BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The first big snowfall of the season blanketed towns along Lake Erie on Saturday in the middle of the hectic holiday travel and shopping weekend, and numbing cold and heavy snow were forecast to persist into next week and cause hazards in the Great Lakes, Plains and Midwest regions.

The U.S. Navy is transforming a costly flub into a potent weapon with the first shipborne hypersonic weapon, which is being retrofitted aboard the first of its three stealthy destroyers.

ON BOARD THE SANTA TRAIN (AP) — Since 1943, the people of Appalachian Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee have looked forward to Santa's arrival. Not in a sleigh on their rooftops, but on a train.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade kicked off Thursday morning in New York City with a steady rain that added ponchos and umbrellas to the lineup of balloons, floats, and star-studded performances.

NEW YORK (AP) — A number of President-elect Donald Trump's most prominent Cabinet picks and appointees have been targeted by bomb threats and “swatting attacks," Trump's transition team said Wednesday. The FBI said it was investigating.

DANIA BEACH, Florida (AP) — As immigration remains a hotly contested priority for the Trump administration after playing a decisive role in the deeply polarized election, the Border Patrol agents tasked with enforcing many of its laws are wrestling with growing challenges on and off the job.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Transgender students from kindergarten through college at Ohio public and private schools will be banned from using multiperson bathrooms that fit their gender identities under a measure signed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (KT) – The Family Foundation of Kentucky has joined an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a law protecting children from online pornography.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Married couples across the U.S. have had access to no-fault divorce for more than 50 years, an option many call crucial to supporting domestic abuse victims and key to preventing already crowded family courts from drowning in complicated divorce proceedings.

DALLAS (AP) — Just as there are good odds the turkey will taste dry, airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed during Thanksgiving week, a holiday period likely to end in another record day for air travel in the United States.

NEW YORK (AP) — Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of “Wheel of Fortune,” “Love Connection” and “Scrabble” who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about COVID-19, has died. He was 83.

WINDSOR, Calif. (AP) — Forecasters through the U.S. issued warnings that another round of winter weather could complicate travel leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, while California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Planet Earth is parting company with an asteroid that’s been tagging along as a “mini moon” for the past two months.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ education board voted Friday to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (KT) – The anonymous woman challenging Kentucky's abortion bans is no longer pregnant. In a Wednesday court filing, her lawyers stated Mary Poe still has standing to sue on behalf of pregnant Kentuckians who desire to end their pregnancies.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Just a few hours after passing Missouri constitutional Amendment 3, abortion industry lawyers filed a lawsuit in Kansas City, asserting their new fundamental right to make money by providing abortions in Missouri.

FORESTVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A major storm continued to drop heavy snow and record rain Friday as it moved through Northern California, closing roads and prompting evacuations in some areas, after killing two people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands in the Pacific Northwest.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A parole board decided unanimously Wednesday that Susan Smith should remain in prison, despite her plea that God has forgiven her for killing her two young sons 30 years ago by rolling her car into a South Carolina lake while they were strapped in their car seats.

SEATTLE (AP) — A major storm swept across the northwest U.S., battering the region with strong winds and rain, causing widespread power outages and downing trees that killed at least one person.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's state Supreme Court on Monday weighed in on a flashpoint amid ongoing vote counting in the U.S. Senate election between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick, ordering counties not to count mail-in ballots that lack a correct handwritten date on the return envelope.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Around the country, advocates for Christian education have been finding legal ways to tap taxpayer money used more typically for public schools. One new approach in Ohio is benefiting schools tied to a burgeoning conservative political group and facing objections from defenders of the separation of church and state.

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — A criminal network stretching from India to Canada made money smuggling families seeking better lives in the United States, including a man who died holding his 3-year-old son in gusting snow and bone-chilling temperatures two years ago, federal prosecutors plan to argue at a trial starting Monday in Minnesota.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two people were killed and 10 others were wounded in two separate shootings along a New Orleans parade route and celebration attended by thousands on Sunday, authorities said. There were no immediate arrests.

POMONA, Calif. (AP) — Three people were hurt aboard a single-engine plane that crashed Sunday near a Southern California dragstrip where fans were gathered for the finals of a racing event, authorities said.

WEST MILFORD, N.J. (AP) — Firefighters were getting closer Friday to taming a wildfire burning across the New Jersey-New York border on Friday, increasing their encirclement of the hard-to-access blaze.