Illegal crossings plunge as US extends policy across border
By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press
Illegal border crossings have plummeted after the Trump administration made more asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court. The drop has been most striking on Arizona’s western border, a pancake-flat desert. Border arrests there fell 94% from May to October. A Border Patrol official says traffic plunged after asylum-seekers learned they couldn’t stay in the U.S. while their cases wound through court. More than 55,000 asylum-seekers were returned to Mexico to wait for hearings through November, 10 months after the policy was introduced in San Diego.

‘Bad Boys for Life’ debuts so good with box office top spot
By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer
“Bad Boys for Life” exceeded expectations coming away with a dominating No. 1 showing at the box office. The Sony Pictures film starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence brought in $59 million in the U.S. and Canada entering the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The action-packed, buddy comedy returned for the franchise’s third installment after a 17-year hiatus with a popular demand. Second place went to “Dolittle,” starring Robert Downey Jr., which opened with a mediocre $22.5 million. Sony Pictures predicted that “Bad Boys” will make around $68 million over the four-day weekend.

No give: Trump’s impeachment defense, prosecutors dig in
By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press
Advocates for and against President Donald Trump are giving no ground in the shadow of his Senate impeachment trial. The president’s defenders are arguing that his pressure on Ukraine broke no U.S., law, so it wasn’t impeachable in the first place. The House Democrats who are prosecuting the abuse and obstruction charges say there need be no crime and that the Constitution defines a higher threshold for impeachment. Before the arguments begin, expect a fight over the structure of the trial when it resumes on Tuesday. Trump denies the charges and has cast himself as a victim of Democrats who want to overturn his 2016 election.

University student struck, killed by bus in Pittsburgh
Authorities say a Philadelphia-area college senior who aspired to be a research psychologist was struck and killed by a bus in Pittsburgh over the weekend. The Allegheny County medical examiner’s office said 20-year-old Barbara Como of Chester Springs was struck by the Port Authority bus in the Oakland neighborhood shortly after noon Saturday. The University of Pittsburgh said Como studied anthropology and psychology and was on track to graduate in the spring. Counseling is being offered to students and faculty. Port authority spokesman Adam Brandolph declined to release information about the crash but said the driver was “shaken up.”