COLUMBIA, Miss. (AP) — Power companies were struggling to restore electricity to thousands of people in Mississippi, a day after a powerful storm swept through the southern U.S. and killed at least four people.

Police in Columbia, Mississippi were stationed at all major intersections because traffic lights were swept away or destroyed amid Tuesday’s powerful storms. Columbia is about 80 miles southeast of the capital of Jackson.

Severe weather also injured 50 people and damaged or destroyed an unknown number of homes and businesses.

In south Georgia, meanwhile, more than 50 counties are under a tornado watch as thunderstorms continue in many parts of the state.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Authorities say they’ve broken up a violent, multistate dog-fighting ring involving hundreds of dogs forced into brutal combat.

Authorities said Monday that a Baltimore grand jury returned indictments against 22 people involved in the ring, 14 of whom are in custody. They’re all charged with animal cruelty, dog fighting and conspiracy.

The indictments came after authorities raided 18 locations in the Baltimore area and a compound in West Virginia following a yearlong investigation.

An official at the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office says authorities recovered 225 dogs, including 50 puppies, and at least 20 weapons as part of the investigation. The fate of all the dogs once they were taken to shelters is unclear.

Authorities say the ring also has links in North Carolina, New York and elsewhere in Maryland.

WINDSOR, Conn. (AP) — Police in Connecticut have arrested 17-year-old who they say robbed a 99-year-old woman of her purse while she was delivering cookies to a local community center.

Police say the woman was walking outside the L.P. Wilson Community Center in Windsor at about 9 a.m. Wednesday when the teen snatched her purse from her and fled.

Police say the suspect did not have a weapon and the victim, who was knocked to the ground, was not injured.

Police did not say how much money was in the purse.

The teen’s name has not been released because of his age. He was charged Thursday with third-degree robbery, sixth-degree larceny and assault on an elderly person.

His case is being handled in Juvenile Court.

DETROIT (AP) — Ford says it’s expanding a recall for faulty driver’s side air bag inflators to the entire U.S. as demanded by the government.

The move adds 447,000 Ford vehicles to the list of those recalled due to driver’s inflators made by Japan’s Takata Corp. The inflators can explode with too much force, spewing shrapnel into drivers and passengers.

Ford’s action puts pressure on BMW and Chrysler, the only two automakers that haven’t agreed to national recalls. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made the demand, saying the inflators are dangerous.

Honda and Mazda recalls already are national. Previously the recalls were limited to high-humidity states mainly along the Gulf Coast.

Ford’s national recall covers certain 2005 to 2008 Mustangs and 2005 and 2006 GT sports cars.

BUTTE, Montana (AP) — An Associated Press investigation has found that at least 786 children died of abuse or neglect in the U.S. in a six-year span while in plain view of child protection officials.

The children lost their lives even as authorities were investigating their families or providing some form of protective services.

The AP canvassed the 50 states, District of Columbia and the military.

The true number of such fatalities where a prior open case existed is undoubtedly higher than the 786.

Seven states reported 230 open-case maltreatment deaths that AP did not include. Those states failed to make a distinction between case files opened only due to the incident that ultimately led to a child’s death and case files that already existed at the time the child was fatally injured.

LOGAN, Utah (AP) — Authorities say a 57-year-old hunter is dead after one of his companions slipped in the mud and accidentally shot him in the back in northern Utah.

Cache County deputies say the man was shot about 2 p.m. Tuesday in a remote area west of the tiny town of Paradise, about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City. He was later identified as Norman Newbold of Syracuse, Utah.

Deputies say four men were hunting pheasants at a sportsman’s club when one man slipped and accidentally fired his 12-gauge shotgun, shooting Newbold. He was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Deputies say they’re investigating, but believe the shooting was an accident and don’t anticipate any criminal charges in the case.

INDIANA, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman convicted of downloading child pornography to frame her estranged husband must spend six months to two years in county jail.

43-year-old Meri Jane Woods was sentenced Monday by an Indiana County judge who rejected her attorney’s request for leniency and flexibility to start serving the sentence after the holidays.

A jury previously found Woods downloaded 40 images to the family computer, took it to police in August 2013 and blamed Matthew Woods for the material.

But when police examined time stamps, they determined the images had been downloaded more than two weeks after Meri Woods had her husband kicked out of their Clymer-area home with a protection-from-abuse order.

Woods continues to deny wrongdoing saying, “I only wanted to protect my children.”

NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time in three decades, the nation’s most common sexually transmitted disease is a little less common.

Health officials on Tuesday said the rate and number of chlamydia (kluh-MID’-ee-uh) cases fell last year, by 1.5 percent. But there were still 1.4 million new cases reported — more than any other sexually transmitted disease. Experts are not sure what to make of the one-year drop.

Chlamydia is easily treated with antibiotics. Untreated, it can damage a woman’s reproductive system.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also reported gonorrhea cases declined, by less than 1 percent. The numbers for the most contagious forms of syphilis rose about 10 percent — to 17,375. The increase was mainly among gay men.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google says Robin Williams’ suicide seared into the world’s collective mindset more than anything else this year.

The reaction to Williams’ August death topped Google’s list of 2014’s fastest-rising search requests released Tuesday. It topped notable events such as the World Cup, the Ebola outbreak, the March disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the Ice Bucket Challenge, an Internet video craze to raise awareness and money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

Other topics included the addictive smartphone game “Flappy Bird,” bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst, the Middle East extremist group ISIS, the hit Disney movie “Frozen,” and the Winter Olympics in Russia.

Williams, Ebola, the World Cup and the Ice Bucket also ranked among the most-discussed subjects this year on Facebook, which released its list last week.