National Lifestyle

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The founder of Epic Games is donating a large stretch of North Carolina's Appalachian highlands to be preserved as a haven for wildlife.

Michael Kors is a top designer, of course, but he’s also a confirmed theatre geek.

NEW YORK — NBC News' Kristen Welker, shortly before she expects the birth of a daughter through a surrogate, is revealing the struggles with infertility that she and her husband, John Hughes, have gone through.

LONDON — The European Medicines Agency said Friday that people who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine should also get the second one despite the rare risk of blood clots that have been linked to the shot.

NEW YORK — An appellate court ruled for music producer Dr. Luke on Thursday on an important legal question in his defamation suit against pop star Kesha, saying the Grammy-nominated hitmaker isn't a public figure in the eyes of the law.

LOS ANGELES — “Jersey Shore” star Ronnie Ortiz-Magro was arrested Thursday for investigation of felony domestic violence, police said.

SAN FRANCISCO — Composer, pianist and educator Wayne Peterson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for music that was hotly contested because judges had chosen another composer, has died. He was 93.

WASHINGTON — The Scripps National Spelling Bee is undergoing a major overhaul to ensure it can identify a single champion, adding vocabulary questions and a lightning-round tiebreaker to this year's pandemic-altered competition.

LOS ANGELES — Shock G, who blended whimsical wordplay with reverence for '70s funk as leader of the off-kilter Bay Area hip-hop group Digital Underground, has died. He was 57.

LONDON — Noah Thomas saw his name in lights, and then the lights went out. The young actor was still in drama school when he was cast to play the lead role in the London West End musical “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.