Does wearing a mask pose any health risks? Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — Renee Montgomery and Tiffany Hayes appreciated what former UConn teammate Maya Moore was doing when the All-Star forward stepped away from basketball two years ago to focus on criminal justice reform. Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida police officers can be heard laughing and celebrating after shooting protesters with rubber bullets during a May protest against police brutality, according to newly released body camera footage. Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court cleared the way Wednesday for a publisher to distribute a tell-all book by President Donald Trump’s niece over the objections of the president’s brother. Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal appellate court has stayed a lower court ruling that gave impoverished Florida felons the right to vote. The order issued Wednesday disappointed voting rights activists and could have national implications in November's presidential election. Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Homes in six states across the U.S. can expect to get knocks on their doors from census takers in two weeks as part of a soft launch of the next phase of the largest head count in U.S. history, Census Bureau officials said Wednesday. Read more

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — When President Donald Trump speaks at the Mount Rushmore national memorial before the first fireworks show there in years, he’ll stand before a crowd of thousands of people who won't be required to socially distance or wear masks despite the coronavirus pandemic. Read more

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: Read more

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney on Wednesday ordered the immediate removal of all Confederate statues in the city, saying he was using his emergency powers to speed up the healing process for the former capital of the Confederacy amid weeks of protests over police brutality … Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — There is little evidence that the protests that erupted after George Floyd’s death caused a significant increase in U.S. coronavirus infections, according to public health experts. Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — Spurred by broad public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, thousands of Black activists from across the U.S. will hold a virtual convention in August to produce a new political agenda that seeks to build on the success of the protests that followed George Floyd's death. Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — Panic attacks, trouble breathing, relapses that have sent her to bed for 14 hours at a time: At 35, Marissa Oliver has been forced to deal with the specter of death on COVID-19′s terms, yet conversations about her illness, fear and anxiety haven’t been easy. Read more

WARWICK, R.I. (AP) — A child's swing twists forlornly in the breeze beneath the behemoth maple tree that shades our home. It's become a symbol of our sad coronavirus exile. Read more

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle police converged on the city's “occupied” protest zone early Wednesday after Mayor Jenny Durkan issued an executive order for protesters to vacate the area. Read more

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A man was expected to plead guilty Wednesday to accusations that he threatened a shooting at Ohio State University and vowed to hurt players on the football team. Read more

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Body camera video shows Antonio Arnelo Smith handing his driver's license to a Black police officer and answering questions cooperatively before a white officer walks up behind him, wraps him in a bear hug and slams him face-first to the ground. Read more

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma voters narrowly decided on Tuesday to expand Medicaid health insurance to tens of thousands low-income residents, becoming the first state to amend its Constitution to do so. Read more

Coronavirus first spread in the United States as a mostly coastal and big-city scourge, sparing many rural areas, small towns and even small cities. Translated into U.S. political geography: The virus hit Democratic areas first. Read more

The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources to confront the worst health crisis in a century. Read more

DENVER (AP) — Five-term Colorado U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton was upset in Tuesday’s Republican Party primary by Lauren Boebert, a pistol-packing businesswoman, ardent defender of gun rights and border wall supporter who wants to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. Read more

Coronavirus first spread in the United States as a mostly coastal and big-city scourge, sparing many rural areas, small towns and even small cities. Translated into U.S. political geography: The virus hit Democratic areas first. Read more

DENVER (AP) — Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper won the Democratic nomination Tuesday to face Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in November, overcoming a series of stumbles and beating back a challenge from his left. Read more

PHOENIX (AP) — After telling Arizonans that many public places were again being closed amid a surge of coronavirus cases, Gov. Doug Ducey ended a somewhat contentious news conference by imploring people to wear face masks. Read more

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — With a stroke of the governor’s pen, Mississippi is retiring the last state flag in the U.S. with the Confederate battle emblem — a symbol that’s widely condemned as racist. Read more

The Supreme Court elated religious freedom advocates and alarmed secular groups with its Tuesday ruling on public funding for religious education, a decision whose long-term effect on the separation of church and state remains to be seen. Read more

BOSTON (AP) — The ex-wife of “The Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown has filed a lawsuit alleging the man known for writing about conspiracies and secret societies led a double life during their marriage that included a tryst with a Dutch horse trainer and other affairs. Read more

A tell-all book by President Donald Trump’s niece cannot be published until a judge decides the merits of claims by the president’s brother that its publication would violate a pact among family members, a judge said Tuesday. Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — Lin-Manuel Miranda likes to picture the professor Mr. Howell, from “Gilligan’s Island,” saying the brag. You know the one. “Well, I saw it with the original cast.” Read more