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Large flesh-eating dinosaurs evolved into small flying birds, but it did not happen overnight. An international team of scientists on Thursday described an extraordinary evolutionary process that unfolded over a period of 50 million years in which a lineage of carnivorous dinosaurs shrank steadily and acquired numerous traits that led to the first appearance of birds. The researchers, using techniques developed by molecular biologists to reconstruct virus evolution, examined 1,500 anatomical traits in 120 different dinosaurs from the theropod group. These bipedal meat-eaters included giants like Tyrannosaurus rex and Giganotosaurus as well as the lineage that produced birds. "Our study measured the rate of evolution of different groups of theropod dinosaurs," said lead researcher Michael Lee, a paleontologist at the University of Adelaide and the South Australian Museum. "The fastest-evolving group also happened to be ancestral to birds. So, ultimately, the most ad

This fall, when Representative Michael Grimm asks New York voters to send him to Washington for a third term in Congress he may be splitting his time between the campaign trail and a courtroom where he is due to face tax evasion charges. Grimm, a Republican and former FBI agent who represents parts of the city's Staten Island and Brooklyn boroughs, was indicted in April on charges of fraud, perjury and conspiracy tied to his restaurant, Healthalicious. Last week, prosecutors asked a federal judge to start his trial in October, weeks ahead of the Nov. 4 election. But a flurry of headlines about his business dealings is just one of the problems facing Grimm, who hails from one of New York City's rare Republican-leaning districts. He was caught on camera in January threatening to throw a reporter off a balcony in the U.S. Capitol, saying: "I'll break you in half. Like a boy." Grimm is far from the first U.S. politician to seek re-election under a legal cloud.

Representative Eric Cantor said on Friday he will resign his seat effective Aug. 18, months earlier than expected following a stunning defeat in a Republican primary election. _0"> Cantor, who on Thursday stepped down from his leadership position in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, said he had asked Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to call a special election to coincide with November's congressional elections. Such a race would allow the winner to take office immediately, rather than in January when the next Congress convenes, he wrote in a column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "I want to make sure that the constituents in the 7th District will have a voice in what will be a very consequential lame-duck session," Cantor told the newspaper in an interview, referring to the period between the election and start of the new Congress. It also would give the winner some seniority over the rest of the new class elected in November, he wrote. C

Chicago said its budget deficit was on track to shrink to just below $300 million in 2015, but a state-mandated increase in pension payments would expand gaps in the future. _0"> The projected $297 million operating fund deficit, the lowest for the city in seven years, is based on $3.22 billion in revenue and $3.52 billion in expenses, according to an annual financial analysis that Chicago released late on Thursday. The projection assumes continued economic growth and a return to normal revenue trends, which were affected by this year's severe weather, a statement from Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. Meanwhile, higher expenses were mainly due to increased salaries and wages under collective bargaining agreements. “While a $297 million budget shortfall is substantial, we are making progress in righting the city’s financial ship,” the mayor said in the statement. A looming $500 million increase in pension payments to Chicago's police and fire retirement systems would infla

The federal jury hearing the corruption trial of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell on Friday saw a racy email his wife sent to a businessman, a communication defense attorneys said was proof that the two were having an affair. Lawyers for McDonnell's wife, Maureen, said at the start of the trial that the couple's marriage had been unraveling at the time they accepted gifts from a businessman they said Maureen McDonnell had a "crush" on. But the businessman, witness Jonnie Williams, has insisted in three days of testimony that the relationship was strictly mercenary, with him offering $165,000 in gifts and loans in hopes of getting help for his company Star Scientific Inc, a nutritional supplement maker. McDonnell, 60, and his wife are charged with 14 counts of corruption and bribery for allegedly accepting gifts and loans from Williams in exchange for supporting his former company, now known as Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals. Maureen McDonnell's attorney

Massachusetts lawmakers on Friday tightened the state's already strict gun laws by passing a measure that gives police chiefs authority to turn down a resident's requests to buy a rifle or shotgun if they believe the person may be a danger. House lawmakers overrode objections from gun-rights advocates in the state Senate who had opposed the measure, worrying that police chiefs could abuse the authority to deny firearms to law-abiding citizens. "We seek not to be the safest state in the nation but strive to make our communities the safest in the world," said House Speaker Robert DeLeo, a Democrat. The bill now goes to Governor Deval Patrick, a fellow Democrat, who supports tightening the state's gun laws. The measure broadens the authority of police, who were already allowed to deny sales of handguns to people who failed background checks. The new measure gives a police chief 90 days to petition a court to deny a firearms identification card to someone the ch

Former President Bill Clinton said he "could have killed" Osama bin Laden in remarks to an audience in Australia the day before al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on the United States, according to an audio tape that emerged this week. Clinton and officials from his administration have expressed similar sentiments both before and after the Sept. 11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people but the recording appears to have attracted attention because he was speaking less than 36 hours before al Qaeda hijackers would board four airliners for attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. On the tape Clinton said he declined to pursue one opportunity to kill bin Laden in Afghanistan because it would have risked killing hundreds of civilians. "And I'm just saying, you know, if I were Osama bin Laden -he's a very smart guy. I spent a lot of time thinking about him. And I nearly got him once," Clinton can be heard saying as people in the audience laugh. "I