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The white police officer who fatally shot a Black man in a Minneapolis suburb has gone from being a respected professional who trained less experienced colleagues and led the department’s union, to a criminal defendant held up by community activists as a symbol of police aggression toward Black people. Former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright in the chest during a traffic stop Sunday. Community members in Brooklyn Center say the decision to stop Wright for expired tags was part of a long pattern of Black men being targeted for minor traffic violations. Potter is a 26-year veteran of the force. 

The attorney for the officer on trial in George Floyd’s death says several studies suggest police can safely use their bodyweight to hold a handcuffed suspect facedown on the ground, as Floyd was in the last minutes of his life. But those findings aren’t universally accepted and have been contradicted by a parade of law enforcement and medical experts central to prosecutors’ efforts to convict Derek Chauvin of murder and manslaughter. Medical experts say it’s impossible for researchers to recreate such an emotionally intense experience with volunteers in a lab. And the U.S. Department of Justice warned agencies of the risks more than 25 years ago.

The Dallas Wings basically control the WNBA draft on Thursday night with the top two picks and four first-round choices. It’s the first time in league history that a team will choose both No. 1 and 2. The Wings acquired the top pick in a February trade. The Wings also have the fifth and seventh picks as well as the first pick in the second round. This draft completes the second half of the team’s long-term strategy after they traded away Liz Cambage and Skylar Diggins over the past few years. 

Hall of Fame women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer has agreed to a five-year contract extension that will keep her at Rutgers through the 2025-26 season. The New Jersey-based Big Ten Conference university announced the deal. The 73-year-old Stringer has led the Scarlet Knights to a top-three finish in the conference in two of the past three seasons, along with a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances. The contract guarantees compensation of $5.5 million, beginning at $1 million in the first year, plus performance incentives and retention bonuses. Stringer will enter her 27th season at Rutgers.

Some of California’s biggest school districts are starting to reopen classrooms this week, including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. But California is lagging the rest of the country, and in some cases offering options that parents say are unacceptable. In San Francisco, many parents learned their children will be taught in the classroom by teachers working remotely. They are calling it “Zoom in a Room." Across the U.S., what it means to be back in school looks very different from one state to the next. California's governor has declared a return to business as usual in June. He pleaded Wednesday with districts to reopen, saying he's responded to teachers' demands.

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.