In the news
■ Ryan Hamilton, executive director of Nebraska’s Republican Party, called on state Sen. John McCollister of Omaha to leave the party and register as a Democrat after the senator accused GOP officials of “enabling white supremacy in our country.”
■ Ralph Northam, the governor of Virginia, is praising the removal of Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ name from a 1950s-era archway at a memorial site in Fort Monroe where the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia 400 years ago.
■ Marylou Ward of Port Charlotte, Fla., said she woke up to the loudest sound she ever heard and found that a lightning strike had touched off methane gas in her septic tank, causing an explosion that destroyed the tank and shattered her toilet.
■ Michael Williams, a Republican ex-Georgia state senator who campaigned in a “deportation bus” and finished last in a five-person primary race for governor last year, apologized to supporters for a chaotic campaign and said he was led astray by “pride, ego and bad advice.”
■ Vernon Hale, police chief of Galveston, Texas, apologized after two white officers on horseback led a black, handcuffed trespassing suspect on a rope through downtown streets, saying that while the practice is acceptable in some situations, such as crowd control, the officers “showed poor judgment.”
■ Mitchell Helton, 55, of Bradenton, Fla., accused of pulling a gun on a late-arriving furniture delivery team and saying he’d “shot people for less,” was arrested on an aggravated-assault charge when the workers called the Manatee County sheriff’s office after unloading the items.
■ Matthew Young, 24, of Boston, accused of punching a bus driver in Randolph, Mass., when the driver wouldn’t stop to let him off, is facing charges after the attack caused the bus to rear-end a car and hit a utility pole, injuring 16 people, police said.
■ Peter Chadwick, 54, a Newport Beach, Calif., real estate investor who had been hunted by authorities since 2012 when he skipped a court appearance related to his wife’s death, was arrested in Mexico and is back in the U.S. to stand trial, prosecutors said.
■ Paul Dorr, 63, of Ocheyedan, Iowa, was convicted of criminal mischief and ordered to pay $125 after he posted a video online of him burning four library books that were written for homosexual, bisexual and transgender children.