MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) — A company that owns 20 McDonald’s franchises in the Nashville area is offering to pay tuition for employees who want to attend Middle Tennessee State University.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The mostly behind-the-scenes work of North Carolina House budget writers fashioning a proposed two-year government spending plan is getting unveiled.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A recovery center will open this week to help residents of Nicholas County impacted by recent severe flooding that occurred on Friday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced Wednesday.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Education is providing more than $516,000 to three higher education institutions in West Virginia to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state's U.S. senators said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia utility regulators have approved a rate increase request for two American Electric Power subsidiaries.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Oldcastle APG will expand its operations in Clarksville, creating 45 new jobs, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced.

GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A wind-driven wildfire tore through a Northern California mountain town, leaving much of the downtown in ashes and crews braced for another explosive run of flames in the midst of dangerous weather.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Toy maker Eric Poses created a card game last year he called The Worst-Case Scenario, a wry reference to the way the coronavirus had upended normal life.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Toy maker Eric Poses created a card game last year he called The Worst-Case Scenario, a wry reference to the way the coronavirus had upended normal life.

An overloaded van carrying 29 migrants crashed Wednesday on a remote South Texas highway, killing at least 10 people, including the driver, and injuring 20 others, authorities said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Four Republicans hoping to claim Gov. Gavin Newsom's job in a September recall election skirmished in their first debate Wednesday, labeling the incumbent Democrat a failure whose pandemic policies sent the state into a tailspin while hewing closely to familiar conservativ…

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A project to try to prevent youth suicide in Maine is receiving a nearly $850,000 boost from the federal government.

NEW YORK (AP) — He said his actions had been misconstrued, his words misunderstood. He said it was cultural: He hugs, he kisses, he says “Ciao, bella.” He said it was generational: Sometimes he lapses into “honey” or “sweetheart” or tells bad jokes.

GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — California’s largest wildfire has leveled much of the downtown and some surrounding homes in a small Northern California mountain community.

DENVER (AP) — A Black man who was pistol-whipped and choked by a suburban Denver police officer said Wednesday that he feared for his life during the violent confrontation that led to assault charges against the officer and later his resignation.

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Interim Tempe Police Chief Jeff Glover has been appointed to the job fulltime after nine months serving in the role. He is the city’s first Black police chief.

TUBA CITY, Ariz. (AP) — Hopi law enforcement officials are investigating the death of a man who was swept away by floodwaters.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Lt. Gov. Howie Morales has said the state is stepping in to ensure a timely chile harvest after growers and producers raised concerns about an inadequate supply of labor.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Four Republicans hoping to claim Gov. Gavin Newsom's job in a September recall election skirmished in their first debate Wednesday, labeling the incumbent Democrat a failure whose pandemic policies sent the state into a tailspin while hewing closely to familiar conservativ…

GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Northern California wildfire engulfs small town, levels much of downtown amid increasing fire danger.

NEAH BAY, Wash. (AP) — The remote Makah Indian reservation in northwest Washington is reinstating COVID-19 restrictions meant to limit the spread of the virus amid an outbreak there.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — New York real estate heir Robert Durst is expected to take the stand at his Los Angeles County murder trial on Thursday.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A key protection against evictions would be restored and a new round of funding would flow to utilities to cover unpaid customer bills under legislation advancing through the Democrat-controlled Virginia General Assembly.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia House and Senate gave initial approval Wednesday to budget legislation allocating billions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief money, each passing slightly different bills that lawmakers will have to reconcile.

ENCINO, Texas (AP) — Authorities say at least 10 dead, 20 injured after van carrying migrants crashes in Texas (CORRECTS death toll to 10).

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Sheriff’s deputies have released additional details about the June shooting of a bear at a rental home near Lake Tahoe in an effort to dispel what they say is misinformation about what led to the animal’s death.

CANTERBURY, N.H. (AP) — For almost three decades, 81-year-old David Lidstone has lived in the woods of New Hampshire along the Merrimack River in a small cabin adorned with solar panels. He has grown his own food, cut his own firewood, and tended to his pets and chickens.

PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix school district wants a judge to dismiss a lawsuit over its mask mandate, which could be a test case for other districts, arguing a state law banning such policy isn’t in effect yet.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Four accused members of the violent MS-13 gang have been indicted in Las Vegas on racketeering conspiracy charges stemming from 10 killings and abductions that police and the FBI identified in 2018, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Investigators say a rain-soaked runway and the pilots' failure to anticipate the poor conditions caused a plane chartered by the Pentagon to slide into a Florida river two years ago.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Penn State University will require students, staff and visitors at all its campuses to wear masks while indoors, the school announced Wednesday, responding to a statewide surge in coronavirus cases.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's most populous county reported more than 4,380 active cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, officials said, with a quarter of those being seen in children as schools prepare to resume classes next week.

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was killed in a head-on crash in southern Arizona last weekend.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The number of students and staff at an east Arkansas school district who have quarantined because of a coronavirus outbreak grew to more than 700 on Wednesday as lawmakers debated whether to allow schools to mandate masks.

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia man who tried to fraudulently obtain over $1.5 million in COVID-19 relief from two federal programs will spend two and a half years in prison, the Department of Justice said.

DALLAS (AP) — The increasing rates of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Texas are showing steeper jumps than past surges, state health officials said Wednesday as they stressed the need to be fully vaccinated to slow the state's third wave brought on by the delta variant.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Searchers have scoured miles of land in rural western Idaho, drained canals and combed over security footage for the past week, but authorities said a 5-year-old boy who was last seen July 27 is still missing.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Milwaukee man whose two young children were left unsupervised near a gun was charged Wednesday in the inadvertent shooting death of his son.

CHICAGO (AP) — Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx won't file criminal charges against a suburban Chicago police officer who accidentally shot a teenager during a shootout with a suspected bank robber, she said Wednesday.

ATLANTA (AP) — A second man was charged Wednesday in connection with last summer's shooting death of an 8-year-old Atlanta girl who was killed near the site where police had fatally shot a Black man weeks earlier.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Hospitals in Birmingham are seeing a surge in COVID-19 patients — usually unvaccinated and often younger — as doctors and administrators pleaded Wednesday for people to get vaccinated.

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) — The Navajo Nation on Wednesday reported 34 new COVID-19 cases, but no additional deaths for the fourth consecutive day.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon health care workers will be required to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing, Gov. Kate Brown announced Wednesday.

SEATTLE (AP) — Online food delivery platform Postmates has agreed to pay almost $1 million to settle allegations it violated the city’s paid sick leave policies for gig workers, Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards said.

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (AP) — A man wounded by police after he allegedly fired on officers investigating a fatal shooting in suburban Denver is suspected of being involved in the earlier shooting, police said Wednesday.

PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga. (AP) — A California company that makes surgical robots will invest $500 million in an Atlanta-area expansion, hiring 1,200 new workers by 2024.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A group of Oklahoma City landlords agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a lawsuit alleging its former agent sexually harassed female tenants, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts voters next year could be asked to weigh in on more than two dozen proposed ballot questions submitted to the state attorney general's office Wednesday, although if history is any guide only a handful will likely make it through the laborious signature-gathering p…

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Known as a journalist who asked tough questions and an all-around stand-up guy, former Associated Press correspondent and public servant Ed Moreno has died. He was 67.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky reported more than 2,500 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, the highest daily number since early February as the governor warned that the growing outbreak will lead to more deaths.