Some Washington state residents are getting in the holiday spirit by decorating a Douglas fir that toppled onto an unused utility line in a recent windstorm and looks like an upside-down Christmas tree.

The 12-foot top of the tree that snapped off now dangles on the line on Indian Island, about 40 miles northwest of Seattle across Puget Sound.

Dumped by his fiancee last month, Jordan Axani lost not just his future bride, but a travel companion for the round-the-world trip he had been planning to leave on next week.

The non-refundable, non-transferable plane tickets -- usable only under his name and that of his former love -- might have been forfeited.

In one of its famous red kettles in South Florida, the Salvation Army has received a gift worth more than a little bit of change: an emerald and diamond necklace.

On Tuesday afternoon, the agency received a call directing bell ringers to check a kettle in Doral, a Miami suburb. There, a worker found the necklace and a note telling the group to keep up the good work.

Johns Hopkins University mistakenly sent nearly 300 applicants welcome messages when they were actually rejected or deferred, and now the school has issued an apology.

University officials told The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/1vYGr7q) it was a mistake of human error. Vice Provost David Phillips said a contractor who works with Johns Hopkins on electronic communications pulled a wrong list of emails.

Looking for that perfect gift for the aviation fan who has everything? One Japanese airline has the answer: a seat from a retired jumbo jet.

If you know someone who just can't get enough of sitting on an airplane, and you've got a spare $5,000, All Nippon Airways will sell you what it calls a "premium" seat from a decommissioned Boeing 747.

Barack and Michelle Obama have revealed their experiences of racism in a wide-ranging interview with celebrity weekly People Magazine published Wednesday.

A generous mystery man has made the holiday season a little brighter for employees of two Massachusetts coffee shops.

A man wearing a cowboy hat walked into Marylou's in Hyannis on Saturday and handed the worker behind the counter 15 envelopes, each containing a crisp $100 bill.

It could have been a scene from fairytale movie "Frozen."

And an AP photographer snapping tourists at the Eiffel Tower's Christmas ice-rink Tuesday happened upon the fairytale moment.

Police in New Hampshire say they have collared the humans responsible for snatching 13 puppies from a New Hampshire pet store in a smash-and-grab dognapping.

A passer-by noticed a broken window at Bill's Pet and Aquarium in Manchester on Tuesday morning and called police.

Gov. Scott Walker is trying to take his "Molotov" gaffe in stride.

Walker, speaking after a menorah-lighting ceremony at the governor's mansion Tuesday, said he joked with rabbis about a letter drafted in his name to a Jewish leader about a decade ago that ends with him saying "Molotov" instead of "mazel tov."