Prosecutors dropped a case Wednesday accusing Kevin Spacey of groping a young man at a resort island bar in 2016 after the accuser refused to testify about a missing cellphone the defense says contains information supporting the actor’s claims of innocence. Spacey was charged with indecent assault and battery last year in… Read More

Authorities say an Alabama police officer has been shot multiple times by a suspected armed robber who was then killed in a shootout in downtown Birmingham. Birmingham Police Chief Patrick D. Smith tells news outlets officers were responding to a reported robbery at a convenience store Wednesday night when they… Read More

Officials in West Palm Beach are hoping a continuous loop of children’s songs played throughout the night will keep homeless people from sleeping on the patio of a city-owned rental banquet facility. West Palm Beach parks and recreation director Leah Rockwell tells the Palm Beach Post they’re trying to discourage people from… Read More

Two little blue penguins just couldn’t stay away from a New Zealand sushi store, returning to nest there even after police had captured them and escorted them back to the ocean. Wellington police described them as “waddling vagrants,” while the store’s co-owner joked he had no idea that word of… Read More

A brown bear in Italy has eluded capture for a third day, following its escape from an electrified enclosure in a forested Alpine region. Appeals mounted urging authorities not to shoot it. It’s not clear how the bear got past an electrified fence, then scaled a nearly 4-meter (13-foot) high… Read More

Former Boston Red Sox infielder Elijah “Pumpsie” Green, the first black player on the last major league team to field one, has died. He was 85. The Red Sox said Green, who lived in California most of his life, died Wednesday at in a hospital in San Leandro, near Oakland;… Read More

A 250-pound tortoise that wandered away from its home has been rescued after California Highway Patrol officers found it on the side of a road. And no, they didn’t arrest it for speeding. The highway patrol says it got a call about the big reptile Sunday evening. It was spotted… Read More

“It’s on!” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says she’s ready for a culinary duel with her neighbors to the north after the governor of Colorado proclaimed on social media that chile grown in his state is the best and will be stocked in grocery stores across four Western states…. Read More

Police in Tennessee have asked residents not to toss drugs down the toilet, saying it could create “meth-gators” and stoned waterfowl. Loretto Police Department issued the Facebook warning “on a more or less serious note” after arresting a man accused of trying to flush methamphetamine. The statement says flushed items… Read More