DETROIT -- A judge ruled Friday that there's enough evidence for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to stand trial on two felony assault charges stemming from a confrontation with two investigators.

District Judge Ronald Giles said there was no question Kilpatrick knew Wayne County sheriff's Detective Brian White and county prosecutor's investigator JoAnn Kinney were at the home where the confrontation took place on official business.

"It's clear Kilpatrick knew who Detective White was. He had previous contact with him through his other case. He specifically called him by name in this case," said Giles, who ordered Kilpatrick jailed for a night last week for violating bond in his perjury case.

SEATTLE -- Lawmakers and college administrators are trying to shut paroled sex offenders out of one of the few places they can still live: Student neighborhoods near major U.S. universities.

More than 23 states ban registered sex offenders from living close to schools or other places frequented by children. But nowhere is that protection extended to the areas surrounding college campuses.

"A convicted sexual felon should not be able to live next door to your college student," said Jamie Ison, an Alabama state representative who sponsored a bill that would include universities under the legal definition of a school.

Online databases of sex offender addresses show that the issue affects universities across the country -- wherever there are student neighborhoods with plentiful apartments and cheap rent.

In Los Angeles, 60 offenders live within a mile of the University of Southern California. Nine live within a mile of Duke University in Durham, N.C. In Chicago, six can be found within a mile of Northwestern University. Within a two-mile radius of Jacksonville University in Florida are 93 paroled sex offenders.

HARROLD, Texas -- A tiny Texas district will allow teachers and staff members to carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings when classes begin this month, provided the gun-toting employees follow certain requirements.

The small community of Harrold in north Texas is a 30-minute drive from the Wilbarger County Sheriff's Office, leaving students and teachers without protection, said David Thweatt, superintendent of the Harrold Independent School District. The lone campus of the 110-student district sits near a heavily traveled highway, which could make it a target, he argued.

"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog," Thweatt said in a story published Friday on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Web site.

HOUSTON -- A Texas panel will investigate whether a man executed for setting a fire that killed his three daughters actually started the blaze.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission agreed Friday to review conclusions that Cameron Todd Willingham set the fire in 1991. He was executed in 2004.

It will be the first investigation by the commission, created in 2005 to look into allegations of forensic misconduct in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

The Innocence Project, a legal group that works to overturn wrongful convictions, says experts in a report it commissioned concluded the fire was not intentionally set.

MINOT, N.D. -- An inspection at a North Dakota air base has found that a bomb wing is operating safely after coming under scrutiny for mistakenly shipping nuclear missiles.

The Air Force said Friday that the Minot Air Force base's 5th Bomb Wing "can execute its nuclear mission in a safe, secure and reliable manner."

The wing was retested after coming up short in an inspection in May. Maj. Elizabeth Ortiz, a spokeswoman at the Minot base, says the Air Force will not release specifics because they are classified.

Nuclear cruise missiles were mistakenly loaded onto a B-52 bomber last August at the Minot base and flown to a base in Louisiana.

SAN ANTONIO -- State child welfare authorities have decided that the courts no longer need to oversee 34 children taken from a polygamous sect's ranch in west Texas.

The action does not necessarily end Child Protective Services' involvement with the children, but it means officials believe they can be kept safe without court intervention, agency spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said Friday.

Child Protective Services filed papers in San Angelo on Thursday asking that the cases involving 10 families be dropped, and a judge agreed. They represent the first children dropped from court oversight in the case.

While the reasons vary, child welfare cases are typically dropped when investigators decide that there is no abuse or, if there is, that parents or another relative can ensure a child's safety, Meisner said.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Alabama's largest county appears headed for the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, a $3.2 billion mess created by the nation's credit crunch and a colossal, corruption-riddled sewer project.

Politicians in Jefferson County -- which has 658,000 residents and includes the state's biggest city, Birmingham -- are struggling to find a way out of the jam, but they have mostly abandoned talk of raising taxes and fees after running into fierce opposition at raucous public meetings.

On Thursday, with their options running out, the county commissioners all but threw up their hands and decided to let the voters weigh in on Election Day with a nonbinding referendum on whether to file for bankruptcy.

"The entire nation is watching to see how we handle this," said Jeff Sewell, an assistant county attorney.

"This is a question of character as well as one of finance."

A bankruptcy filing by Jefferson County would shatter the previous record of $1.7 billion, set by Orange County, Calif., in 1994.

A Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing would put interest payments and lawsuits against the county on hold, giving it time to put its finances in order and negotiate more favorable terms with its creditors.