Police investigating bad checks say they found much more: A Detroit-area impostor who inspired a 1989 award-winning film was posing like someone else — again.

William Street Jr., 64, was charged in federal court with fraud and identity theft after he was found with documents and a white doctor's coat with the name of a Maryland man, William Benn Stratton.

A 4-mile stretch of beach in south Los Angeles County was closed Thursday after tar balls washed ashore — the latest Southern California coastline to shut down due to oily goo, authorities said.

The Long Beach Fire Department ordered the closure Wednesday night over concerns the material could cause skin irritation or other adverse health effects.

Islamic State militants have reduced the amount of water flowing to government-held areas in Iraq's western Anbar province, officials said Thursday, a move that highlights the use of water as a weapon of war and puts more pressure on Iraqi forces struggling to claw back ground held by the extremists in the Sunni heartland.

The development is not the first time that water has been used as a weapon in Mideast conflicts and in Iraq in particular. Earlier this year, the Islamic State group reduced the flow through a lock outside the militant-held town of Fallujah, also in Anbar province. But the extremists soon reopened it after criticism from residents.

Taliban representatives have concluded two days of meetings with a group of Afghan lawmakers and peace negotiators in the Norwegian capital Oslo, a Taliban spokesman and the Afghan president's office said on Friday.

In an email to media organizations, the Taliban's Zabihullah Mujahid said the discussions were informal and could not be categorized as "peace talks."

An effort to use a fake, life-sized orca to scare off hundreds of sea lions crowding docks off the Oregon coast ended, at least temporarily, Thursday night with the fiberglass creature belly-up after it was swamped by a passing ship.

Still, Port of Astoria Executive Director Jim Knight said the sea lions briefly "got deathly silent" when the orca sailed into view. That was just before it started listing and tipped over.

There's a new Chinese restaurant in Rochester. The name? I Don't Know.

Seriously, the I Don't Know Chinese Restaurant recently opened in the western New York city. Owner Jessie Dong tells the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester (http://on.rocne.ws/1K98JYg ) that said she came up with the unusual name because whenever she would ask her three children what they wanted to eat, their response would be: "I don't know."

Sorry, baby, your picture isn't going to be on the front of any beer bottles in New Hampshire.

Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan on Tuesday vetoed a measure that would have allowed some images of minors to grace alcoholic beverage labels as long as they didn't encourage young people to drink.

North Pole residents can put marijuana on their Christmas list next year.

The city council in North Pole, Alaska, rejected a measure Monday that would have banned marijuana dispensaries. Marijuana became legal in Alaska in February, and sales begin next year.

Chemistry books say there are three fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas.

Lately you could get the impression that coal is the only one.

A bird flu vaccine doesn't work well enough to approve it for emergency use against the outbreak that's shaken the American poultry industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday.

The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said in a statement Wednesday that the current vaccine is not well matched against the highly pathogenic H5N2 virus and doesn't provide enough protection.