Former NFL football player Emmanuel Acho will step in as host of the special episode capping this season’s “The Bachelor,” after the series’ longtime host Chris Harrison temporarily stepped down after defending a contestant’s racist behavior.

Acho, author of last year’s New York Times bestseller “Uncomfortable Conversations With a...Read more

A second former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused him of sexual harassment, saying the governor asked several questions about her sex life and made her feel “horribly uncomfortable and scared.”

Charlotte Bennett, who was a health policy adviser and executive assistant to the governor, made the allegations in an interview published Saturday ...Read more

MENLO PARK, Calif. — South of San Francisco, the Sequoia Union High School District serves some of the Bay Area’s wealthiest communities, such as Atherton, Menlo Park and Woodside, as well as some of its neediest, including East Palo Alto, North Fair Oaks and Redwood City.

On Tuesday, the school district learned it had risen into a state ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Metro-area 911 centers lacked the technology to communicate amid jammed phone lines and crowded radio channels during rioting last year — and that has not changed as officials brace for the first trial in George Floyd's death.

With a larger solution still far off, state and local leaders are pinning their hopes on a patchwork ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A handful of protesters demonstrated outside the vaccine distribution site at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, but authorities reported no major issues.

The protest started around noon and drew 20 to 30 people, said Los Angeles Police Department Officer Sean Murray. No arrests had been reported by 2 p.m., nor were vaccination efforts...Read more

President Biden on Saturday promised fresh action on Saudi Arabia after the release of an intelligence report that that blamed Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

But Biden dodged questions about whether he would move to punish the powerful Saudi leader over the brazen torture murder carried ...Read more

NEW YORK — Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine was cleared for use in the U.S., making a third shot available that could plug gaps in the nation’s immunization campaign as concern grows over an influx of virus variants.

The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement on Saturday that it had granted an emergency-use authorization ...Read more

MIAMI — Visitors hiking the Mahogany Hammock Trail in Everglades National Park earlier this month spotted an unfamiliar snake. It turned out to be a brand new invasive species.

The hikers alerted park staff of the sighting. Park staff and biologists from the United States Geological Survey’s Fort Collins Science Center captured the snake, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A woman returned Lady Gaga’s stolen dogs to the Los Angeles Police Department on Friday, but the mystery over their kidnapping and the shooting of their dog walker only intensified.

The dogs were stolen in a brazen, violent attack in Hollywood. At 9:40 p.m. Wednesday, two men leapt out of a white sedan on North Sierra Bonita ...Read more

A New Orleans high school basketball game turned into a nightmare Friday after a man shot and killed a police officer near the gymnasium, authorities said.

The suspect, who was taken into custody immediately after the shooting, had gotten into an altercation with a staff member who refused to let him into the game at George Washington Carver ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — When Ruperto Robles, 60, came down with COVID-19 early last month, he spent days with fever, muscle aches and fatigue, isolated from others at the Yuba County Jail.

Robles is being held there by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, facing deportation. An uncle and cousin in Mexico died of complications from COVID-19. With ...Read more

NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised New Yorkers on Saturday for staying the course as coronavirus infection rates continued to decline to fresh, nearly three-month lows.

Even though COVID rates are declining a bit slower than elsewhere and New York City is lagging, Cuomo said, better days are ahead as more and more people get vaccinated.

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — As he readies for a reelection fight next year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is facing a barrage of criticism and even calls for a federal investigation into whether he is using the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine as a political tool to reward his supporters and donors.

But is it true DeSantis’ vaccine distribution is ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden called on lawmakers to quickly approve his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package, which passed the House of Representatives early Saturday and now heads to the Senate.

“It’s time to act,” Biden said in brief remarks Saturday at the White House, adding that an “overwhelming” percentage of the Americans ...Read more

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A U.S. intelligence report blaming the Saudi crown prince for a critic’s murder is being celebrated by some commentators in the kingdom as an effective vindication.

The four-page document released by President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday concluded that Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is struggling to address a persistent racial disparity in the U.S. coronavirus vaccination campaign that has seen white Americans receive a disproportionate share of shots, even in places that have large minority populations.

A patchwork approach in states to both administering vaccines and reporting data...Read more