In the news

■ Buddy Ackerman, 75, of Palm Harbor, Fla., said he kicked an 8-foot alligator in the snout after it grabbed his dog, which was uninjured, while they were out for a walk, with wildlife officials saying they later trapped the gator.

■ James Parks Jr., 44, police chief in Tellico Plains, Tenn., resigned after it was revealed that he was in a sexual relationship with an informant paid from a police fund that was missing about $840, and he has been charged with official misconduct, authorities said.

■ Scott Bourne, an auto repair shop owner in Frankfort, Ky., said a driver heard a noise coming from under his car and, after 30 miles, stopped near the auto shop where he found a 9-weekold kitten trapped in the car frame, adding that it took the shop’s technicians about 20 minutes to free the kitten.

■ Malik Henderson, 22, of St. Louis, who police said was behind the wheel of a stolen car traveling at 106 mph before it crashed, killing his two passengers and leaving Henderson partially paralyzed, pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

■ L’ Jean McKneely, a police sergeant in Baton Rouge, said Sadie Roberts-Joseph, 75, who was the founder and curator of the city’s African American Museum, was discovered dead in the trunk of a car, and authorities say they are working to determine a cause of death and identify suspects.

■ Mike Mayhew, 45, a former sheriff’s deputy from Plantersville, Miss., was indicted on a charge of retaliation against a public servant after prosecutors said he told a witness that Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson, who had told state officials that Mayhew submitted time sheets for work he hadn’t done, deserved a “whipping.”

■ Don Mayse, chief of the Riverview Fire Protection District of Missouri, said two men suspected in a carjacking died after they ran from police and jumped into a creek where they struggled, went under water and never resurfaced.