Essential workers who helped New York City through the COVID-19 pandemic were honored Wednesday with a parade up Broadway — nurses, doctors, first responders, teachers, bus drivers and more riding on floats through a canyon of tall buildings and falling confetti. The parade stretched from Battery Park to City Hall, led up Broadway in lower Manhattan by grand marshal Sandra Lindsay, a health care worker who was the first person in the country to get a COVID-19 vaccine shot after they were authorized for public use.

When throngs gathered to rededicate the oldest major Hindu temple in the United States, there was poignance — prayers for continued recovery from the pandemic that struck many loved ones in India — and the elation of coming together after more than a year of restrictions. And there was joy.

Residents of an Arizona border city were left in disbelief by a surprise visit from a bear. The Arizona Game & Fish Department said the bear appeared Sunday in downtown Douglas. Bolder than your average bear, the animal climbed up two utility poles and even sat on the wires at one point.