PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A small part of Florida is the Snowy State for the second year in a row. Snow briefly covered the grass and rooftops in parts of the western Florida Panhandle on Sunday morning as just enough frigid air rushed in behind a cold front to turn the last rain showers into snowflakes in the Sunshine State. Elsewhere, the winter weather promised to interfere with playoff football in places — Boston and Chicago — more accustomed to it, although the visiting teams come from...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to be ready in case of a possible deployment to Minnesota, where federal authorities have been conducting a massive immigration enforcement operation, two defense officials said Sunday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, said two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division have been given prepare-to-deploy orders. The unit is based in Alaska and in a...

PESCADERO, Calif. (AP) — Every winter about 10,000 elephant seals make their way to California's Año Nuevo State Park to fight, mate and give birth. The spectacle runs from mid-December through March, drawing wildlife watchers eager for a glimpse of the largest seals on the planet. During what park docent Laura Stern called “pupping season,” bull seals — some reaching up to 16 feet (4. 9 meters) in length and weighing up to 2. 5 tons — engage in bloody battles for breeding access to...