network collected cocaine from Colombia that was air-dropped into neighboring Guyana, then shipped it to Suriname, from where it …

TORINO, Italy – There’s something very bad going on in figure skating. Not the new judging system — no one understands that enough to know if it’s good or bad. Not the abundance of techno-pop music. Not even the exit of Michelle Kwan. No, it’s much, much worse. It’s Halloween …

NEW YORK – Playboy Profit Drops 68 Percent; Marsh & McLennan Profit Rises Against Year-Earlier Loss; Qwest Reports Better-Than-Expected Quarterly Results; Levi Strauss Posts Q4 Profit; Deere First-Quarter Profit Increases Record company Warner Music Group Corp. (WMG) on Tuesday said quarterly profit rose 91 percent, driven by stronger sales of …

NEW YORK – The first thing women might want to put on their shopping list for fall is a pair of long leather gloves. They’ve emerged at New York Fashion Week as a surefire trend. And they’re practical, too, because many of the coats and sweaters on the runway have …

MALIBU, Calif. – Firefighters contained a blaze in the hills above Malibu and were gaining on two others Thursday that had blackened more than 8,800 acres of rugged Southern California brush land. The Malibu wildfire only reached 37 acres, but it burned intensely in an area where fires destroyed hundreds …