Forecasters say a severe weather outbreak is possible Tuesday with powerful, long-track tornadoes and enormous hail predicted in some central and southern Plains states. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, says the most dangerous weather is predicted for a 55,000-square-mile area stretching from northern Oklahoma to southern Nebraska, including… Read More

Kobe Bryant’s recent mention of the Great Big Idaho Potato Truck might have helped save the traveling advertisement from a premature retirement, according to the head of a state agency that promotes Idaho potatoes. The recently retired Los Angeles Lakers guard remarked on the red truck while talking with an… Read More

Connecticut’s highest court has ruled that lawsuits against cigarette manufacturers aren’t prohibited by an exemption in liability law, bolstering the case of a smoker who got cancer and won a $28 million judgment against a tobacco company. The decision was released Monday. The Connecticut Supreme Court was asked to decide… Read More

Billy Paul, a jazz and soul singer best known for the No. 1 hit ballad and “Philadelphia Soul” classic “Me and Mrs. Jones,” died Sunday. Paul, whose career spanned for more than 60 years, died at his home in Blackwood, New Jersey, his co-manager, Beverly Gay, told The Associated Press…. Read More

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady must serve a four-game “Deflategate” suspension imposed by the NFL, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, overturning a lower judge and siding with the league in a battle with the players union. A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in… Read More

Brian Nelson’s years in solitary confinement left him terrified of other people, and he says he can still taste the concrete dust from his cell, even though he’s been free since 2010. The 51-year-old is afraid to ride the bus, he takes five psychotropic drugs and sees a psychiatrist every… Read More

Animal control officers have captured an apparently domesticated tiger that was spotted roaming a residential neighborhood in a South Texas city. The Conroe Police Department says it received several phone calls Thursday from residents who saw the young, female tiger wandering around the city. Animal control officers captured the tiger,… Read More

A YU-U-U-GE name is the most popular suggested replacement name for a Texas elementary school named after the top hero of the Confederacy. Donald J. Trump Elementary was the most popular suggestion with 45 submissions out of 240 received, according to Austin Independent School District officials. The second-most popular suggestion… Read More

Officials praised the quick actions of police and district staff to stop an 18-year-old gunman, saying they averted what could have been a much worse attack on a high school prom in Wisconsin. Two students were injured when the gunman — identified by police as Jakob E. Wagner — fired… Read More

An 18-year-old man was shot and killed in Philadelphia in what appeared to be retaliation for the death of a 21-year-old man who was shot while talking to a candidate for the Pennsylvania House, police said. Officials said a man was shot in the head Sunday afternoon while speaking to… Read More