Huffington Wires | AP

LOS ANGELES — HBO is defending its treatment of horses used in filming the racetrack drama "Luck" after two of the animals died during production.

The horses were injured and euthanized during production of the series that stars Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte. The deaths occurred a year apart in 2010 and 2011 and have drawn complaints from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

NEW YORK — The actor who played the father on the 1970s comedy series "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," has died. Philip Bruns was 80.

Spokesman Joseph Armillas says Bruns died Wednesday in Los Angeles of natural causes.

LOS ANGELES — Tony Bennett performed on the very first Grammy Awards, and as he returns for the 54th show this Sunday, the singer says it never gets old.

He loves the Grammys because "it's the only place where all the performers get together in one weekend" – and he actually knows most of them.

SAN DIEGO — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi predicts that five large states will put Democrats in striking distance of gaining control of the House after the November elections.

Pelosi said Friday in San Diego that she expects gains in California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas will leave Democrats only about a half-dozen seats short.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Fishermen and federal officials are grappling with the increasingly bleak prospect of finding a way for the fishing industry to survive troubles in the health of Gulf of Maine cod.

Fishermen, scientists and regulators met Friday in Portsmouth, N.H.

WARNER TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Best-selling author Jeffrey Zaslow has died after he lost control of his car on a snowy road in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula. He was 53.

Literary agent Gary Morris says Zaslow was killed Friday. Zaslow was co-author of "The Last Lecture" and recently released "The Magic Room." He was also a columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

REDWATER, Alberta — The general manager of a Canadian motorcoach travel company says about 30 people have been injured after a bus rolled over on a highway near Edmonton, Alberta.

Red Arrow general manager John Stepovy said Friday that the vehicle was an overflow bus on a regularly scheduled run from Fort McMurray, Alberta to Edmonton. He says all 36 seats on the bus were full.

PROVO, Utah — A YouTube video of a white comedian who painted his face black and quizzed Brigham Young University students about Black History Month has brought some unwanted attention to the Mormon-run school.

Observers have called some student responses ignorant while others criticized the comedian's use of the 19th century theater technique considered racially offensive by black people.

INDIANAPOLIS — One car each from Ed Carpenter Racing and Jay Penske's Lotus Dragon Racing team have been selected as the final two members of the IndyCar Leaders Circle program.

Eighteen of the 20 cars finished in the top 22 in entrants points last season, and on Friday series officials exercised their option to award money to two additional teams planning to run full-time schedules in 2012. Each club member will receive about $1.1 million if the cars qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and the race in China, and will compete for bonuses ranging from $35,000 for first place to $10,000 for fifth at each race with the exception of Indy.

WASHINGTON — The White House says it won't recoil from raising grave human rights concerns during a get-acquainted visit next week by China's likely future leader.

The senior director for Asian affairs, Daniel Russel, says a U.S. goal of Vice President Xi Jinping's trip would be for him to understand issues that are important to America, including the situation in Tibet, and freedom of speech and religion.

WASHINGTON — Regulators have closed small banks in Illinois and Indiana, increasing to nine the number of U.S. bank failures this year, a slower pace than in 2011, when there were 92 bank closures.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday seized Charter National Bank and Trust, based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., with $93.9 million in assets and $89.5 million in deposits, and SCB Bank, based in Shelbyville, Ind., with $182.6 million in assets and $171.6 million in deposits.

MEXICO CITY — A court document says U.S. agents have evidence that drug cartel leaders paid millions to the governor of a Mexican border state and other members of the country's former ruling party to gain political influence.

A 13-page DEA complaint filed in a Texas federal court says four informants reported that the leaders of the Gulf and Zetas cartels paid members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party including Tomas Yarrington, who served as governor of Tamaulipas state in 1999-2004. The DEA says a ledger it obtained supports the allegations.

POMONA, Calif. — Bob Tasca raced to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position in Funny Car on Friday in the season-opening NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway.

Morgan Lucas led the Top Fuel field, and Mike Edwards topped the Pro Stock competition after the second round of qualifying.

PHOENIX — A fight broke out during a funeral at a Phoenix church after a friend of the departed punched a man who had reportedly been fighting with the deceased before he died.

Phoenix police say the fight broke out Friday afternoon when the unidentified friend recognized the other man and punched him "in honor of the fallen."

SAN FRANCISCO — It turns out Netflix's fourth-quarter earnings aren't quite as good as the video subscription service told investors a couple weeks ago.

The company lowered its net income by 14 percent to account for a $9 million payment that will be made as part of a legal settlement reached after the Jan. 25 release of Netflix's results for the final three months of last year.

NEW YORK — A mother who tossed her toddler into the Hudson River after a sudden onset of psychosis can return to India and her children. Manhattan prosecutors have agreed she was mentally ill but has improved.

A judge said Friday Devi Silvia can continue treatment in India. New York authorities will monitor her progress.

DETROIT — Kid Rock has posted an expletive-laced letter criticizing a columnist who reported that some of the musician's "Made in Detroit" T-shirts are not made in the city or the U.S.

Detroit Free Press Columnist Susan Tompor wrote Monday that some "Made in Detroit" T-shirts are manufactured overseas, while some adult-sized T-shirts were missing labels.

PORTLAND, Maine — The spouse of Maine U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree hopes to give a boost to the financially struggling company that owns The Portland Press Herald, helping it to pay down debt and to grow.

MaineToday Media announced Friday that it had reached terms with Maine Values LLC that includes a loan valued at between $3 million and $4 million. Maine Values is owned by North Haven resident S. Donald Sussman, a wealthy financier and philanthropist who's married to Pingree.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Corey Pavin shot an 8-under 64 on Friday to take a two-shot lead over Fred Funk, Bernhard Langer and Peter Senior after the first round of the Allianz Championship.

Pavin, winless in 34 career starts in the Champions Tour, had six birdies in a seven-hole stretch to shoot a back-nine 29 at Broken Sound Golf Club. He won 15 PGA Tour titles and holds the nine-hole scoring record of 8-under 26, set on the front nine in the 2006 U.S. Bank Championship at Brown Deer Park.

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says he thinks it would be wrong to allow women to serve in combat.

As one reason, Santorum cites "the emotions of men." The White House hopeful says there is the potential that men will not be focused on their combat mission but on what he calls a "natural instinct" to protect a woman.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan prosecutors say two women have been ordered to appear in court for allegedly posing children with assault rifles during a public event organized by an armed group that supports President Hugo Chavez.

Friday's announcement comes a day after Chavez said he had ordered an investigation into the Jan. 23 incident.

NEW YORK — Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has lowered its ratings on 34 Italian banks, citing concerns over Italy's financial vulnerability and expectations for weak profits at the banks.

Among the banks downgraded Friday were some of Italy's largest, including UniCredit SpA, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA.

SEATTLE — The dispatcher who took a much-criticized 911 call from a social worker trying to alert authorities to danger at Josh Powell's house before he killed himself and his children says the case has been "a nightmare."

The dispatcher says in an interview with "Dateline NBC" airing that he didn't realize who the social worker was talking about when she mentioned Powell's name. Powell was a person of interest in his wife's 2009 Utah disappearance and had lost custody of his two sons.

OCALA, Fla. — Authorities say an apparent spark within the high-oxygen chamber of a Florida equine sports medicine center triggered a massive explosion that tore a hole in the roof of the building, killing a worker and a horse.

The Marion County Sheriff's office said 28-year-old Erica Marshall died in the Friday explosion at Kesmarc Florida in Ocala. A second worker was taken to a Gainesville hospital with serious injuries.

SAN FRANCISCO — Information provided by a California death row inmate who was one of the two notorious "Speed Freak Killers" led to the discovery Friday of a second set of human remains, this time believed to belong to a 16-year-old girl who went missing nearly three decades ago.

Specially trained dogs led authorities to a partial human skull and bones buried on a remote Calaveras County property, said Deputy Les Garcia, spokesman for the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department, which is leading the search.