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Drought update: A drought that threatened crops and helped spark wildfires in the Southeast has receded across most of the region, according to a federal report released Thursday. A new assessment from the National Drought Mitigation Center showed only tiny portions of Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina were still too dry after weeks of regular rainfall.

Stone seeks delay: Attorneys for longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, 67, asked a federal judge Thursday to postpone his scheduled Feb. 6 sentencing by at least one month, saying he needs more time to collect financial and other records needed for a sentencing advisory report.

Fatal stabbing: A 20-year-old attacker carried out a series of stabbings and carjackings at a suburban Portland, Oregon, shopping center and in a nearby town Wednesday, killing one person and wounding three others before being arrested, authorities said. Police in Beaverton said two people were stabbed inside a Wells Fargo bank and a man was stabbed at a gym next door.

Attack in Russia: gunman opened fire Thursday at the headquarters of Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet KGB, killing at least one person, state media reported. The unidentified shooter was “neutralized,” the FSB said in a statement carried by state news agency Tass. It was unclear whether the gunman had been killed or detained.

AR. Kelly plea: Singer R. Kelly pleaded not guilty to charges he schemed with others to pay for a fake ID for an unnamed female a day before he married R&B singer Aaliyah, then 15 years old, in a secret ceremony in 1994. Kelly entered the plea in New York, where he remains jailed while facing multiple sex crimes.