Vehicle strikes cancer center building

As mass shootings are again drawing public attention, states across the U.S. seem to be deepening their political divide on gun policies. A series of recent mass shootings in California come after a third straight year in which U.S. states recorded more than 600 mass shootings involving at least four deaths or injuries. Democratic-led states that already have restrictive gun laws have responded to home-state tragedies by enacting or proposing even more limits on guns. Many states with Republican-led legislatures appear unlikely to adopt any new gun policies after last year's local mass shootings. They're pinning the problem on violent individuals, not their weapons.

The families of five passengers killed in a plane crash off the North Carolina coast have settled wrongful death lawsuits for $15 million. Their attorneys told the court the companies that owned the plane and employed the pilot paid the money. The suits claimed the pilot failed to properly fly the single-engine plane in weather conditions with limited visibility. All eight people aboard died off the Outer Banks. The passengers included four teenagers and two adults, returning from a hunting trip. The founder of the company that owned the plane was killed, and his family wasn't involved in the lawsuits.

The University of Wisconsin System has joined a number of universities across the country in banning the popular social media app TikTok on school devicies. UW System officials made the announcement Tuesday. A number of other universities have banned TikTok in recent weeks, including Auburn, Arkansas State and Oklahoma. Nearly half the states have banned the app on state-owned devices, including Wisconsin, North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and South Dakota. Congress also recently banned TikTok from most U.S. government-issued devices over bipartisan concerns about security. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. Critics say the Chinese government could access user data.

California has released a plan outlining how it thinks states should reduce their reliance on the Colorado River. The state's plan released Tuesday comes a day after the other six states that tap the river released their own proposal. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has said the states must dramatically lower their use of the critical river as key reservoirs drop to historically low levels. California's plan calls for new water cuts based on the elevation of Lake Mead. It does not want to base cuts on how much water is lost to evaporation and transportation, a move the other states propose.

Omaha police say they have fatally shot a man who entered a Target store with an AR-15-style rifle and 13 loaded rifle magazines of ammunition. He fired multiple times as he entered, but it wasn’t immediately known if he fired at anybody before police confronted him. Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said officers searched the store three times for victims but no injured people were found. Survivors described people running in panic and hiding in bathroom stalls. One worker said she hid in a restroom in fear and texted loved ones. Officers received at least 29 911 calls around noon Tuesday and arrived within minutes. A Target spokesperson said all customers and workers were safely evacuated. The suspect was not named Tuesday.

The Justice Department has been scrutinizing a controversial artificial intelligence tool used by a Pittsburgh-area child protective services agency following concerns that the tool could lead to discrimination against families with disabilities, The Associated Press has learned. The interest from federal civil rights attorneys comes after an AP investigation revealed potential bias and transparency issues surrounding the increasing use of algorithms within the troubled U.S. child welfare system. Several civil rights complaints were filed in the fall about the Allegheny Family Screening Tool, which social workers use to help decide which families to investigate. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Longtime University of California women's swimming coach Teri McKeever was fired Tuesday following an investigation into alleged harassment, bullying and verbally abusive conduct, the school said in a statement.

Boeing bid farewell to an icon Tuesday: It delivered its final 747 jumbo jet. Since it debuted in 1969, the 747 has served as a cargo plane, a commercial aircraft capable of carrying nearly 500 passengers, and the Air Force One presidential aircraft. It revolutionized international travel. But over about the past 15 years, Boeing and its European rival Airbus have introduced more profitable and fuel efficient wide-body planes. The final plane is the 1,574th built by Boeing in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. Thousands of current and former Boeing workers gathered for a ceremony marking its delivery to cargo carrier Atlas Air.

Winter weather has brought ice to a wide swath of the United States, canceling more than 1,700 flights nationwide and snarling highways. Authorities say at least two people died on slick roads Tuesday and two Texas law officers were seriously injured, including a deputy who was pinned under a truck. Tracking service FlightAware says more than 900 flights to or from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and more than 250 to or from Dallas Love Field were canceled or delayed. The storm began Monday, and a winter weather advisory is in place in much of Kentucky, West Virginia and southern parts of Indiana and Ohio.