YANKEETOWN, Fla. (AP) — A freshwater spring bubbles amid the mangroves, cabbage palms and red cedars on Sweetheart Island, a two-acre uninhabited patch of paradise about a mile off the coast of this little Gulf Coast town. Pelicans divebomb nearby into the cool waters of Florida's Withlacoochee Bay and the open view westward holds the promise of dazzling sunsets.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Authorities on Thursday were trying to determine who sent suspicious letters, including some filled with fentanyl or other substances, to local election offices, an attack that appears to have targeted multiple states. Officials in at least three states — Georgia, Oregon and Washington — reported concerns over letters targeting election workers.

NEW YORK (AP) — Surgeons have performed the world’s first transplant of an entire human eye, an extraordinary addition to a face transplant — although it’s far too soon to know if the man will ever see through his new left eye. An accident with high-voltage power lines had destroyed most of Aaron James’ face and one eye. His right eye still works.

After delaying college for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jaden Todd wasn’t sure a four-year school was the right place to start. “I was extremely concerned that I forgot how to learn,” he said. Community college appealed as a stepping stone, but he also had heard stories of students who had to start over when they transferred because their credits didn't count at the new school.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Eight people died Wednesday when the driver of a car suspected of carrying smuggled migrants fled police and smashed into an oncoming vehicle on a South Texas highway. The crash happened around 6:30 a.m. when the driver of a 2009 Honda Civic tried to outrun deputies from the Zavala County Sheriff’s Office and attempted to pass a semi truck, the state Department of Public Safety said. The Civic collided with a 2015 Chevrolet Equinox, which caught fire.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The owners of a Colorado funeral home were arrested Wednesday in Oklahoma on charges linked to the discovery of 190 sets of decaying remains at one of their facilities, including some that apparently had been languishing there for four years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man with a rifle was arrested in a park near the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, police said. Police confronted 21-year-old Ahmir Lavon Merrell of Atlanta after someone saw him with the gun in a park near Senate office buildings and told an officer, U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. Officers demanded that he drop the gun, but he refused and they used a Taser stun gun to subdue him, police said.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Dense smoke reminiscent of last month's “super fog” that rolled into Louisiana has led to a deadly crash that shut down Interstate 10 in the New Orleans area early Tuesday, police said. The thoroughfare was closed due to smoke, fog and accidents involving multiple vehicles, New Orleans police said in a statement.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists on Tuesday unveiled the first pictures taken by the European space telescope Euclid, a shimmering and stunning collection of galaxies too numerous to count. The photos were revealed by the European Space Agency, four months after the telescope launched from Cape Canaveral.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force's vast fields of underground nuclear missile silos are rarely disturbed by more than the occasional wandering cow or floating spy balloon. But the service is now asking Congress to help with another unexpected danger: towering wind turbines, which are growing in number and size and are edging closer to the sites each year.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) — Southern California authorities investigating the death of a Jewish man following a confrontation with a pro-Palestinian demonstrator over the Israel-Hamas war haven’t determined whether a crime occurred and on Tuesday asked for the public’s help to unravel what happened. Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said deputies determined that Paul Kessler, 69, who died early Monday at a hospital, had fallen backward and struck his head on the ground at a pro-Palestinian demonstration Sunday afternoon in Thousands Oaks, a suburb northwest of Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A scuba dive boat captain was convicted Monday of criminal negligence in the deaths of 34 people killed in a fire aboard the vessel in 2019, the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history. Jerry Boylan, 69, was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer following a 10-day trial in federal court in downtown Los Angeles.

Ken Mattingly, an astronaut who is best remembered for his efforts on the ground that helped bring the damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft safely back to Earth, has died, NASA announced. He was 87.

Sophee Langerman was on her way to a bicycle safety rally in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood in June when a car turning right rolled through a red light and slammed into her bike, which she was walking off the curb and into the crosswalk.

NEW YORK (AP) — An 80-foot-tall (24-meter) Norway spruce from the Binghamton area has been selected as this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and will be cut down and trucked to New York City next week, Rockefeller Center officials announced Wednesday.

INEZ, Ky. (AP) — One man has died after he and a coworker were trapped beneath tons of concrete and steel when an 11-story building being demolished collapsed at an abandoned eastern Kentucky mine's coal preparation plant. The building at Martin Mine Prep Plant in Martin County collapsed around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Teams used cameras, listening devices and search dogs to try to rescue the men, but Gov. Andy Beshear announced Wednesday that one of the men had died.

HONOLULU (AP) — An officer sprinted from house to house in the historic town of Lahaina, Hawaii, alerting people to the approaching inferno. Another coughed and swore as he drove through thick smoke past burning buildings with people he rescued crammed in the back seat. With no ambulance available, one officer offered to bring a severely burned man to a hospital.

AGUANGA, Calif. (AP) — A wildfire fueled by gusty Santa Ana winds ripped through rural land southeast of Los Angeles on Monday, forcing about 4,000 people from their homes, fire authorities said. The so-called Highland Fire erupted at about 12:45 p.m. in dry, brushy hills near the unincorporated Riverside County hamlet of Aguanga.

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Authorities in Maine spent Monday continuing to piece together the events that led to the worst mass shooting in the state's history — with the suspect's record of interaction with police and warning signs involving mental illness and violent threats emerging as key threads. Robert Card — the suspected shooter who was found dead Friday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound — underwent a mental health evaluation last summer after he began acting erratically at an Army training facility in New York, officials said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health regulators are warning consumers not to use more than two dozen varieties of over-the-counter eyedrops because of the risk of infections that could lead to blindness. The Food and Drug Administration advisory applies to lubricating drops sold by six companies, including CVS Health, Target, Rite Aid and Cardinal Health. Consumers should stop using the products immediately and avoid purchasing any that remain on pharmacy and store shelves, the FDA said in a statement Friday.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The heating element removed from Monique Plaisance's water heater in September was disintegrating, streaked with rust and covered in a dry crust. She blamed the corrosion on the water piped in from the area's longtime drinking water source: the Mississippi River. It was a similar story not far away at the Black Velvet Oyster Bar and Grill.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A man has been arrested in Tampa, Florida, in a mass shooting that erupted during Halloween festivities early Sunday. Two people were killed and 18 injured, police said. At least two shooters opened fire just before 3 a.m. in the Ybor City area, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said during a news conference at the scene. Later Sunday he said detectives arrested Tyrell Stephen Phillips, 22, in connection with the shooting. He was charged with second-degree murder with a firearm.

A fight between two groups turned deadly in Florida when a shooting in a Tampa street during Halloween festivities resulted in two deaths and 18 people hospitalized early Sunday morning, police said.

One of two men who admitted stuffing fish with lead weights and fish fillets last year in an attempt to win thousands of dollars in a walleye fishing tournament on Lake Erie in Ohio is facing new charges in Pennsylvania.

The first loud noise 10-year-old Toni Asselin heard sounded like the thwack of a ball being hit hard across a pool table. She thought the second might have been someone dropping a bowling ball.