BOSTON – An attorney says New England Patriots lineman Nicholas Kaczur was arrested on drug charges, then helped federal authorities in a sting operation that led to the indictment of a supplier. Kaczur was arrested in New York in April on a misdemeanor charge of illegal possession of oxycodone. The …

News from the virtual world: — A RISKY BET: When Billy Levy and Zack Zeldin were roommates in Miami Beach, they played “Madden NFL” for $100 a game. Now the guys are betting that there are plenty of other gamers who like to “make things interesting,” and they’re about to …

MARKSVILLE, La. – A driver towing a float in a Carnival parade ran over his 16-year-old brother, killing him, state police said. Clay Michael Sayer was standing between Kain N. Sayer’s pickup truck and the float behind it, talking to riders on the float during a brief stop around 5 …

This is a rush transcript from “The O’Reilly Factor,” February 20, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. Watch “The O’Reilly Factor” weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and listen to the “Radio Factor!” BILL O’REILLY, HOST: In the “Miller Time” …

NEW ORLEANS – Two men have been arrested and charged in a drug distribution ring that put heroin, cocaine and other drugs into the hands of a 16-year-old student who died from an overdose in New Orleans last month, officials said. David C. Battenberg, 27, of Metairie, La., and Diego …

WASHINGTON – A former aide to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal child pornography charge. James Michael McHaney of Washington, D.C., faces up to 10 years in prison after his felony conviction. He was fired from his job as a scheduler for Cantwell after his arrest …

TAMPA, Fla. – A deputy who was videotaped dumping a paralyzed man out of his wheelchair onto a Tampa jailhouse floor turned herself in. Jail records show Charlette Marshall-Jones was booked into the Orient Road Jail early Saturday morning. It is the same jail where Marshall-Jones worked. She is accused …

Karen Abbott’s husband, Jem Abbott, went to the hospital for a routine vasectomy four years ago. A week later he was dead. The healthy 37-year-old British man had contracted septicemia, a type of blood poisoning, after undergoing the male sterilization procedure, The Daily Mail reported. Septicemia is a little-talked-about complication …

TOKYO – Opium cultivation in rebel-controlled areas in southern and southwestern Afghanistan is expected to grow this year, fueling the Taliban insurgency with more drug money, a U.N. report said Wednesday. The report, by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said that Afghanistan, in turmoil since a U.S.-led military …

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she has seen progress in Afghanistan during the past few years, despite a determined Taliban insurgency that has disrupted security and prompted concerns that the NATO-led military campaign is failing. “Can we all expect the security situation will still …