NEW YORK – A New York judge has convicted the Rev. Al Sharpton of disorderly conduct during protests over a police shooting and sentenced him to time served. Criminal Court Judge Larry Stephen issued the verdict Wednesday against Sharpton and seven other activists. Sharpton has already served 5 1/2 hours …

SEATTLE – Seven Puget Sound killer whales are missing and presumed dead in what could be the biggest decline among the sound’s orcas in nearly a decade, say scientists who carefully track the endangered animals. “This is a disaster,” Ken Balcomb, a senior scientist at the Center for Whale Research …

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The United Nations has raised its security level for the Pakistani capital following the Sept. 20 truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel, U.N. officials said Thursday. The move underlines the deteriorating situation in Pakistan, which is under intense U.S. pressure to combat Islamic militants responsible for rising …

SAN FRANCISCO – A girl in pigtails bounds into the kitchen after school and asks her mother to guess what she learned that day. “I learned how a prince married a prince, and I can marry a princess,” she exclaims to her mortified mom. This television advertisement for a ballot …

LOS ANGELES – Alicia Keys and Coldplay lead the nominees for the 2008 American Music Awards. Keys has five nominations and Coldplay has four. Both are contenders for artist of the year. Other multiple nominees and artist-of-the-year candidates announced Tuesday include the Eagles and Lil Wayne. The American Music Awards …

CHICAGO – Chicago authorities are intensifying efforts to find the 7-year-old nephew of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson while investigating the shooting deaths of Hudson’s brother and mother. An Amber Alert is still in effect for Julian King, who went missing from his South Side neighborhood home on Friday. That was …

FRANKFORT, Ky. – The Kentucky Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for the execution of a child killer who asked to be put to death so that delays would not “drag out the misery” for himself and his victims’ families. Marco Allen Chapman, 36, could be put to death as …

OMAHA, Neb. – Zapping frozen meals in the microwave may be fast and easy, but it also can make you sick if it’s not done properly. That message has been slow to catch on, despite a spate of illnesses last year from improperly microwaved frozen foods. On Sunday, the government …

HENDERSON, Texas – Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, a strapping Iraq combat veteran, spent the last, miserable months of his life as an Army recruiter, cold-calling dozens of people a day from his strip-mall office and sitting in strangers’ living rooms, trying to sign up their sons and daughters for …

This is a rush transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” December 5, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. MARK STEYN, GUEST HOST: In 2005 a Cincinnati, a Planned Parenthood clinic was sued for failing to report the rape of a 14-year-old girl. The …