The Charlotte area straddles North and South Carolina. Republicans who live just steps inside the North Carolina line can only watch longingly as their southern neighbors narrow the field of candidates. By the time North Carolinians get a crack at the Republican field in May, the decisions will already be made.

The Justice Department's massive copyright case against the file-sharing website got lawyers talking about the scope of a criminal investigation that spanned eight countries and the hard-nosed tactics that the government deployed.

The state Republican Party reversed itself from a previous assertion that it would not declare a winner. A recanvassing of the votes showed Santorum won by 34 votes, though the preliminary results gave Mitt Romney an eight-vote lead.

Every year since 1980, the winner of South Carolina's Republican primary has gone on to win the party's nomination. Republican strategists and political scientists say the reasons are pretty simple.

A member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen was buried Friday morning, the same day that Red Tails, a film dramatizing the pilots' heroic feats, came out. During World War II, Luke Weathers Jr. "shot down two German fighter planes while escorting a damaged bomber to its base," the AP reports.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley swept into office on a wave of Tea Party enthusiasm. One year later, her approval numbers are slumping, and her endorsement of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has drawn criticism from many of her core supporters.

Sportswriter Stefan Fatsis and Robert Siegel preview this weekend's American Football Conference and National Football Conference championship games, as four teams become the two to compete in the Super Bowl.

A lower court must now take a new look at election maps drawn up by the Texas Legislature, which is dominated by Republicans. The state is getting four new seats in the House of Representatives, so the stakes are high. But this decision is unlikely to be the last word on how Lone Star reapportionment will play out.