LOUISVILLE, Ky. —

It might just be the best Christmas present ever for one Kentucky woman. An extremely generous gift from an anonymous donor is making her life a lot easier.

"It took my breath away. It touched my heart that they had did this for me. So, I thank them for everything they have done for me and my grandkids," said Regina Russell, the recipient of a car from an anonymous donor.

The gift of transportation is something Regina Russell has needed for a long time.

"The car that I had, it was a 2003. I had it ever since, and it just broke down. So, I was getting on the bus," Russell said.

The 61-year-old is raising two of her grandkids. She took her 16-year-old and 9-year-old granddaughters in when their mother was having a rough time. Their father is incarcerated. Despite no transportation, she's managed to get them to and from doctors and dental appointments, grocery shopping and other places all through a pandemic.

"I took the bus for about a year, and getting on it with all this COVID going on, I didn't want to get sick," Russell said.

Russell has been in the Louisville Urban League's senior jobs program for the past two years, which prepares them to find employment. That's currently her only source of income. When someone reached out to the league about wanting to gift someone with a car, they knew Russell would be the perfect recipient.

"When they called me up, I had prayed on it and prayers work. God is good. I prayed every day for me to get some time of transportation," Russell said.

Russell says her grandchildren are just as grateful as she is.

"Giving in life, once you keep giving, you will always get back more," Russell said. "So, what he did for me, that's a blessing. He will get blessed."

ROCKFORD, Ill. —

A gunman opened fire inside an Illinois bowling alley, killing three people and injuring three others Saturday night in what authorities believe was a random attack.

Police later said a 37-year-old man was taken into custody and no other people were being sought at the time after the attack at Don Carter Lanes.

Rockford Police Chief Dan O’Shea said during a news conference that he did not think any officers fired their weapons.

Two of those who were shot were teenagers, O'Shea said.

The Rockford Register Star reported that 2020 has been the city's deadliest year for homicides, according to records that date back to 1965. Thirty-five people have been killed in the city this year, breaking the previous record of 31 in 1996.

Rockford is about 80 miles northwest of Chicago.

DES MOINES, Iowa —

The Iowa State Patrol said a driver was clocked going 114 mph on Interstate 35 on Tuesday night during a snowstorm.

According to the Iowa State Patrol Facebook page, Trooper Denny Schnathorst said the driver’s excuse was: “In a hurry to get back to college in Minnesota."

“First responders were busy helping many motorists stranded during this storm- speeding like this is NOT being responsible,” ISP officials said.

A strong winter storm made its way across the Upper Midwest Tuesday, creating treacherous travel conditions, spurring warnings urging people to stay off the roads and more.

Interstate 35 was covered in ice and snow Tuesday night and troopers report they responded to 91 crashes and helped 372 motorists in the storm between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.

The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

GRAFTON, Wis. —

Police have arrested a fired pharmacist who is accused of intentionally spoiling more than 500 COVID-19 vaccines at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisconsin.

The FBI and the Food & Drug Administration are investigating the person who left 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine out of a pharmacy refrigerator at Aurora Medical Center-Grafton.

The person's name is not being released until formal charges are filed.

Advocate Aurora Health now says it was an intentional act. The person in question Wednesday admitted they intentionally removed the vaccine from refrigeration.

After an internal investigation, it was first believed to be human error.

The vials were discovered outside the refrigerator Dec. 26. Aurora Health President Dr. Jeff Bahr spoke about the incident Thursday during a news conference.

"Over the subsequent days, as we continued our internal review, we became increasingly suspicious of the behavior of the individual in question," Bahr said. "The individual was suspended and after multiple interviews over the course of the week, admitted yesterday to intentionally removing the vaccine from refrigeration."

The Moderna vaccine can be out of refrigeration for 12 hours.

"We are more than disappointed that this individual’s actions will result in a delay of more than 500 people receiving their vaccine. This was a violation of our core values, and the individual is no longer employed by us," Advocate Aurora Health said.

Grafton police said Aurora Corporate Security called them at 6:18 p.m. Wednesday about an employee tampering with the vials of COVID-19 vaccine.

It said it was investigating, along with the federal agencies.

"This matter is being actively investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Food and Drug Administration and the Grafton Police Department," Grafton police said.

Officers said the value of the spoiled vaccines was between $8,000 and $11,000.

"Grafton detectives indicate that the individual knew the spoiled vaccinations would be useless and that people who received the vaccinations would think they had been vaccinated against the virus when in fact they were not," police said in a statement to sister station WISN-TV.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said before any facility becomes a COVID-19 vaccine provider, they require extensive registration and training for storing and handling the vaccine.

"DHS requires any wasted vaccine to be reported, investigated and addressed through a written plan of improvement," the department said.

State health officials said they were now working with Aurora to make sure an incident like this never happens again.

"We feel strongly that our processes are sound, but again, this fell more to this being a bad actor involved than a bad process," Bahr said.

He added that 57 doses were able to be administered after they were found outside the refrigerator.

But Bahr said hospital officials also learned the vials were left out longer than originally reported and may not be as effective in combating the virus.

Those vaccine recipients have been notified of the situation, Bahr said.

Police said the pharmacist could be charged with first-degree recklessly endangering safety, adulterating a prescription drug and criminal damage to property.

He was being held in the Ozaukee County Jail.

The remaining doses of the vaccine that were left out of the refrigerator were discarded.

Bahr said the doses were not tampered with.

"Immediately upon notification, DHS followed up with Aurora and has worked closely with them as they have investigated the situation, reviewed their processes and implemented improvements," Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm said in response to the incident. "We will continue to work with our healthcare partners to get as many shots in arms as quickly and safely as possible."

Investigators have not released a motive in the case.

CNN contributed.

Legendary talk show host and former CNN interviewer Larry King has COVID-19, according to a source close to the family.ABC News and other news outlets confirmed the news Saturday. King, 87, has been hospitalized at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for more than a week, the source said. Due to protocols at the hospital, King's three sons have been unable to visit him, according to the source.King, who has Type 2 diabetes, has confronted a series of medical issues over the years, including several heart attacks and quintuple bypass surgery in 1987.In 2017, King revealed he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and successfully underwent surgery to treat it. He also underwent a procedure in 2019 to address angina.His own medical issues inspired him to start the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, a non-profit aimed at helping those without health insurance afford medical care.King hosted CNN's "Larry King Live" for 25 years, interviewing presidential candidates, celebrities, athletes, movie stars and everyday people. He retired in 2010 after taping more than 6,000 episodes of the show.But he couldn't stay off the airwaves for long.In 2012, he became the host of "Larry King Now," a thrice-weekly show on Ora TV, an on-demand digital network he co-founded with Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim, according to Forbes.Last year, two of King's adult children died within weeks of each other. His son, 65-year-old Andy King, passed away of a heart attack in late July, followed by King's 52-year-old daughter Chaia King, who died in August shortly after being diagnosed with lung cancer.King's Twitter feed, @kingsthings, has 2.4 million followers. His most recent tweet was on Nov. 26, when he wished his followers a Happy Thanksgiving.

It was a fitting place for an industry in need of a miracle.

In October, Air Belgium moved two planes to Lourdes, the Catholic sanctuary in France, to park up for the winter.

The planes — both Airbus A340-300s, of which the airline only has four in total — have been parked at Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees airport for long-term storage.

A spokesperson for Air Belgium blamed the "reduced demand and current operational restrictions due to COVID-19" and said the aircraft had been parked temporarily "to defer maintenance."

The airline is one of many struggling in the pandemic. Aviation has been particularly hard hit by COVID-19, with legal restrictions on travel joined by an unwillingness to fly by members of the public.

Looking at the third quarter of the year, the extent to which airlines have been crippled becomes clear. North American passenger jet arrivals dropped by 48% year-on-year, according to December figures released by aviation analytics company Cirium, while Latin America was barely better, at 46% down. Europe's numbers, meanwhile, have been devastated — over 70% down, year on year. Even in Asia Pacific -- which has controlled the pandemic better than other regions — arrivals are still over 30% lower now than they were this time last year.

Back at the end of October, figures were even more grim — international flights were down 75% year-on-year, according to Cirium (though domestic flights were better, down 36% globally). As the second wave of the pandemic has spread across the globe, airlines have taken drastic action to cut costs — from downsizing aircraft to retiring entire fleets and cutting routes.

Air Belgium's hail Mary at Lourdes isn't the only action the airline has taken. In the same month, it also paused the launch of a new route to Mauritius, and delayed the start of seasonal flights to Guadeloupe and Martinique.

It's just one of countless European airlines struggling in the pandemic. Air Baltic has flown this winter with planes only a third full. And figures from Europe's biggest airline conglomerate, IAG — which owns British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling — shows that it was flying half-full planes over the peak summer period of July to September, despite having reduced capacity to just 21.4%. With just 10% of the normal demand, BA lost £13 million ($17 million) per day.

As a result, with revenue 83% down, the group slashed its winter schedule to just 30% of last year's capacity.

EasyJet, too, announced its first loss in 25 years in October, and cut flights to 20% capacity for the rest of 2020.

Even behemoth Singapore Airlines is suffering. Not only has it cut 4,300 jobs, but in September the airline admitted that it "expects to operate under 50% of [pre-COVID-19] capacity at the end of the financial year."

While American Airlines predicted this fall that its end-of-year capacity will be down 50% overall, with long-haul international capacity at just 25% of what it was last year.

IATA, the International Air Transport Association, has predicted that for 2021, European airlines will see an average load factor of 65%. It doesn't sound so bad, considering — until you take into account that airlines need to run on average at 70% to break even.

Related video: Could new electric 'air taxi' be the future of travel?

Those predictions, of course, were all made before the new variant of Covid-19 was discovered in the U.K., leading to destinations around the globe closing their borders to aircraft coming from the U.K. Even the U.S. — currently the global center of the pandemic — introduced a Christmas Eve rule that all passengers coming from the U.K. from now on must present a negative test before boarding.

Christmas was well and truly canceled for the aviation industry.

So what can we expect in the near future?

Flights to wherever are open

For the next few months, airlines are network-planning to "just fly to wherever they can," says Graham Dunn, executive editor of FlightGlobal.

But for traditional and low-cost carriers, that means different things, he says, with traditional airlines concentrating on their big routes from hub airports, while low-cost airlines will be opening up the map wherever it's allowed.

"It's been interesting to see that when [budget] carriers have brought traffic back, they've tried to bring back more network than frequency, and kept the routes going where they could," he says.

"So I think you'll still see that point-to-point traffic continuing on low-cost carriers."

Conversely, he thinks traditional airlines will get more hub-based for now, with companies ditching regional routes as they try to make the money spinners productive.

"I think those secondary international routes, especially on long haul, won't be coming back [in the short to medium term]. You're much more likely to fly London Heathrow to New York JFK than Gatwick to a secondary U.S. airport," he says.

And instead of sitting pretty on a Dreamliner or an A380, expect to be on a smaller plane, in order for the airline to break even.

"In the short term, it'll be slightly smaller aircraft, slightly less frequency and traditional major hubs, rather than point to point," says Dunn.

Carbon footprints up in the air

Could those smaller aircraft spell good news for the planet?

There's one major positive that we've been able to take from the pandemic: the break that we've given the environment with our reduced flying patterns.

With the climate crisis spiraling out of control, the dip in aviation has given the planet a break for the past nine months.

And you'd think that the retirement of widebody planes and increased use of smaller aircraft for longer flights, plus routes being cut to hub airports, rather than having feeder flights from regional airports, would mean that those who are flying at the moment are at least flying greener.

But don't get too smug: That's not necessarily the case, says Ascanio Vitale, an engineer and environmentalist. His website, Flyzen, aims to be a more accurate kind of carbon calculator, taking more factors into account than most current software.

"You'd hope that we'd be flying greener at the moment, but it can be counter-intuitive," he says.

"It's not just what plane is being used, or the route, it depends on the traffic.

"The first thing you have to do [to reduce carbon footprints] is increase the load factor."

That means that if a smaller plane is being used to fly a long haul route at the moment, "for sure that's more efficient," he says.

But whether that actually cuts the passengers' carbon footprint depends how full those planes are.

If they've been filled to the gills, then indeed, it's more efficient overall. If, though, they're still half empty, the passengers' carbon footprint goes up — and will be higher than what it might have been a year ago, in a bigger, older — but, crucially, fuller — plane.

"It's not about efficiency, it's about impact," he says. "If there are half the amount of flights there were this time last year, but there's a 70% drop in passengers, the impact of these passengers is more.

"And if the airline switches to a plane with fewer seats to fill them more easily, even if it's full, it'll end up less efficient [than a full, larger plane]."

In short?

"We're polluting less at the moment overall, because the number of flights is reduced, and fewer people are traveling. But the single traveler is polluting more than before."

The good and bad news on fares

Thinking about returning to the skies in 2021? You might assume that the lack of demand will mean lower fares, with airlines slashing prices to encourage passengers back on board.

And if you want to splash out for your first post-pandemic trip and book a better-distanced seat in business class, you'd assume the decline in business travelers, and the swift, successful adoption of video conferencing, would see business class fares dive, too.

The bad news? According to travel booking app, Hopper, that's not the case. Business class fares in the United States are, on average, pricing 70% higher than 2020 fares for March 2021 departures. Economy fares are up 18% year on year for the same period.

The good? That may not stay the same.

There's been a "precipitous drop" in business class demand, says a Hopper spokesperson, with bookings down 20% this fall. That has translated into lower fares, too.

So for now, the airlines have raised their 2021 prices to make up for the lack of demand. But if demand stays low, expect them to fall. Your spring bargain may yet not be a pipe dream.

Graham Dunn thinks that we can expect to see better pricing in the near future on the big routes, since traditional carriers will be fighting for passengers on their normal moneymakers. And if you look a little further into the future, he thinks the bargains will be back across the board.

"You'll have airports looking for traffic, so they might be trying to make attractive offers to get airlines back in," he says, adding that if countries' vaccination programs are making progress by the summer, we'll start seeing more point to point flights, rather than routing via hubs.

New airlines?

The past year has been devastating for the aviation industry, with airline closures left, right and center.

But that doesn't necessarily mean reduced competition long term. In fact, it might be that the pandemic helps launch new airlines.

Airlines planning to launch in 2021 include Flyr, in Norway, and Pacifika Air, in New Zealand. LIFT just launched in South Africa, and there are so many putative airlines in the works in Iceland that artist Oddur Eysteinn Friðriksson launched a fake brand, Mom Air, to make a point about their nebulous plans.

But despite how desperate the industry looks now, Graham Dunn thinks that new airlines may well emerge post-pandemic. After all, he says, this summer's rise in European travel when restrictions were eased shows that the passengers are there — "you see the demand when routes come back."

And, he says, the budget airlines' point to point flying created entirely new markets, purely by offering lower fares. Never thought of going to Bratislava before? Have Ryanair dangle a $10 ticket in front of you, and you're on your way to the airport.

So if airports feeling the pinch start making it cheap for airlines to fly there, he says, it's perfectly possible we'll see those new airlines. What's more, with the airline failures of this year, and, potentially, more to come before the end of the pandemic, there will be plenty of spare aircraft hanging around and qualified crew to work on them. For those with the funds and the chutzpah to launch an airline, it could be a very good time to do so.

That won't be immediate. Dunn's betting on summer 2022. But he says that "there will be aircraft available, and financing, and [remaining] airlines will be retrenching their networks, and what tends to happen is that a new player comes in and seizes the opportunity." Although fares won't be lower in the short term, he says, he thinks they will dip within a year.

Ascanio Vitale agrees, reluctantly, but he urges us all to think more carefully about our flying habits once we take to the skies again.

"We've been polluting less this year because fewer people have been traveling and the airlines are getting rid of their old planes, but that isn't enough," he says.

"Aviation has a huge carbon footprint, and the trend to cap emissions is so slow, bland and unambitious that it won't make the industry sustainable.

"The pandemic has taught us that we should consume less, but I don't think people understood, because they're just waiting to go back to normal."

Above video: Closest alignment of Jupiter, Saturn in nearly 800 yearsRight before Christmas, the two largest planets in our solar system formed a "double planet," an incredible spectacle that hasn't happened in more than 800 years. Well, soon one more planet will be joining them for another rare celestial sight. This weekend, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury will form a triangle for the first time since 2015, according to EarthSky.Dubbed a "planetary trio" or a "triple conjunction," the three planets will appear close together just after sunset from Jan. 8 through Jan. 11. Tonight, Mercury will start to move closer to Saturn, which will appear below Jupiter. So when's the best date to see the triple conjunction? The tightest grouping of these planets will occur on Sunday. The best way to catch the planetary trio is find a spot with an unobstructed view of the horizon, and look toward the direction of the sunset. It's important to start searching for the planets no later than 45 minutes after the sun sets because they will fall out of view beneath the horizon by nightfall, according to EarthSky. It might be difficult to spot the planets (especially Saturn, the dimmest of the three planets) while they're competing with the glow of the sunset. So it's a good idea to bring along binoculars or a telescope.Wondering what other celestial sights you can look forward to this year? Check out this complete list of full moon dates throughout 2021. Time to mark your calendars, skywatchers!

WASHINGTON —

The CEO of a Chicago company said he was arrested after breaching the U.S. Capitol during Wednesday's violence in Washington.

Brad Rukstales, CEO of the marketing technology firm Cogensia, apologized for what he called a "moment of extremely poor judgment."

"It was the single worst personal decision of my life," Rukstales said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Cogensia, based in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, sought to distance itself from its CEO, whom the company said has been placed on leave of absence.

"Mr. Rukstales' actions were his own; he was not acting on behalf of our company nor do his actions in any way reflect the policies or values of our firm," Cogensia said in a statement posted on LinkedIn.

Neither Rukstales nor Cogensia were reachable for further comment. The U.S. Capitol Police did not respond to a request for comment to confirm the arrest.

Five people died as a result of Wednesday's insurrection, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer. A federal murder investigation has been opened into the officer's death. House Democrats plan to introduce articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump as early as Monday for "incitement of insurrection," according to sources familiar with the matter and a draft article obtained by CNN.

Video: U.S. Congressman questions Capitol protest security

"Without qualification and as a peaceful and law-abiding citizen, I condemn the violence and destruction that took place in Washington," Rukstales said in his statement.

The Cogensia CEO said that following the rally in Washington, he "followed hundreds of others through an open set of doors to the Capitol building to see what was taking place inside."

Rukstales said he was arrested and charged with unlawful entry.

"My decision to enter the Capitol was wrong, and I am deeply regretful to have done so," he said.

A number of other people present at Wednesday's unrest have faced consequences from their employers. Navistar, a direct marketing company in Maryland, fired an employee who was photographed wearing his company ID badge inside the U.S. Capitol building.

"While we support all employees' right to peaceful, lawful exercise of free speech, any employee demonstrating dangerous conduct that endangers the health and safety of others will no longer have an employment opportunity with Navistar Direct Marketing," the company said in a statement provided to CNN.

Video: Scenes from Washington protests

MISSION, Kan. —

A Kansas woman was executed Wednesday for strangling an expectant mother in Missouri and cutting the baby from her womb, the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government has put to death a female inmate.

Lisa Montgomery, 52, was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. She was the 11th prisoner to receive a lethal injection there since July when President Donald Trump, an ardent supporter of capital punishment, resumed federal executions following 17 years without one.

As a curtain was raised in the execution chamber, Montgomery looked momentarily bewildered as she glanced at journalists peering at her from behind thick glass. As the execution process began, a woman standing over Montgomery’s shoulder leaned over, gently removed Montgomery’s face mask and asked her if she had any last words. “No,” Montgomery responded in a quiet, muffled voice. She said nothing else.

She tapped her fingers nervously for several seconds, a heart-shaped tattoo on her thumb, showed no signs of distress, and quickly closed her eyes. As the lethal injection began, Montgomery kept licking her lips and gasped briefly as pentobarbital, a lethal drug, entered her body through IVs on both arms. A few minutes later, her midsection throbbed for a moment, but quickly stopped.

Montgomery lay on a gurney in the pale-green execution chamber, her glasses on and her grayish brown hair spilling over a green medical pillow. At 1:30 a.m., an official in black gloves with a stethoscope walked into the room, listened to her heart and chest, then walked out. She was pronounced dead a minute later.

“The craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight,” Montgomery’s attorney, Kelley Henry said in a statement. “Everyone who participated in the execution of Lisa Montgomery should feel shame.”

“The government stopped at nothing in its zeal to kill this damaged and delusional woman,” Henry said. “Lisa Montgomery’s execution was far from justice.”

It came after hours of legal wrangling before the Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution to move forward. Montgomery was the first of the final three federal inmates scheduled to die before next week’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who is expected to discontinue federal executions.

File video: Lisa Montgomery's sister hopes there will be a stay of execution

But a federal judge for the District of Columbia halted the scheduled executions later this week of Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs in a ruling Tuesday. Johnson, convicted of killing seven people related to his drug trafficking in Virginia, and Higgs, convicted of ordering the murders of three women in Maryland, both tested positive for COVID-19 last month.

Montgomery killed 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore in 2004. She used a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then cut the baby girl from the womb with a kitchen knife. Montgomery took the child with her and attempted to pass the girl off as her own.

An appeals court granted Montgomery a stay of execution Tuesday, shortly after another appeals court lifted an Indiana judge’s ruling that found she was likely mentally ill and couldn’t comprehend she would be put to death. But both appeals were lifted, allowing the execution of the only female on federal death row to go forward.

As the only woman on federal death row, Montgomery had been held in a federal prison in Texas and was brought to Terre Haute on Monday night.

Montgomery’s legal team says she suffered “sexual torture,” including gang rapes, as a child, permanently scarring her emotionally and exacerbating mental-health issues that ran in her family.

At trial, prosecutors accused Montgomery of faking mental illness, noting that her killing of Stinnett was premeditated and included meticulous planning, including online research on how to perform a C-section.

Henry balked at that idea, citing extensive testing and brain scans that supported the diagnosis of mental illness. She said the issue at the core of the legal arguments are not whether she knew the killing was wrong in 2004 but whether she fully grasps why she is slated to be executed now.

U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon, who had halted Montgomery's execution before the stay was overturned on appeal, cited defense experts who alleged Montgomery suffered from depression, borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Montgomery, the judge wrote, also suffered around the time of the killing from an extremely rare condition called pseudocyesis in which a woman’s false belief she is pregnant triggers hormonal and physical changes as if she were actually pregnant.

Montgomery also experiences delusions and hallucinations, believing God spoke with her through connect-the-dot puzzles, the judge said, citing defense experts. The government has acknowledged Montgomery’s mental issues but disputes that she can’t comprehend that she is scheduled for execution for killing another person because of them.

Details of the crime at times left jurors in tears during her trial.

Prosecutors told the jury Montgomery drove about 170 miles (274 kilometers) from her Melvern, Kansas, farmhouse to the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore under the guise of adopting a rat terrier puppy from Stinnett. She strangled Stinnett performing a crude cesarean and fleeing with the baby.

Prosecutors said Stinnett regained consciousness and tried to defend herself as Montgomery cut the baby girl from her womb. Later that day, Montgomery called her husband to pick her up in the parking lot of a Long John Silver’s in Topeka, Kansas, telling him she had delivered the baby earlier in the day at a nearby birthing center.

Montgomery was arrested the next day after showing off the premature infant, Victoria Jo, who is now 16 years old and hasn’t spoken publicly about the tragedy.

Prosecutors said the motive was that Montgomery’s ex-husband knew she had undergone a tubal ligation that made her sterile and planned to reveal she was lying about being pregnant in an effort to get custody of two of their four children. Needing a baby before a fast-approaching court date, Montgomery turned her focus on Stinnett, whom she had met at dog shows.

Anti-death penalty groups said Trump was pushing for executions prior to the November election in a cynical bid to burnish a reputation as a law-and-order leader.

The last woman executed by the federal government was Bonnie Brown Heady on Dec. 18, 1953, for the kidnapping and murder of a 6-year-old boy in Missouri.

The last woman executed by a state was Kelly Gissendaner, 47, on Sept. 30, 2015, in Georgia. She was convicted of murder in the 1997 slaying of her husband after she conspired with her lover, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death.

___

Hollingsworth reported from Kansas. Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.

Above video: Mr. Rogers’ wife share’s the couple’s one-of-a-kind love storyJoanne Rogers, the widow of Fred Rogers, has died at the age of 92.David Newell, who played Mr. McFeeley on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" confirmed she passed away on Thursday.Newell said she had been hospitalized for several days.When the movie starring Tom Hanks, "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," debuted in 2019, Joanne Rogers told sister station WTAE-TV, "I've never had an experience like this before, and I hate to see it go away."Fred Rogers passed away in February 2003 at the age of 74.This is a developing story.

Above video: US Capitol transformed into fortress ahead of inaugurationOn Friday evening, U.S. Capitol Police arrested a Virginia man as he attempted to pass through a police checkpoint in downtown D.C. with fake inaugural credentials, a loaded handgun and over 500 rounds of ammunition, according to a police report and a law enforcement source briefed on the situation.The man, identified as Wesley Allen Beeler, pulled his pickup truck to a police checkpoint just north of the Capitol building, the source told CNN. Beeler, from Front Royal, Virginia, presented officers with what was described as an unauthorized inauguration credential.When police asked Beeler if he was carrying any weapons, he told them he had a Glock semiautomatic pistol in the center armrest, the source said. The Glock was loaded with 17 rounds of ammunition and a round chamber ready to fire, according to the source.Police recovered the pistol, as well as 509 rounds of ammunition, shotgun shells and a magazine for the handgun, according to an incident report from the Metropolitan Police Department. Beeler was arrested and charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and possession of unregistered ammunition, among other offenses, the report said.

This week, Bindi Irwin honored her late father, Steve Irwin, by recreating a throwback maternity photo.Bindi and her husband, Chandler Powell, are awaiting the arrival of their baby girl. The couple got married last March and announced their pregnancy in August.Bindi Irwin is celebrating her third trimester by recreating a special picture of her late father, Steve Irwin.On Thursday, the 22-year-old "Crikey! It's the Irwins" star shared a picture of her husband, Chandler Powell, kissing her pregnant stomach. Making the Instagram even more touching, Bindi also posted a similar throwback picture featuring Steve kissing the stomach of Bindi's mother, Terri Irwin, while the couple was expecting Bindi's younger brother, Robert."Recreating a very special moment. Third trimester love. ," Bindi captioned the two photos. Of course, Bindi's followers absolutely loved the "Dancing With the Stars" winner's tribute to her late father, who died in 2006 after being pierced by a stingray barb. "This so cute ?," one fan said. "Be right back, I'm crying now ," another said. "How sweet! I know that your dad would be more than proud of you ..." a different fan commented.Over the years, Bindi has honored her dad through her work at the Australian Zoo and kept his memory alive on Instagram. Days before she and Chandler announced their pregnancy news, Bindi posted an illustrated family portrait that included Steve. “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” ― Thomas Campbell ? ... ," she wrote in August.Over the months, both Bindi and Chandler have posted updates on their growing baby, revealing in September that they are expecting a baby girl. Based on their Instagram posts, the soon-to-be parents are more than excited to welcome their daughter in the upcoming months.File video: Steve Irwin's family on starting a 'beautiful new chapter' with 'Crikey! It’s the Irwins'"It is such a blessing knowing that this tiny person has chosen us as parents. Our baby Wildlife Warrior is going to be so very loved by our families and entire Australia Zoo team," Bindi wrote last fall. "I can’t wait to find out what this amazing new soul loves in life, and experience the world all over again through their eyes."

Add Garth Brooks to the lineup of entertainers at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.“This is a great day in our household," the country music superstar said during a virtual press conference Monday, two days before Biden is to be sworn in. “This is not a political statement. This is a statement of unity.”Brooks, who joins Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, among others, performed during the inaugural celebration of President Barack Obama in 2009. He turned down a chance to play for President Donald Trump in 2017, citing a scheduling conflict.Invited by incoming first lady Jill Biden, Brooks has known the Bidens for more than a decade, when Joe Biden was Obama's vice president.Brooks said that for this week's inaugural, he will perform solo doing “broken down, bare-bones stuff,” and hinted at covering material by songwriters from outside the U.S.He does not plan to sing his socially conscious “We Shall Be Free,” which he performed at the Obama inaugural.Video: Inauguration aims to engage, entertain and educate kidsBrooks praised the Bidens for being “hellbent on making things good” and said he welcomed the chance to help the country heal.“I want to spend the next 10 years of my life not divided. I’m so tired of being divided," he said.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. —

Sarah Fuller, the first woman to score in a Power Five conference football game, says she's been invited to attend President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday.

“It’s an honor to be invited to participate in one of America’s greatest traditions,” Fuller posted Sunday on social media.

“This historic inauguration is especially meaningful for American women and girls. The glass ceilings are breaking,” she added, including the Twitter handles for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris — who will become the first woman to hold that office — Biden, and their inaugural committee.

Attendance at the inauguration will be strictly curtailed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and security measures put in place after a violent mob supporting President Donald Trump invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress was certifying Biden's victory.

Fuller helped Vanderbilt win the Southeastern Conference women's soccer tournament as the goalkeeper. She helped out the football team while it was dealing with COVID-19 issues.

She became the first woman to play in a Power Five game Nov. 28 with a squib kick to open the second half of a loss at Missouri in the only time she got on the field in that game. She got another chance on Dec. 12, when Vanderbilt had only 49 scholarship players for its game against Tennessee.

Video: FBI vetting National Guard for possible threats

Fuller, listed second out of three available kickers on the depth chart, came out for the extra point that tied the game at 7 with 1:50 left in the first quarter. She converted her second point-after with 7:22 left in the fourth quarter of the 42-17 loss.

The Tennessean also reported that Fuller will be part of a TV special Wednesday night also featuring remarks from Biden and Harris.

The Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots are still growing.

The Powerball prize is now an estimated $730 million after there was no winner Saturday. If a winner doesn't pick that annuity option, the one-time cash option for this jackpot is $546 million.

There was also no winner of the Mega Millions jackpot on Friday, bringing that game’s top prize to an estimated $850 million. The one-time cash option is $628.2 million.

The Mega Millions jackpot would be the third-largest ever for the drawing on Tuesday.

The Powerball jackpot would be the fifth-largest ever if a player strikes it big in Wednesday’s drawing.

Firefighter Richard Jett happened to be working at a different fire station and ended up meeting two girls on a welfare check at a storage unit.Jett, a man of faith, knew God was trying to tell him something.At the time in October 2017, the girls were just 2 years and 4 days old.He ended up adopting them, joining his family of two other adopted children.His colleagues recently honored him in a surprise ceremony and given a surf trip by a charity in the area, S.W.E.L. (Surf Waves Enjoy Life), that takes veterans and first responders surfing.For more information on S.W.E.L, click here.

File video: Buttigieg makes history as Biden cabinet pick

President Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, was headed down a smooth path to quick confirmation, pledging to senators on Thursday to work with them to carry out the administration’s ambitious agenda to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.

A Senate committee vote on his nomination could come as soon as next week.

Speaking at his confirmation hearing with his husband sitting nearby, Buttigieg pointed to a “generational opportunity” to create new jobs, fight economic inequality and stem climate change. Often sidestepping specifics, Buttigieg hinted at a broad climate-centric role for the department that will require significant investments, on top of Biden's proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan.

“We need to build our economy back, better than ever, and the Department of Transportation can play a central role in this,” the 39-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told the Senate Commerce Committee.

He indicated he would reverse a Trump administration rollback in federal automotive fuel economy standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, work to stiffen oversight of aviation safety as the troubled Boeing 737 Max makes its return to the skies and encourage use of electric vehicles, such as by adding a half-million charging stations nationwide.

Buttigieg did not specify where money could come from for big investments in infrastructure, and wouldn’t rule out a tax increase. He floated the possibility of a major change in how highways are funded, such as by converting from the current Highway Trust Fund, which is paid for through the gas tax, to a “vehicle miles traveled” alternative that would tax drivers based on their road mileage.

Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who chaired the hearing Thursday for a last time as the Senate finalized its transfer of power to Democrats, signaled likely challenges in finding ways to pay for a costly infrastructure overhaul, but said he looked forward to working with Buttigieg.

“I’m quite certain he will be confirmed,” Wicker told the hearing.

Buttigieg, a former Democratic presidential candidate, would be the first openly gay person confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet post. He was among the first batch of Cabinet selections getting hearings this week as Biden urges the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority, to quickly confirm his nominees.

Buttigieg would take over at a critical time for transportation. The coronavirus pandemic has devastated many modes of transportation, with airlines, city subway systems and Amtrak seeking federal aid to help keep afloat until ridership recovers.

Biden is mandating mask wearing on airplanes and public transportation systems to slow the spread of the coronavirus, and Buttigieg made clear that would be a priority at the department.

“We must ensure all of our transportation systems — from aviation to public transit, to our railways, roads, ports, waterways and pipelines — are managed safely during this critical period, as we work to defeat the virus,” he said.

Still, it’s Biden’s infrastructure plan, the full details of which are expected to be released next month, that is likely to pose the biggest challenges. Biden has yet to say how he intends to pay for new spending.

Beyond standard transportation fixes, which are easier to promise than to get through Congress, Biden wants to rejuvenate the post-coronavirus pandemic economy and create thousands of green jobs by making environmentally friendly retrofits and public works improvements.

Expanding on Biden's vision, Buttigieg hinted there could be new regulations or legislation governing self-driving cars to boost development, which would transform the industry. Because technology is advancing quickly, he wants to ensure “that we’re acting so that on the policy side, we are ready for all of the things that automated vehicles will bring to our roads and to our economy.”

Buttigieg pointed to his past experience as a veteran of the Afghanistan War as well as city mayor as valuable in taking a ground level approach to improving transportation. He described initiating a “smart streets” program to make South Bend’s downtown more pedestrian- and bicyclist-friendly while spurring hundreds of millions of dollars in economic investment.

Buttigieg would not step into the job with extensive experience enacting federal transportation policy, though advocates hope his public stature and loyal following from the 2020 campaign could help push through broad changes long unachievable on Capitol Hill. Biden this week nominated Polly Trottenberg, a former commissioner of New York City’s transportation department, to be deputy secretary.

On Thursday, Wicker jokingly asked Buttigieg if the Senate hearing might pale in comparison to his high-profile media appearances, including the night before on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

“I would characterize this as a unique experience,” Buttigieg responded with a smile.

During Donald Trump's four years in the White House, his administration often held “Infrastructure Week” events and touted transportation improvements. But it was not able to push Congress to pass any broad plan to update the nation’s roads and bridges, rails and airports.

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Krisher reported from Detroit. Associated Press writer David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.