ESSEX, Vt. (AP) — The pandemic-era federal aid that made school meals available for free to all public school students — regardless of family income levels — is ending, raising fears about the effects in the upcoming school year for families already struggling with rising food and fuel costs.

NEW YORK (AP) — People with hearing loss have long adopted technology to navigate the world, especially since hearing aids are expensive and inaccessible to many. Over the past several years, new options have exploded. Captions from apps like Otter have proven critical for people who needed to join online meetings, or even talk in person, especially when mask-wearing muffled speech during the pandemic.

HOUMA, La. (AP) — Invasive apple snails may have attracted a South American bird known to live in only two U.S. states to settle in Louisiana as well. The Courier reports that the state’s first limpkin census has begun and is expected to last through July. Limpkins are long-legged wading birds with downcurved beaks that often are twisted a bit to the right at the end.

ARLINGTON, Ore. (AP) — Farmers in Oregon already battling extreme drought and low water supplies are fighting against future grasshopper and Mormon cricket infestations. Severe outbreaks in recent years, fueled by drier, warmer conditions, wreaked havoc. This season, a new suppression program funded by Oregon lawmakers may help.

WASHINGTON (AP) — South Dakota’s Republican governor is pledging to bar mail-order abortion pills but says women shouldn't face prosecution for seeking them. Kristi Noem is indicating that she'd put in place a plan approved by state lawmakers to restrict the abortion pills.

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — Police in Virginia are investigating vandalism at a pregnancy center that discourages women from having an abortion. Lynchburg Police on Saturday said the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center was spray painted with graffiti. The words “If abortion ain’t safe, you ain’t safe” were written on a walkway. Several windows were also broken.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court released a long-anticipated ruling on Friday that will ultimately put an end to abortions in in roughly half the states, including Georgia. "God has heard and answered our prayers on behalf of the most helpless of human beings," said W. Thomas Hammond, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. "With this ruling, the Supreme Court has corrected a heart-wrenching injustice. Regrettably, it has taken nearly 50 years for this day to arrive, and at a cost of more than 63 million innocent lives.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alabama and Missouri are among the states seeking to enforce abortion bans in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a major expansion of gun rights, the Supreme Court said Thursday that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public. The justices’ 6-3 decision follows a series of recent mass shootings and is expected to ultimately allow more people to legally carry guns on the streets of the nation’s largest cities — including New York, Los Angeles and Boston — and elsewhere. About a quarter of the U.S. population live in states expected to be affected by the ruling, the high court’s first major gun decision in more than a decade.

SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — People have compared the survival of a teenage boy in one of the deadliest collapses in U.S. history to the Bible story of Jonah and the whale. At 16, Jonah Handler is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and the loss of his mother after falling from the 10th floor of the beachfront building that collapsed a year ago in Surfside, Florida, killing 98 people.

DETROIT (AP) — Millions of Americans who rely on their cars for work are changing their habits, signing up for carpools or even ditching their cars for bicycles as gas prices recently hit $5 per gallon for the first time ever. This week, it’s averaging $4.95 per gallon nationwide, up from $3.06 per gallon a year ago, according to AAA.

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — A bloodhound named Trumpet has won the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Trumpet bested six other finalists Wednesday night to snare U.S. dogdom’s most coveted best in show prize.

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The Uvalde school district’s police chief has been put on leave following allegations that he erred in his response to a mass shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead. The district’ superintendent said Wednesday he had put Chief Pete Arredondo on leave.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican legislators in Wisconsin have quickly adjourned a special session that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called to repeal the state's dormant abortion ban without taking any action.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (AP) — Throngs of tourists have gleefully returned to watch geysers erupt and bison cross roads at Yellowstone National Park as it partially reopens following destructive floods. Park managers raised the gates Wednesday at three of Yellowstone’s five entrances for the first time since June 13.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is calling on Congress to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months — an election-year move meant to ease financial pressures. But it's not clear Biden has the votes to suspend the taxes. Many lawmakers in his own party have expressed reservations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sought to reassure the public that the Fed will raise interest rates high and fast enough to quell inflation, without tightening credit so much as to throttle the economy and cause a recession.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is providing logistical support to import the equivalent of about 16 million 8-ounce baby formula bottles from Mexico. That starts this weekend as part of efforts to ease nationwide supply shortages caused by the closure of the largest US manufacturing plant.

WAPITI, Wyo. (AP) — Visitors are returning to a changed landscape in Yellowstone National Park as it partially reopens following record floods that reshaped the park’s rivers and canyons, wiped out numerous roads and left some areas famous for their wildlife viewing inaccessible, possibly for months to come.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is preparing to call on Congress to suspend the federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months. It's meant to ease financial pressures at the pump and reveals the political toxicity of high gas prices in an election year. Administration officials say Biden wants to suspend the 18.4 cents-a-gallon tax on gas and 24.4 cents-a-gallon on diesel fuel.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ruled that Maine can’t exclude religious schools from a program that offers tuition aid for private education, a decision that could ease religious organizations’ access to taxpayer money. The 6-3 outcome Tuesday could fuel a renewed push for school choice programs in some of the 18 states that have so far not directed taxpayer money to private, religious education.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Police had enough officers on the scene of the Uvalde school massacre to have stopped the gunman three minutes after he entered the building, and they would have found the door to the classroom where he was holed up unlocked if they had bothered to check it, the head of the Texas state police testified Tuesday, pronouncing the law enforcement response an “abject failure.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday limited the reach of a federal statute that requires stiff penalties for crimes involving a gun. The 7-2 decision united both conservative and liberal justices, though one dissenting justice compared the result to "Alice in Wonderland." The justices said the law can’t be used to lengthen the sentences of criminals convicted of a specific attempted robbery offense.

The trade association for U.S. nuclear plant operators says it hopes to nearly double their output over the next three decades. Those plans hang on the functionality of a new type of nuclear reactor that’s far smaller than traditional reactors. The industry is generating less electricity as reactors retire.

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden says he’s considering a holiday on the federal gasoline tax. That could possibly save U.S. consumers as much as 18.4 cents a gallon. Biden told reporters Monday that his decision could come by the end of the week.