FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) — Like elsewhere across the state, rain has been scarce this summer at the University of Minnesota’s Turfgrass Research, Outreach and Education Center, making it a perfect year to study how well grass can survive a drought.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) — A California prison guard was arrested this week on suspicion of beating a Wells Fargo branch manager and calling him a racial slur after being asked to wear a mask inside the bank, police said.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — A Los Angeles jury convicted Robert Durst on Friday of murdering his best friend 20 years ago, a case that took on new life after the New York real estate heir participated in a documentary that connected him to the slaying that was linked to his wife’s 1982 disappearance.

SAN FRANCISCO — A grand jury has indicted two central California police officers on felony assault charges in the alleged beating of a Black teenager so severe that he was left with massive bruising on his face, the San Joaquin County district attorney announced Friday.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah county sheriff said Friday detectives have determined there is no connection between the disappearance of a Florida woman who went missing during a cross-country trip with her boyfriend and a still-unsolved slaying of two women who were fatally shot.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Tom Cruise got a sneak preview of what it’s like to circle Earth in a SpaceX capsule.

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kids across the U.S. are posting TikTok videos of themselves vandalizing school bathrooms and stealing soap dispensers and even turf from football fields, bedeviling school administrators seeking to contain the viral internet trend.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The mayor of San Francisco was spotted dancing and singing along to live music without a mask at an indoor nightclub, despite a strict order by her public health department that requires wearing masks at indoor establishments unless someone is actively eating or drinking.

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado state panel has recommended that a mountain peak west of Denver be renamed in honor of a Native American woman who acted as a translator for tribes and white settlers in the 19th century.

SEATTLE -- A summer of record-breaking heat waves and wildfires will end with snowfall in the Northwest this weekend after a major drop in temperatures.

LA PINE, Ore. — Jack Dwyer pursued a dream of getting back to the land by moving in 1972 to an idyllic, tree-studded parcel in Oregon with a creek running through it.

THREE RIVERS, Calif. — Firefighters wrapped the base of the world's largest tree in a fire-resistant blanket as they tried to save a famous grove of gigantic old-growth sequoias from wildfires burning Thursday in California’s rugged Sierra Nevada.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Police video shows a Florida woman who disappeared during a cross-country journey in a converted camper van had an emotional fight with her boyfriend in a Utah tourist town before she vanished.

CARSON CITY, Nev. — When a wildfire crested the mountains near North America's largest alpine lake, embers and ash that zipped across a smoky sky pierced Lake Tahoe’s clear blue waters.

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — A man who had been living in a car in the parking lot of a fitness center in Kalispell for several weeks shot and killed the center's manager after being told he could no longer stay there, the assistant manager said Thursday.

BOISE, Idaho — In another ominous sign about the spread of the delta variant, Idaho public health leaders on Thursday expanded health care rationing statewide and individual hospital systems in Alaska and Montana have enacted similar crisis standards amid a spike in the number of unvaccinate…

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming will ask the federal government to remove its protections for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region and permit the region's three states to manage and potentially allow hunting of the big bruins in certain areas, Gov. Mark Gordon said Thursday.

A white catfish caught in Connecticut last month has smashed a state record and could also be a world record for the species — though the evidence has been eaten.

MADRAS, Ore. (AP) — Phil Fine stands in a parched field and watches a harvester gnaw through his carrot seed crop, spitting clouds of dust in its wake. Cracked dirt lines empty irrigation canals, and dust devils and tumbleweeds punctuate a landscape in shades of brown.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX’s first private flight streaked into orbit Wednesday night with two contest winners, a health care worker and their rich sponsor, the most ambitious leap yet in space tourism.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A U.S. citizen living in Mexico who claimed ties to the Sinaloa cartel faces a 17-count indictment related to a drug trafficking operation between Mexico and Alaska, federal authorities announced Wednesday.

DOVER, Del. — A committee charged with representing tens of thousands of alleged victims of child sex abuse in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy asked the judge on Wednesday to terminate the BSA’s exclusive rights to file a reorganization plan, so that it can file its own.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman who vanished while on a nomadic cross-country trip in a converted camper van with her boyfriend is the subject of a nationwide search while authorities labeled him Wednesday as a person of interest in her disappearance.

SALT LAKE CITY — The state of Utah didn't do enough to make sure a remote highway was safe before a tour bus crashed, killing four people from China and injuring two dozen more in 2019, family and survivors said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Three of the Ohio prison guards involved in the February death of inmate Michael McDaniel were previously disciplined for excessive use of force or not intervening when inmates were in danger or guards used unjustified force, records show.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An federal appeals court on Wednesday allowed the Biden administration's selective criteria on who should be deported to remain in effect, rejecting one of Texas' challenges to the president's immigration policies.

CUSTER CITY, S.D. — Looking down a hillside dotted with large stumps and nearly devoid of trees, a pair of retired U.S. Forest Service employees lamented logging policies they helped craft to deal with two harbingers of climate change -- pine beetles and wildfires.

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — You can call it a saturation effort: The city of Henderson and Las Vegas Valley Water District say they're joining forces for enforcement patrols to identify water wasters in suburban southern Nevada.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — An Idaho man who served more than four years in federal custody for his part in an armed 2014 standoff against federal agents near states’ rights figure Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch is suing the U.S. government and prosecutors for damages.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Dozens of American Indian tribes asked the Biden administration Tuesday to immediately enact emergency protections for wolves, saying states have become too aggressive in hunting the animal.

Outside experts found no evidence of political interference in the state-by-state population totals from the 2020 census used for divvying up congressional seats, but their limited review didn't include demographic data or places smaller than states, according to a task force report released…

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The leader of a Mexican-based heroin trafficking ring that distributed the drug to cells operating in and around Portland and in southwestern Washington was sentenced Monday to just over eight years in federal prison.

HOUSTON — Tropical Storm Nicholas gathered strength Monday and threatened to blow ashore in Texas as a hurricane that could bring up to 20 inches of rain to parts of the Gulf Coast, including the same area hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and storm-battered Louisiana.

LAS VEGAS — A national advocacy group and a Nevada lawyer have filed a sweeping federal lawsuit aimed at convincing a judge the nation’s only legal brothels are dens of illegal sex trafficking and unconstitutional slavery.

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that police officers violated a man's constitutional rights when they installed a video camera on a utility pole near his home and spied on him for months without getting a search warrant.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Mexican man was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison Monday for trying to distribute methamphetamine that was dropped into the California desert by an airplane, authorities said.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana man who is the oldest living World War II veteran in the United States has marked his 112th birthday.

BOISE, Idah0 -- The Western U.S. is experiencing another severe fire season, and a recent study shows that even high mountain areas once considered too wet to burn are at increasing risk as the climate warms.

LOS  ANGELES -- As the sweltering summer of 2021 draws to a close, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed what you might have been thinking: This summer was an unusually hot one.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The leader of an Illinois anti-government militia group who authorities say masterminded the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque is to be sentenced Monday for several civil rights and hate crimes in an attack that terrified a community.