BOSTON (AP) — Celebrity chef Mario Batali is opting to have a judge decide his fate in his sexual misconduct trial in Boston. Batali confirmed his decision to waive his right to a jury trial as the indecent assault and battery trial opened Monday morning.

NEW YORK (AP) — The man behind the wheel of the car that barreled through crowds of pedestrians in New York City’s Times Square, killing a woman and injuring 22 other people, is finally headed to trial five years later. Opening statements are expected Monday in the trial of Richard Rojas, who told police after his arrest that he had been smoking marijuana laced with the hallucinogenic drug PCP before plowing through helpless tourists in Manhattan.

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Dangerous gusts and sustained winds are picking up again in the Southwest, hampering efforts to battle a wildfire in northeast New Mexico that has burned an area twice as large as the city of Philadelphia. More than 1,500 firefighters were on the fire lines east and northeast of Santa Fe on Sunday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Country star Mickey Gilley has died. He was 86. He was known for such hits as “Window Up Above" and for the Texas honky-tonk he owned that inspired the hit film “Urban Cowboy."

ST. LOUIS (AP) — An aggressive effort in St. Louis is trying to lure Afghan refugees. About 600 have made it to the Midwestern city so far and another 750 are expected by later this year. Civic leaders are hopeful that over the next few years, thousands more will decide to locate to St. Louis, helping to offset seven decades of population loss and rejuvenate urban neighborhoods — just as the arrival of Bosnian refugees did three decades ago.

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Weather conditions described as potentially historic are on tap for New Mexico on Saturday and over the next several days as the largest fire burning in the U.S. chews through more tinder-dry mountainsides. The blaze already has left many families homeless and thousands of residents have evacuated rural areas of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities in Tennessee say they have located an abandoned vehicle used by a man wanted in Alabama for murder and the jail official who disappeared with him. Williamson County Sheriff said via Twitter on Friday that a vehicle used by escaped Alabama inmate Casey White and former Correctional Officer Vicky White was located in Bethesda.

Over the past three decades, birth rates have declined for women in their 20s and jumped for women in their late 30s and early 40s. That's according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau released this spring ahead of Mother's Day.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire Republicans have rejected efforts by Democrats to enshrine abortion rights into state law in response to the leak of a draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade case.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is gearing up for a vote on legislation that would codify abortion rights into federal law. Senate Democrats are planning the vote for next week in response to the Supreme Court’s leaked draft decision that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX has returned four astronauts from the International Space Station with a midnight splashdown off the Florida coast. Friday's homecoming for the three Americans and one German caps the busiest month yet for Elon Musk's space taxi service.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is preparing for a world without Roe v. Wade. Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed to make the state a sanctuary for women seeking abortions in states where the procedure might be outlawed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators are strictly limiting who can receive Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine due to a rare but serious risk of blood clots. The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday the shot should only be given to adults who cannot receive a different vaccine or specifically request J&J’s vaccine.

SEMINOLE, Okla. (AP) — A storm system spawned several tornadoes that whipped through areas of Texas and Oklahoma, causing damage to a school, a marijuana farm and other structures. There were no reports of serious injuries following the Wednesday night tornadoes, but the system was causing flooding in parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas and more stormy weather is expected later Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — John Roberts is heading a Supreme Court in crisis. The chief justice has already ordered an investigation into the unprecedented leak this week of a draft of a major abortion opinion. What comes next could further test Roberts’ leadership of a court.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — More than half of abortions in America are now done with pills, rather than surgery. The battle over access to medication abortions will only grow in importance if the Supreme Court follows through with its leaked draft opinion that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision and allow individual states to ban the procedure.

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Firefighters have slowed the advance of the largest wildfire in the U.S. as heavy winds relented. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has approved a disaster declaration that brings new financial resources to remote stretches of northern New Mexico devastated by fire.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts, in ordering an investigation into an “egregious breach of trust” in the leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion, has tasked a relatively unknown court official to carry out what could be one of the most high-profile investigations in decades.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma has joined Texas this week with new abortion restrictions. The new law signed Tuesday by Oklahoma's governor offers a preview of what abortion care might look like if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A procession of family, friends and colleagues gathered to honor late U.S. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, who is lying in state in Salt Lake City. Hatch died on April 23 in Salt Lake City at age 88. He was honored in the Utah Capitol rotunda on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The traditionally insular Supreme Court is about to face the full force of public pressure and abortion politics. The justices are deciding whether to throw out the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. A leaked draft opinion suggests the conservative justices are prepared to overturn the 1973 opinion that gives women legal access to the procedure.

BOSTON (AP) — The Satanic Temple is requesting to fly a flag over Boston City Hall after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the city violated the free speech rights of a conservative activist seeking to fly a Christian flag outside the downtown building. The Salem-based group tweeted a copy of an application it filed with the city Tuesday to raise a flag to mark Satanic Appreciation Week in July.

Eminem, Lionel Richie, Carly Simon, Eurythmics, Duran Duran and Pat Benatar have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a list that also includes Dolly Parton, who initially resisted the honor. Parton had gone on social media to “respectfully bow out” of the process, saying she did not want to take votes away from the remaining nominees and had not “earned that right.” The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation responded by saying ballots had already been sent and it was up to the voters to decide if Parton was elected.

FLORENCE, Ala. (AP) — Authorities say an Alabama inmate had a “special relationship” with the jail official authorities believe assisted his escape. The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office said in a Tuesday news release that inmates indicated there was a special relationship between the two, and investigators were able to confirmed that.

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Residents of the small northeast New Mexico town of Las Vegas have been watching aircraft disappear into a giant plume of smoke to fight a growing wildfire that has burned hundreds of square miles, destroyed about 170 homes and threatens more destruction. Officials on Tuesday predicted winds will return this weekend to whip again through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.