NATIONAL BRIEFS

MICHIGAN: Teacher fired over Trayvon

A middle school teacher fired after encouraging students to raise money for the family of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin said Tuesday she wants the administration to explain. English teacher Brooke Harris, 26, was dismissed in March from Pontiac Academy for Excellence after she supported students' efforts to plan a wear-a-hoodie-to-school day. A number of groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., have called for Harris to be reinstated. The SPLC said Harris' journalism students asked about the death of Martin, 17, in Sanford, Fla. Harris gave them an editorial-writing assignment on the shooting. The students wanted to raise money for Martin's family, but Superintendent Jacqueline Cassell vetoed that and Harris said she was explaining this to the students when Cassell called to suspend her. Then she fired Harris after she showed up to drop off prizes for students, though she had been told to stay away, the SPLC said.

WASHINGTON STATE: Driver ill, students take over

Students may not have been looking forward to school on the first day back after spring break, but they knew what to do when the bus driver slumped over the wheel unconscious. Surveillance video shows Jeremy Wuitschick, 13, grabbing the wheel on Monday morning as other students yell: "Call 911!" Wuitschick had noticed the driver was shaking as the bus started to pull into school in Milton, 30 miles south of Seattle. He removed the ignition keys and managed to pull the bus over. He and Johnny Wood, trained in first aid, started chest compressions on the driver until adults arrived.

ILLINOIS: Jury in slaying of star's kin

Jury selection wrapped up Tuesday for the Chicago trial of William Balfour, accused of killing the mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew of actress and singer Jennifer Hudson. Judge Charles Burns warned jurors not to switch on "American Idol" Thursday because Hudson might appear on the show, on which she first rose to fame as a contestant in 2004.