This week, at a major computing conference in Italy, Rice University's Krishna Palem unveiled his newest chips that trade a bit of accuracy for better efficiency.

The autopsy was among a large amount of evidence released by prosecutors on Thursday as part of the second-degree murder case against the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot him in February. Other documents include a photograph that shows suspect George Zimmerman with a bloody nose.

As hundreds converged on Houston's criminal courthouse Thursday demanding answers about a verdict that cleared a former police officer of wrongdoing in the beating of Chad Holley, the jury's reasoning became public for the first time.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children born in the U.S., capping decades of heady immigration growth that is now slowing. New 2011 census estimates highlight sweeping changes in the nation's racial makeup and the prolonged impact of a weak economy, which is now resulting in fewer Hispanics entering the U.S. Minorities increased 1.9 percent to 114.1 million, or 36.6 percent of the total U.S. population, lifted by prior waves of immigration that brought in young families and boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years. [...] a recent slowdown in the growth of the Hispanic and Asian populations is shifting notions on when the tipping point in U.S. diversity will come — the time when non-Hispanic whites become a minority. Marcelino says she sells food from her home to make ends meet for her family and continues to hope that one day she will get a hearing with immigration officials to stay legally in the U.S. She aspires to open a restaurant and is learning English at a community college so she can help other Spanish-language speakers. "The Latino population is very young, which means they will continue to have a lot of births relative to the general population," said Mark Mather, associate vice president of the Population Reference Bureau. [...] we're seeing a slowdown that is likely the result of multiple factors: declining Latina birth rates combined with lower immigration levels. William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution who analyzed the census data, noted that government debates over immigration enforcement may now be less pressing, given slowing growth. According to the latest data, the percentage growth of Hispanics slowed from 4.2 percent in 2001 to 2.5 percent last year.

The person who sent envelopes containing white powder to schools in Houston last week may be behind similar activities in Northeast Texas and a nationwide rash of almost 400 such letters since 2008, FBI agents said.

The city of Houston sued the firefighters pension board in state District Court on Wednesday in an effort to pry open the retirement system's books for a look at supporting data behind the $61 million annual bill it sends to City Hall.

U.S. Senate hopeful Ted Cruz is one of a dozen candidates nationwide enjoying sizable campaign donations from the limited-government advocacy group.

In a new episode of the long-running battle between sexually oriented businesses and government officials, attorneys for Harris County and the city of Houston filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to have the Treasures strip club declared a public nuisance and shut down. The filing alleges that 5647 Westheimer is the location of human trafficking, habitual prostitution and drug activity where owners, management and employees engage in "gang related organized criminal activities that constitute a public nuisance." Treasures attorney Al Van Huff said the club is being targeted in retaliation for challenging the city's sexually oriented business ordinance and because the city has not persuaded the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to cancel or block the renewal of the establishment's liquor license. The filing further alleges that "Treasures maintains a façade of legitimacy to facilitate an organized 'combination' of manager-employees, pimps and prostitutes" and that the "city and state have no other adequate remedy at law to prevent the continued maintenance of the property as a common and public nuisance." The trafficking allegations stem from police probes revealing that some of the dancers are transported from Nevada to Texas, then from club to club within Houston, and reside in Galleria- area apartments and condos "where they are maintained by the pimps," Feldman said at a news conference.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Banners have appeared in northern Mexico signed by the Zetas drug cartel saying the gang was not responsible for killing 49 people whose mutilated bodies were found on a highway in a neighboring state. An employee of the prosecutors' office in northern San Luis Potosi state says the banners were hung from overpasses in the city of Ciudad Valles.

Barkin, 22, was stabbed several times and died just after midnight Monday in the backyard of his yellow rental house. Parkerson, 20, is being held in Jefferson County Jail on a first-degree felony murder charge with bail set at $75,000.

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — A man says he reached down to pick up a stick lying in the gardening aisle of a Wal-Mart in eastern Washington state, only to discover that it was a rattlesnake that then bit his hand. Mica Craig says he was shopping in the outdoor garden department of a Clarkston store when he was bitten Saturday.