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President Joe Biden is preparing to unveil the first phase of what he calls his “Build Back Better” package. In a speech Wednesday in Pittsburgh, the president will discuss details of a plan that would unleash $2 trillion in new spending on four main hard infrastructure categories. They are transportation and public water, health and broadband systems as well as community care for seniors and innovation research and development. That's according to people familiar with the proposal. The next phase of Biden's plan would spend still more money on soft infrastructure investments in child care, family tax credits and other domestic programs.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's famous cherry blossoms have reached their flowery peak in many places earlier this year than at any time since formal records started being kept nearly 70 years ago, with experts saying climate change is the likely…

Historians estimate that 1 in 4 American cowboys were Black but you would be hard pressed to find a movie genre whiter than the Western. “Concrete Cowboy,” an urban Western about African American riders in Philadelphia starring Idris Elba, is about an often unseen — and persisting — Black cowboy culture. “Concrete Cowboy” is a father-son drama set around Fletcher Street Stables, one of the oldest and last-remaining of Philadelphia’s hardscrabble inner-city stables. It dates back more than 100 years to when horse-drawn wagons were used to deliver produce, laundry and milk. Through tenacity and improvisation, Fletcher Street remains a cherished refuge and an ardent pastime for both children and adults on the streets of Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion.

Two members of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” reality television show have appeared in court after being arrested on federal fraud charges related to a telemarketing scheme. Authorities announced that Jennifer Shah and Stuart Smith were arrested Tuesday in Utah on charges unsealed in New York City. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said Shah portrays herself as a wealthy and successful businessperson on television while Smith is cast as her first assistant. But Strauss says their “so-called business opportunities” they pushed on their victims were actually fraud schemes motivated by greed. Shah’s attorney Sam Meziani declined comment as he exited the court with Shah, who remained silent.

A faith-based conservative group has filed a lawsuit challenging Virginia's new state guidelines on the treatment of transgender students in public schools. The lawsuit alleges that the policies violate parental child-rearing rights and students’ rights to freely exercise their religion. It was filed Tuesday by The Family Foundation of Virginia and a parent from Hanover County. It asks the court to send the model policies back to the state Department of Education to revise them. The suit alleges that the department failed to adequately respond during a public comment period to complaints that the policies violate the constitutional rights of students, teachers and parents. 

President Joe Biden’s pleas for states to stick with mask mandates to slow the spread of the coronavirus are being largely ignored. Several Republican governors are staying on track to drop the requirement in their states. On Monday, Biden and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this is no time to relax safety measures. In a call on Tuesday with governors, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky buttressed that message by citing national COVID-19 trends. She said the seven-day average of 61,000 new COVID-19 cases per day is up 13%, and the seven-day average of deaths is up 6%.

Chicago White Sox outfielder Eloy Jiménez was having surgery Tuesday to repair a ruptured left pectoral tendon, and general manager Rick Hahn says the slugger still is expected to miss five to six months. Hahn says the timeline hasn’t changed, though he left the door open for Jiménez to return sooner. Jiménez was hurt last week in a spring training game against Oakland when he tried to make a leaping grab at the wall on a home run ball. The injury led to more questions about whether he is better suited for designated hitter than left field, where he has gotten hurt a couple times since his big league debut in 2019.

Texas A&M junior Sam Bennett makes his PGA Tour debut this week at the Valero Texas Open. He only wishes his father could be there to watch. Mark Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about seven years and now cannot put together a sentence. Bennett says the last time his father could speak to him, he told him, “Don't wait to do something.” His father wrote it out, and that handwritten note became a tattoo on Bennett's left arm. He looks at it before hitting every shot. Bennett earned his spot in the Texas Open by winning the Cabo Collegiate.

President Joe Biden’s dog Major on Monday was involved in his second biting incident this month. The White House says the dog "nipped someone while on a walk,” adding that the dog “is still adjusting to his new surroundings.” The first lady's office says the person was seen by the White House Medical Unit “out of an abundance of caution” and “returned to work without injury." The german shepherd and his sibling, Champ, returned to the White House just last week after causing a minor injury to an employee of the U.S. Secret Service. 

Officer Eric Talley has been remembered as a man of faith who put others first, long before he was credited with saving lives in a shooting at a Colorado supermarket. Over 1,000 people gathered to honor Talley at a memorial service near Boulder on Tuesday. Speakers remembered the 51-year-old father of seven for helping someone with a flooded basement and collecting memorabilia for a boy with cancer who wanted “police stuff” for Christmas. His police chief said Talley’s personnel file was filled with thank you letters from people he had helped during his decade with the department. Besides Talley, nine others were killed in the March 22 shooting in Boulder. 

Kentucky lawmakers have passed a partial-ban on no-knock warrants, more than a year after the death of Breonna Taylor during a police raid on the Black woman's home. The legislation approved Tuesday heads to Gov. Andy Beshear. Taylor was an emergency medical technician who was shot at her Louisville apartment after being roused from sleep by police during a drug raid. A no-knock warrant was approved as part of the narcotics investigation, but no drugs were found at her home. A grand jury later indicted one officer on wanton endangerment charges in September for shooting into a neighbor’s apartment. But no officers were charged in her death. 

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — President Faustin Archange Touadera was sworn in for a second term Tuesday in Central African Republic as he faces a growing threat from an armed rebellion linked to the country's former strongman Francois Bozize.…

An NCAA survey of Division I basketball conferences shows 82% of scheduled men’s and women’s games were played despite many stops and starts because of the pandemic. The Missouri Valley played all 90 of its men's games. It was the only league to play all of them. The Big 12 led women's conferences with 89 of 90 games played. The conferences playing the fewest games was the Colonial on the men's side and the Southern on the women's. 

Virginia Beach police say they've turned over their investigation of an officer-involved shooting of a Black, former college football player to state police. The decision to hand over the investigation into the death of 25-year-old Donovon W. Lynch comes amid increasing public scrutiny of three separate weekend shootings in Virginia Beach. Police say two people including Lynch were killed in the shootings along a popular oceanfront strip and that eight other people were wounded. Among those calling for a thorough and transparent investigation into Lynch's death is Grammy-winning musician Pharrell Williams. He says the victim is his cousin. Police say the officer who shot Lynch is Black. 

Virgin Galactic rolled out its latest spaceship as the company gets ready to resume test flights in the coming months at its headquarters in the New Mexico desert. The newest ship dubbed the VSS Imagine was designed and manufactured in California. Company officials say it will likely be summer before the ship begins glide flight testing at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. CEO Michael Colglazier says the addition of the new ship Tuesday marks the beginning of a Virgin Galactic fleet that will ferry paying customers and scientific payloads to the fringe of space. He said the company is still aiming for commercial operations in 2022.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — The Blockbuster video rental store in Bend, Oregon, soared to international fame when it became the last such franchise on Earth two years ago. Now, a new Netflix documentary called “The Last Blockbuster” brought even more…

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Attackers on Tuesday gunned down three women working to administer polio vaccine in eastern Afghanistan, officials said, a day after authorities launched a new campaign against the crippling children's disease. The women were killed in two…

The leaders of all three branches of Brazil’s armed forces have jointly resigned following President Jair Bolsonaro’s replacement of the defense minister. That's causing widespread apprehension of a military shakeup to serve the president’s political interests. The Defense Ministry reported  the resignations on Tuesday without giving reasons. Replacements were not named. But analysts expressed fears the president, increasingly under pressure, was moving to assert greater control over the military. Bolsonaro is a conservative former army captain who has often praised Brazil’s former period of military dictatorship and has relied heavily on current and former soldiers to staff key Cabinet positions since taking office in January 2019.