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The White House is naming a former Obama administration official to be deputy secretary at the Interior Department after dropping plans for a more liberal nominee who faced key Senate opposition. President Joe Biden has nominated Tommy Beaudreau to the No. 2 post. Beaudreau is a former chief of staff there and served as the first director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an agency created after the disastrous 2010 BP oil spill. Beaudreau’s appointment is widely seen as an attempt to win favor with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. The moderates are vital to many of Biden’s priorities.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris announced plans Wednesday to visit Mexico and Guatemala on what would be her first official trip abroad, as she pushes ahead on leading the White House's diplomatic efforts on the migration challenge at…

The Houston Astros have placed second baseman Jose Altuve, third baseman Alex Bregman, designated hitter Yordan Álvarez, catcher Martín Maldonado and infielder Robel Garcia on the injured list because of COVID-19 health and safety protocols. General manager James Click made the announcement hours before the Astros were scheduled to wrap up a three-game series with the Detroit Tigers. He said he couldn't say if the team had a positive test.

A political fight in Kansas illustrates how proposals on voting laws billed as reform or anti-fraud measures can be help a specific party or policy priority. The Republican-controlled Legislature has approved a measure that would limit people to picking up and delivering 10 absentee ballots for voters. GOP lawmakers who back the bill argue that they're protecting the integrity of elections. They've been joined in supporting the measure by anti-abortion groups worried about abortion-rights supporters using that tactic to help defeat an anti-abortion initiative on the August 2022 primary ballot. Democrats see the bill as an attack on get-out-the-vote efforts that some of them have used. 

The IndyCar season begins at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, with a stacked rookie class. It features champions from three different motorsports disciplines. Jimmie Johnson has transitioned from NASCAR. Scott McLaughlin moved from Australian SuperCars. Roamain Grosjean defected from Formula One. All will be chasing six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon. He is aiming to tie A.J. Foyt's mark of seven IndyCar titles. Dixon has never won back-to-back titles. The 17-race season opens Sunday. 

Atlanta Braves left-hander Max Fried has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained right hamstring after injuring himself while running the bases. Fried is off to a rocky start coming off a stellar 2020 season. Now he’s sidelined by a fluke injury in Tuesday night’s loss to the Miami Marlins. Fried tweaked his hamstring running from second to third on a wild pitch. The Braves also placed rookie outfielder Cristian Pache on the injured list with a strained left groin. Left-hander Tucker Davidson and outfielder Guillermo Heredia were called up from the alternate-training site to fill the openings.

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a dozen people in waters off the coast of Louisiana where one person died and six were pulled from rough seas when their commercial vessel capsized. Coast Guard Capt. Will Watson said Wednesday that one dead worker had been pulled from the water. The workers had been on the Seacor Power, an oil industry lift vessel that drops massive legs to the sea floor and becomes an offshore platform. The ship flipped over Tuesday in hurricane-force winds and high seas. Watson said the weather’s role in the capsizing was under investigation

A friend of George Floyd who was with him the night he died won’t testify at the trial of the former Minneapolis police officer charged in his death. Derek Chauvin's defense attorney wanted to call Morries Hall to testify in an effort to shift blame for the death to Floyd himself, for his use of illicit drugs and other health problems. Hall's attorney said Wednesday that there was no way he could answer even narrowly tailored questions without risking exposure to third-degree murder and drug charges. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill agreed and quashed the subpoena.

The disabled have a moment in the Oscar spotlight that they hope becomes a movement. Jim LeBrecht, co-director of the nominated documentary “Crip Camp,” who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, says a golden age for disabled films could come if Hollywood lets disabled filmmakers tell their own stories. Robert Tarango, the deaf-blind star of the nominated short “Feeling Through," says his film can help alleviate the fear of hiring actors like him. Paul Raci, nominated for best supporting actor for “Sound of Metal,” says that movie's innovative and authentic treatment of the deaf should become the norm.    

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says the alliance has agreed to withdraw its roughly 7,000 non-American forces from Afghanistan to match U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pull all American troops from the country starting on May 1.…

Many college football players with hopes of playing in the NFL have a narrower path to the league this year. Fewer schools outside the Football Bowl Subdivision hosted pro days this year. That means hidden gems from the small colleges didn't get the same exposure they would have otherwise from campus workouts in front of scouts. Only three Football Championship Subdivision schools and one in Division III had pro days scheduled compared with 48 in the FCS and nine in Division II in 2019. That was the last year with a draft leadup unaffected by COVID-19. 

A white former police officer is being charged with second-degree manslaughter in the killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, just three days after the Black man was shot during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb. The swift probe and announcement of a charge against Kim Potter was handled by a prosecutor from outside Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, where Potter shot Wright. The decision to hand over the case was made almost immediately by Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. Bringing in outside prosecutors to review shootings by police is a practice that has gained steam across the U.S. in recent years in an effort to eliminate the appearance of bias. 

A new congresswoman has been sworn in. Republican Julia Letlow of Louisiana took the oath of office Wednesday from Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Letlow now holds the seat that her late husband, Luke, was elected to but never filled after dying of COVID-19 complications in late December, days before taking office. Julia Letlow easily won a special election last month to represent the heavily Republican district in northeastern Louisiana district. The university administrator was making her first run for public office. She won the backing of former President Donald Trump and decisively outraised her opponents. 

Minnesota Twins shortstop Andrelton Simmons has tested positive for COVID-19. He was placed on the COVID-19 injured list before Twins' doubleheader against the Red Sox. Simmons has said he doesn't plan to get the vaccine, which was made available to the team in a single-shot dosage last week. Twins executive Derek Falvey says Simmons is experiencing “very mild” symptoms and resting at his home. The positive test result was received late Tuesday after the the Twins played the Red Sox. Simmons was replaced by infielder J.T. Riddle, who was on the taxi squad.

REIMS, France (AP) — France's president promised free psychological counseling Wednesday for children and teenagers struck by a wave of mental health difficulties that accompanied the coronavirus pandemic. With a doctor's prescription, those aged 3 to 17 will be entitled…

The Seattle Kraken couldn't finalize any moves at the trade deadline because they're not the NHL's 32nd team until the final expansion payment is made. That doesn't mean general manager Ron Francis couldn't make a handshake deal or two.  Francis was watching closely as the 31 teams made their deals. The expansion draft is in July. It will be the first one since 2017, when George McPhee set the roster for the Vegas Golden Knights.