In the Nation

NEW YORK - Investigators carried rubble from a basement excavation site in Manhattan on Friday while searching for clues in the 1979 disappearance of a 6-year-old boy.

Utility workers with jackhammers and saws helped chip away an area around aging pipes, then law enforcers wearing gloves carried out the basketball-size chunks of rubble and carefully placed them in refuse bins. The material will be sifted and then taken elsewhere for testing.

Etan Patz vanished in 1979 after leaving his family's home for a short walk to his school bus stop. FBI and police had arrived Thursday at the building near his home. - AP

WASHINGTON - A former aide to onetime congressional power broker Tom DeLay was sentenced Friday to five months in a halfway house in the final act of the probe of the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal.

Tony Rudy, who was DeLay's deputy chief of staff, pleaded guilty six years ago to conspiring with Abramoff, a Republican super-lobbyist, and others to accept a stream of gifts when Rudy was a congressional staffer and to offering gifts to public officials when Rudy became a lobbyist - all in exchange for legislative favors. His cooperation with prosecutors has led to 18 convictions.

Rudy and Abramoff were among 21 people who pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial. DeLay, a Texas Republican who rose to House majority leader, was among other lawmakers who were investigated but never charged. - AP

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A series of carjackings around Sacramento on Friday morning led to a 61/2-hour closure of one of Northern California's busiest freeways, forcing commuters, students, and interstate truckers to sit for hours in baking sunshine.

A detained suspect was later released, and police said Friday evening that the armed carjacker remained at large.

Interstate 80 near the state capital was transformed into a parking lot in both directions as officers scoured the area and then began following the suspect's trail miles away.

Airport spokeswoman Karen Doron said the airport was using social media to warn passengers about the delays. - AP

NORFOLK, Va. - The Air Force says it is scaling back its participation in dozens of air shows this year in an effort to cut costs and ensure its combat pilots are getting the training hours they need in a time of shrinking budgets.

The cutbacks won't affect the service's premier demonstration team, the Thunderbirds. The Air Force uses its demonstration teams to showcase the precision maneuvers its planes are capable of during combat, to help with recruiting, and to help build goodwill in the United States and abroad. - AP

A 2-month-old boy was killed and dismembered by a dog in his family's South Carolina home as his father slept, authorities said Friday. Aiden McGrew's mother called 911 when she got home and discovered the infant's leg was severed by a retriever-Labrador mix the family had taken in a few weeks earlier, Dorchester County deputies said.