Days after crews released and burned toxic chemicals transported by a wrecked train in Ohio, residents remain concerned about the toxic substances that could be lingering in their evacuated neighborhoods. About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a fiery crash Friday in East Palestine, according to rail operator Norfolk Southern and the National Transportation Safety Board. Vinyl chloride was slowly released into the air Monday from five of those cars before crews ignited it to get rid of the highly flammable, toxic chemicals in a controlled environment, creating a dark plume of smoke.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Documents released Tuesday provided a scathing account of what authorities called the “blatantly unprofessional” conduct of five officers involved in the fatal police beating of Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop last month — including new revelations about how one officer took and shared pictures of the bloodied victim. The officer, Demetrius Haley, stood over Nichols as he lay propped against a police car and took photographs, which Haley sent to other officers and a female acquaintance, according to documents released by the Tennessee Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Using underwater drones, warships and inflatable vessels, the Navy is carrying out an extensive operation to gather all of the pieces of the massive Chinese spy balloon a U.S. fighter jet shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday. In the newest images released by the Navy on Tuesday, sailors from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 are seen leaning over a rigid hull inflatable boat and pulling in broad swaths of the balloon's white outer fabric and shell structure.

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (AP) — A man suspected in a mass shooting in central Florida last month was fatally shot by a police officer following a long chase and a carjacking, authorities said. The car driven by Alex Greene, 21, eventually crashed into a business in Winter Haven. That's a short distance from Lakeland, where 11 people were injured in the Jan. 30 shooting, Lakeland Police Chief Sammy Taylor said. “We are very confident he was in fact involved; to what extent we don’t know yet,” Taylor said.

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — Crews released toxic chemicals into the air from five derailed tanker cars that were in danger of exploding Monday and began burning it after warning residents near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line to leave immediately or face the possibility of death. Flames and black smoke billowed high into the sky from the derailment site late in the afternoon, about an hour after authorities said the controlled release would begin.

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — Authorities in Ohio say they plan to release toxic chemicals from five cars of a derailed train in Ohio to reduce the threat of an explosion. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says a “controlled release” of vinyl chloride will take place on Monday at 3:30 p.m. Residents near the site have been ordered to evacuate. DeWine said residents who were ordered to evacuate need to leave the area because of the risk of death or serious injury. Officials believe most if not all have already have left.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A small earthquake rumbled through western New York early Monday, alarming people in a region unaccustomed to such shaking but apparently causing no significant damage. The U.S. Geological Survey preliminarily reported a 3.8 earthquake centered east of Buffalo in the suburb of West Seneca at about 6:15 a.m. Seismologist Yaareb Altaweel said it matched the intensity of the strongest earthquake the region has seen in 40 years of available records — a 3.8 quake that was recorded in November 1999.

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill. (AP) — Fire crews were battling a large fire Monday at a suburban Chicago warehouse that produced a towering smoke plume visible for miles, a city spokesman said. Chicago Heights spokesman David Ormsby said the Morgan Li warehouse was fully engulfed in flames, and nearby roads were closed as multiple fire departments responded. No injuries had been reported, Ormsby said.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A major regional hospital system based in northern Florida resumed seeing patients at its clinical practices on Monday, days after a security problem forced it to take its IT network offline. But Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare was still being forced to use paper documentation, and non-emergency surgeries and out-patient procedures were canceled on Monday.

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — Officials monitoring the smoldering, tangled wreckage of a train derailment in northeastern Ohio urgently warned hundreds of nearby residents who had declined to evacuate to do so Sunday night, saying a rail car was at risk of a potential explosion that could launch deadly shrapnel as far as a mile. They warned of “the potential of a catastrophic tanker failure” after a “drastic temperature change” was observed in that rail car, according to a statement from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office that said teams were working to prevent an explosion at the scene in East Palestine. It did not specify what was in that car or whether it was among those that had been carrying hazardous materials.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — The downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon just off South Carolina’s coast created a spectacle over one of the state’s tourism hubs and drew crowds reacting with a mixture of bewildered gazing, distress and cheers. The balloon was struck by a missile from an F-22 fighter just off Myrtle Beach on Saturday, fascinating sky-watchers across a populous area known as the Grand Strand for its miles of beaches that draw retirees and vacationers. Crowds gathered in neighborhoods, hotel parking lots and beaches to watch the balloon hover, with some cheering just after it went down.

Temperatures in many areas of the Northeast U.S. climbed to the mid-40s Fahrenheit on Sunday, a day after the region suffered through temperatures that plummeted into the negative teens and felt like minus 45 to minus 50 degrees with the wind chill. Atop 6,288-foot Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the temperature rose to a relatively balmy 18 degrees a day after the actual temperature nosedived to minus 47 F and the wind chill was measured in excess of minus 108 degrees.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military on Saturday shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America. China insisted the flyover was an accident involving a civilian aircraft and threatened repercussions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a planned high-stakes weekend diplomatic trip to China as the Biden administration weighs a broader response to the discovery of a high-altitude Chinese balloon flying over sensitive sites in the western United States, a U.S. official said Friday. The abrupt decision came despite China’s claim that the balloon was a weather research satellite that had blown off course. The U.S. has described it as a surveillance satellite.

BEIJING (AP) — China said Friday that a balloon spotted over American airspace was used for weather research and was blown off course, despite U.S. suspicion it was spying. The discovery further strained already tense relations between Beijing and Washington. The Pentagon decided not to shoot down the balloon, which was potentially flying over sensitive sites, because of concerns of hurting people on the ground.

Rising temperatures offered some hope Friday for frustrated Texans days after they lost power — and in many cases heat — in a deadly winter storm, while a new wave of frigid weather rolling into the Northeast led communities to close schools and open warming centers. Wind chills in some higher elevations of the Northeast could punch below minus 50 as an Arctic front swept in from Canada, forecasters said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over U.S. airspace for a couple of days, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down over concerns of hurting people on the ground, officials said Thursday. The discovery of the balloon puts a further strain on U.S.-China relations at a time of heightened tensions. A senior defense official told Pentagon reporters that the U.S. has “very high confidence” it is a Chinese high-altitude balloon and it was flying over sensitive sites to collect information.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A mess of ice, sleet and snow lingered across much of the southern U.S. as thousands in Texas endured freezing temperatures with no power, including many in the state capital of Austin, but a warming trend was forecast to bring relief from the deadly storm Thursday. However, an Arctic cold front is expected to move from Canada into the northern Plains and Upper Midwest and sweep into the Northeast by Friday, bringing snow and bitter cold with windchills of more than minus 50 degrees in northern New England, according to the National Weather Service.

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — A furry critter in a western Pennsylvania town has predicted six more weeks of winter during an annual Groundhog Day celebration. People gathered Thursday at Gobbler’s Knob as members of Punxsutawney Phil’s “inner circle” summoned the groundhog from his tree stump at dawn to learn if he has seen his shadow — and they say he did. According to folklore, if he sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, spring comes early.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Tyre Nichols ’ family and friends gathered Wednesday for a funeral intended to celebrate his life three weeks after he died following a brutal beating by Memphis police that has sparked a new round of calls for police reform. As the service began, a group of singers and drummers beating African instruments proceeded to the front of the church where Nichols' black casket was draped in a large white bouquet of flowers.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Bands of sleet and snow that brought traffic to a standstill across the nation's midsection, canceled thousands of flights and were blamed for six deaths caused dangerous conditions for a third day Wednesday in several Southern states. Watches and warnings stretched from Texas to West Virginia. Several rounds of mixed precipitation, including freezing rain and sleet, were in store for many areas throughout the day, meaning some regions could be hit multiple times, forecasters said.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man with an AR-15-style rifle and more than a dozen ammunition magazines opened fire inside a Target store in Omaha, sending panicked shoppers and employees scrambling for safety before he was fatally shot by police Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. No injuries were reported. The man in his 30s, who has not been identified, fired multiple rounds as he entered the store but it wasn’t clear if he fired at anyone, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Actor Alec Baldwin and a weapons specialist have been formally charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on a New Mexico movie set, according to court documents filed by prosecutors Tuesday. Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies filed the charging documents naming Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who supervised weapons on the set of the Western “Rust.”

DALLAS (AP) — Winter weather brought ice to a wide swath of the United States on Tuesday, causing the cancellation of more than 1,500 flights nationwide, bringing traffic to a standstill on an interstate through Arkansas and knocking out power to thousands of Texans. Numerous auto collisions were reported in Austin, Texas, with at least one fatality according to the Austin Fire Department. In Travis County, Texas, which includes Austin, police and sheriff’s deputies have been responding to new crashes about every three minutes since 8 a.m., according to the Austin-Travis County Traffic Report Page.

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — Ten people were injured during a drive-by shooting in a central Florida neighborhood, police said. Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor said during a news conference that two of the victims were critically injured Monday afternoon, while the wounds of the other eight victims weren't considered life-threatening. The victims were males between the ages of 20 and 35.