In the Nation

AKRON, Ohio - A restaurant owner who hosted President Obama for breakfast on Friday became ill and died hours later. Josephine "Ann" Harris, 70, of Copley Township, died of natural causes Friday morning, said forensic investigator Jason Grom, with the Summit County medical examiner's office.

Hours earlier, she had hugged Obama when he arrived at her Ann's Place restaurant. The Akron Beacon Journal interviewed her afterward and described her as ecstatic.

After returning home, Harris became ill. Grom said she went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance en route to a hospital. White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama called Harris' daughter Wilma Parsons from Air Force One to express his condolences. - AP

SYLVAN BEACH, N.Y. - A motorboat struck a buoy on a central New York lake during a nighttime outing, killing a man and two of his adult sons, authorities said Friday.

The bodies of Anthony Aceto, 66, of Utica; Stephen Aceto, 41, of Tampa, Fla.; and Timothy Aceto, 33, of Whitesboro, were recovered Friday morning near where the boat sank late Thursday on Oneida Lake, Lt. James McCarthy of the Oneida County Sheriff's Office said.

A third son, Anthony, 39, of Whitesboro, was rescued by friends who were boating nearby, McCarthy said. He was being treated for a broken shoulder and ribs. - AP

SEATTLE - The Obama administration said Friday that two more states, Washington and Wisconsin, would be exempted from many requirements of the federal "No Child Left Behind" education law.

The decision brings to 26 the number of states granted waivers as Congress remains at a stalemate regarding an overhaul to former President George W. Bush's signature accomplishment. With so many states now free from many of the law's requirements, there are questions about the future of No Child Left Behind.

The law requires all students to achieve proficient math and reading scores by 2014, a goal many educators say is impossible. The Education Department began granting the waivers in February in exchange for promises from states to improve how they prepare and evaluate students. - AP

Violent thunderstorms swept through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, toppling large trees throughout the popular tourist spot and killing at least two people. The storms hit Thursday evening at the west end of the 500,000-acre, densely forested reserve on the Tennessee-North Carolina line.

New York City police responding to a gas leak at an apartment in the Bronx found two young children dead and a woman with lacerations to her wrists. Police said Friday that the 5-year-old boy and 4-month-old girl were killed in an apparent murder-suicide attempt.

Marine mammal specialists have descended on an Alaska aquarium to help care for a newborn baby beluga whale that became separated from its mother. The male calf is at Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, being fed by a stomach tube while learning how to suckle from a bottle.