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WASHINGTON (AP) — Supporters of a far-reaching immigration bill in the Senate see fresh momentum from a report by the Congressional Budget Office that says the measure would boost the economy and reduce federal deficits by billions of dollars. Congress' nonpartisan scorekeeping agency said that the immigration bill would decrease federal red ink by $197 billion over a decade and $700 billion in the following 10 years as increased taxes paid to the government offset the cost of benefits for newly legal residents. The White House said the report was "more proof that bipartisan commonsense immigration reform will be good for economic growth and deficit reduction." On the Senate floor Wednesday, Majority Leader Harry Reid

BERLIN (AP) — President Barack Obama raised the prospect Wednesday that Europe might need to adjust its economic policies to tackle high youth unemployment and make sure that some countries don't "lose a generation." Obama warned during his visit to Berlin that, while he has confidence the euro area's leaders will resolve their debt crisis, austerity and structural reforms must not cause policymakers to lose sight of the main goal — improving people's lives. Unemployment in the group of 17 European Union countries that use the euro, which is stuck in recession, has shot up to a record 12.2 percent. Youth unemployment in southern Europe's crisis-hit economies like Spain and Greece is now well above 50 percent.

OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The excavation of a rural field in suburban Detroit has failed to turn up the remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, the FBI announced Wednesday, adding another unsuccessful chapter to a nearly 40-year-old mystery. Authorities stopped the dig after just a few hours on the third day. "We did not uncover any evidence relevant to the investigation on James Hoffa," said Robert Foley, head of the FBI in Detroit. "I am very confident of our result here after two-days-plus of diligent effort," he said. "As of this point, we'll be closing down the excavation operation." Authorities have pursued multiple leads as to Hoffa's whereabouts since his disappearance in 1975.

A fatality has been reported on Interstate 40 in south Oklahoma City. The eastbound lanes of I-40 at Shields Boulevard are shut down.

MOORE — More than 56,000 tons of debris has been removed from neighborhoods in Moore as the city reaches the one-month mark since a deadly tornado carved through the Oklahoma City suburb on May 20.

NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market is waiting on the Fed. Major indexes drifted sideways Wednesday morning as traders wondered what the Federal Reserve will say about the U.S. economy and the central bank's huge stimulus program this afternoon. The U.S. central bank will release its latest policy update at 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and Bernanke will speak at a press conference thirty minutes later. Comments by Bernanke last month suggesting the central bank may soon ease that support unsettled investors and caused this year's rally in stocks to stall. "All eyes are on Bernanke and markets are being held hostage until he speaks," said Joseph Tanious, Global Market Strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds.

LONDON (AP) — With Prince William and the former Kate Middleton expecting their first child in mid-July — and much of the world interested in the birth of a future monarch — officials at Clarence House have released some of the couple's plans, although many details are still being kept private. Kate has made several public appearances recently but is expected to keep a low profile in the final weeks of her pregnancy. Here is the latest news about the infant who will, upon entering the world, be third in line for the British throne. KING OR QUEEN? Royal officials can't say — and it's not because they are being coy, it's because Kate and William have not found out — and don't plan to.

NEW YORK (AP) — Men's Wearhouse Inc. has dismissed its founder and executive chairman George Zimmer. In a terse release issued Wednesday, the company didn't give a reason for the abrupt firing of Zimmer, who built Men's Wearhouse from one small Texas store using a cigar box as a cash register to one of the nation's largest specialty retailers in men's clothing, with 1,143 locations. In light of Zimmer's termination, the company postponed its annual shareholders' meeting scheduled for Wednesday. It said the purpose of the postponement is to re-nominate the existing slate of directors without him.

MIAMI (AP) — Country singer Slim Whitman, the high-pitched yodeler who sold millions of records through ever-present TV ads in the 1980s and 1990s and whose song saved the world in the film comedy "Mars Attacks!," died Wednesday at a Florida hospital. He was 90. Whitman died of heart failure at Orange Park Medical Center, his son-in-law Roy Beagle said. Whitman's tenor falsetto and ebony mustache and sideburns became global trademarks — and an inspiration for countless jokes — thanks to the TV commercials that pitched his records. But he was a serious musical influence on early rock, and in the British Isles, he was known as a pioneer of country music for popularizing the style there.

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — There is a renewed effort to reopen the investigation that downed TWA Flight 800 off the coast of New York in 1996. Former investigators on Wednesday called on the National Transportation Safety Board to re-examine the cause, saying new evidence points to the often-discounted theory that a missile strike may have downed the jumbo jet. The New York-to-Paris flight crashed July 17, 1996, just minutes after the jetliner took off from John F. Kennedy Airport, killing all 230 people aboard.

DENVER (AP) — Bob and Barbara Schmidt dashed to their home on a dirt road in a heavily wooded area northeast of Colorado Springs as smoke from what would become the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history filled the air. After quickly grabbing a few items, they spotted their neighbors. "They were sitting on their porch, watching TV," said Bob Schmidt, adding that his wife urged their neighbors to immediately flee as smoke rolled in at 4:35 p.m. on June 11. "They said they'd leave when they needed to." The couple, Marc and Robin Herklotz, told the Schmidts they hadn't gotten automated calls from authorities ordering them to evacuate and that, while they were packing and monitoring the approaching blaze on TV, the

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Vince Flynn, a best-selling author of political thriller novels, has died at age 47 after a two-year battle with prostate cancer. A statement from Flynn's publisher, Simon & Schuster, Inc., said he died Wednesday. Flynn self-published his first book, "Term Limits," in 1997 before landing a publishing deal. "Term Limits" became a New York Times bestseller. Most of his books centered on the character Mitch Rapp, a counterterrorism operative. He averaged a book a year. Flynn announced in 2011 that he had been diagnosed with stage three metastatic prostate cancer.

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge has read the formal charge against George Zimmerman to 40 potential jurors who could be selected to decide if he committed murder when he shot Trayvon Martin. Judge Debra Nelson read the second-degree murder charge Wednesday before 40 potential jurors. Those potential jurors are on moving on to the second round of questioning of what they know about the case involving the former neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot the unarmed 17-year-old last year. Zimmerman is pleading not guilty, claiming self-defense. Both Zimmerman's parents and Martin's parents were in the courtroom when the charge was read.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's president said Wednesday he will not pursue peace talks with the Taliban unless the United States steps out of the negotiations, while also insisting the militant group stop its violent attacks on the ground after it claimed responsibility for a rocket attack that killed four Americans. Hamid Karzai's strong response and the Taliban attack deflated hopes for long-stalled talks aimed at ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan, just a day after the United States and the Taliban said they would begin initial meetings in Qatar.

Firefighters have responded to a crash involving four vehicles on Interstate 44 Wednesday. The crash is near NW 23

LAWTON — A jury has recommended a death sentence for an Oklahoma man convicted in the 2009 killings of a Comanche County couple.

BERLIN (AP) — Trying to tamp down concerns about government over-reach, President Barack Obama on Wednesday defended U.S. Internet and phone surveillance programs as narrowly targeted efforts that have saved lives and thwarted at least 50 terror threats. "This is not a situation in which we are rifling through ordinary emails" of huge numbers of citizens in the United States or elsewhere, the president declared during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He called it as a "circumscribed, narrow" surveillance program. "Lives have been saved," Obama said, adding that the program has been closely supervised by the courts to ensure that any encroachment of privacy is strictly limited.

Oklahoma City's tap water has come in first place in a national taste test competition.

SEATTLE (AP) — A Boeing 787 flying from Denver to Tokyo diverted to Seattle because of an oil filter issue, a United Airlines spokeswoman said. An airline maintenance team was inspecting the jet after Flight 139 landed normally Tuesday afternoon at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, United spokeswoman Mary Ryan said in an email statement. United just put its 787s back in the air May 20 after smoldering batteries on two 787s owned by other airlines prompted authorities to ground the planes in January. The Tokyo-bound jet's problem was "completely unrelated to any battery issues," Boeing spokesman Kate Bergman told The Seattle Times on Tuesday evening. "We are aware of the situation, and we're working with Unit

GENEVA (AP) — The Syrian civil war contributed to pushing the numbers of refugees and those displaced by conflict within their own nation to an 18-year high of 45.2 million worldwide by the end of 2012, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday. Those are the highest numbers since 1994, when people fled genocide in Rwanda and bloodshed in former Yugoslavia. By the end of last year, the world had 15.4 million refugees, 937,000 asylum seekers and 28.8 million people who had been forced to flee within the borders of their own countries, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a report. Of those, 17 percent were new to their situations in 2012: 1.1 million new refugees and 6.