ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Manatee deaths dropped in 2022 from a record high the year before, but Florida wildlife officials said Wednesday that chronic starvation caused by water pollution remains a major concern. Preliminary statistics show 800 recorded manatee deaths last year in Florida, according to the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That compares with more than 1,100 in 2021. Both numbers are higher than the average annual deaths of the marine mammals.

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of flight delays and cancellations rippled across the U.S. early Wednesday after computer outage led to a grounding order for all departing aircraft by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA is working to restore what is known as the Notice to Air Missions System. Before commencing a flight, pilots are required to consult NOTAMs, or Notices to Air Missions, which list potential adverse impacts on flights, from runway construction to the potential for icing. The system used to be telephone-based, with pilots calling dedicated flight service stations for the information, but has now moved online.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Storm-ravaged California scrambled to clean up and repair widespread damage on Wednesday as the lashing rain eased in many areas, although the north could see thunderstorms and another powerful weather front was expected to hit the state Friday. At least 17 people have died in the storms battering the state. The figure is likely to rise, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday during a visit to the scenic town of Capitola on the Santa Cruz coast that was hard hit by high surf and flooding creek waters last week.

HYATTSVILLE, Md. (AP) — When Jamieson Brill answers a crisis call from a Spanish speaker on the newly launched national 988 mental health helpline, he rarely mentions the word suicide, or “suicidio.” Brill, whose family hails from Puerto Rico, knows that just discussing the term in some Spanish-speaking cultures is so frowned upon that many callers are too scared to even admit that they’re calling for themselves. “However strong stigma around mental health concerns is in English-speaking cultures, in Spanish-speaking cultures it is triple that,” said Brill, who helps people navigate mental health crises from a tiny brick building tucked away in Hyattsville, Maryland.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As another powerful storm walloped California, a 5-year-old boy was swept away by floodwaters Monday on the state’s central coast and an entire seaside community that is home to Prince Harry, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities was ordered to evacuate on the fifth anniversary of deadly mudslides there. Tens of thousands of people remained without power, and some schools closed for the day. Streets and highways transformed into gushing rivers, trees toppled, mud slid and motorists growled as they hit roadblocks caused by fallen debris. The death toll from the relentless string of storms climbed from 12 to 14 on Monday, after two people were killed by falling trees, state officials said.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California was hit with more turbulent weather Sunday as thunderstorms, snow and damaging winds swept into the northern part of the state, preceding another series of incoming storms and raising the potential for road flooding, rising rivers, and mudslides on soils already saturated after days of rain. The National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers" — storms that are long plumes of moisture stretching out into the Pacific capable of dropping staggering amounts of rain and snow.

DENVER (AP) — Searchers resumed looking on Sunday for a snowmobiler missing in a Colorado mountain avalanche that killed another snowmobiler the day before. The man still missing probably didn't survive, Grand County Sheriff Brett Schroetlin told The Associated Press.

ROJ CAMP, Syria (AP) — A woman who ran away from home in Alabama at the age of 20, joined the Islamic State group and had a child with one of its fighters says she still hopes to return to the United States, serve prison time if necessary, and advocate against the extremists. In a rare interview from the Roj detention camp in Syria where she is being held by U.S.-allied Kurdish forces, Hoda Muthana said she was brainwashed by online traffickers into joining the group in 2014 and regrets everything except her young son, now of pre-school age.

The white sedan cruised past the gray, three-story rental home on a dead-end street in Moscow, Idaho. Then again. And again. It was unusual behavior in the residential, hillside neighborhood in the quiet hours before dawn. And according to a police affidavit released Thursday, surveillance videos showing the vehicle that November night were key to unraveling the gruesome mystery of who killed four University of Idaho students inside the house.

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii's Kilauea began erupting inside its summit crater Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, less than one month after the volcano and its larger neighbor Mauna Loa stopped releasing lava. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory detected a glow in webcam images indicating Kilauea had begun erupting inside Halemaumau crater at the volcano's summit caldera, the agency said. Kilauea’s summit is inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and away from residential communities.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The DNA of the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students was found on a knife sheath recovered at the crime scene and cellphone data shows that in the months before the attack, he was in the area of the victims' home multiple times, an investigator said in court documents unsealed Thursday. The affidavit written by Brett Payne, a police corporal in Moscow, Idaho, was made public minutes before Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminal justice doctoral student at nearby Washington State University, was due to appear in court after being extradited Wednesday from Pennsylvania, where his parents live and where he was arrested.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Officials in California ordered evacuations in a high-risk coastal area where mudslides killed 23 people in 2018 as a huge storm barreled into the state Wednesday, bringing high winds and rain that threatened widespread flooding and knocked out power to more than 100,000 people. The storm was expected to dump up to 6 inches of rain in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area where most of the region would remain under flood warnings into late Thursday night. In Southern California, the storm was expected to peak in intensity overnight into early Thursday morning with Santa Barbara and Ventura counties likely to see the most rain, forecasters said.

ENOCH, Utah (AP) — A 42-year-old man killed seven family members, including five children, then killed himself two weeks after the suspect’s wife had filed for divorce, according to authorities and public records. Officials in the city of Enoch said Michael Haight, 42, killed his wife, mother-in-law, and the couple’s five children. Each of the victims appeared to have gunshot wounds, officials said.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has been chosen to serve as the 2023 states' co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. In the role, Beshear will work with federal co-chair Gayle Manchin and other governors to boost economic growth across 423 counties in 13 states, the Appalachian Regional Commission said Wednesday in a media release. In addition to facilitating investments, the states’ co-chair also hosts the commission's annual conference.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Major winter storms continued to dump on California and a stretch of the Upper Midwest on Wednesday, with heavy rain on the West Coast and heavy snow in the north-central states — as a possible tornado damaged homes in the South. A Delta jet went off an icy taxiway after landing in a snowstorm in Minneapolis on Tuesday but no passengers were injured, the airline said. The flight from Los Cabos, Mexico, had landed safely, but then the nose gear of the plane “exited the taxiway while turning toward the gate due to icy conditions,” Delta Airlines said.

MONTARA, Calif. (AP) — The driver of a car that plunged off a cliff in Northern California, seriously wounding two children and a second adult after the 250-foot drop, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and child abuse, the California Highway Patrol said Tuesday. Dharmesh A. Patel of Pasadena will be booked into San Mateo County Jail after he’s released from a hospital, the highway patrol said in a statement. It wasn't immediately known if Patel has an attorney.

MIAMI (AP) — Crew members aboard two cruise ships rescued around two dozen migrants in small boats, the latest episode of hundreds making or attempting landings in the Florida Keys over the past several days, authorities said. Crew members aboard Celebrity Beyond rescued 19 migrants from a crowded boat Monday, and crew members aboard Carnival Celebration spotted five people in distress on a small vessel about 29 miles northwest of Cuba.

BOSTON (AP) — The mastermind of the nationwide college admissions bribery scandal is set to be sentenced on Wednesday after helping authorities secure the convictions of a slew of wealthy parents involved in his scheme to rig the selection process at top-tier schools. Federal prosecutors are asking for six years behind bars for Rick Singer, who for more than a decade helped deep-pocketed parents get their often undeserving kids get into some of the nation's most selective schools with bogus test scores and athletic credentials.

DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) — Spectators on a Southern California whale-watching cruise were excited when they spotted a gray whale, then amazed when the giant mammal gave birth right in front of them. The birth and the first moments of the calf's life were recorded on cellphone and drone video Monday off Dana Point, south of Los Angeles.

MONTARA, Calif. (AP) — A 4-year-old girl, a 9-year-old boy and two adults survived Monday after their car plunged off a Northern California cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway near an area known as Devil’s Slide that’s known for fatal wrecks, officials said. The Tesla sedan plummeted more than 250 feet from the highway and crashed into a rocky outcropping. It appears to have flipped a few times before landing on its wheels, wedged against the cliff just feet from the surf, according to Brian Pottenger, a battalion chief for Coastside Fire Protection District/Cal Fire.

Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the first successful crewed space mission in NASA's Apollo program, died Tuesday in Houston. He was 90. NASA confirmed Cunningham’s death in a statement but did not include its cause. His family said through a spokesman, Jeff Carr, that Cunningham died in a hospital "from complications of a fall, after a full and complete life.”

STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man facing first-degree murder charges in the slayings of four University of Idaho students in November is not expected to fight extradition at a hearing Tuesday in Pennsylvania, where he was captured at his parents' home. Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student and teaching assistant in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, was taken into custody early Friday by state police in eastern Pennsylvania, authorities said.

NEW YORK (AP) — A man accused of attacking police with a machete near New York’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve was arrested on charges of attempting to murder officers, police said Monday as authorities continue to investigate whether he was motivated by Islamic extremism. Trevor Bickford, 19, also faces attempted assault charges from the attack that injured two officers at the edge of the high-security zone where throngs of new year's revelers were gathered, the New York Police Department said in a release.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Evacuation warnings were in place in rural Northern California on New Year's Day after a powerful storm brought drenching rain or heavy snowfall to much of the state, breaching levees, snarling traffic and closing major highways. Major flooding occurred in agricultural areas about 20 miles south of Sacramento, where rivers swelled beyond their banks and inundated dozens of cars along State Route 99. Emergency crews rescued motorists on New Year's Eve into Sunday morning and the highway remained closed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With security threats to Supreme Court justices still fresh memories, Chief Justice John Roberts on Saturday praised programs that protect judges, saying that “we must support judges by ensuring their safety.”