In the news
■ Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., who was threatened with a lawsuit by an attorney for House colleague Devin Nunes, R-Calif., over allegations that Lieu made about Nunes in the presidential impeachment inquiry, responded that he’d “welcome any lawsuit from your client,” adding: “Or, you can take your letter and shove it.”
■ Seth Lookhart, an Alaskan dentist who was shown on video riding a hoverboard while pulling teeth, was convicted of 46 criminal counts stemming from his dental practices and a scheme that defrauded the state’s Medicaid program.
■ Rebecca Turner, a pastor whose United Church of Christ congregation was among more than a dozen that joined with other groups to pay off nearly $13 million in medical debt for 11,108 families in the St. Louis area, expressed the prayer that the effort will give families “a fresh start.”
■ Bryan Berg, 35, a Marion, Mont., man who told authorities that he killed a grizzly bear, classified as a threatened species, in self-defense and then cut off its claws as a memento because he was “mad” at the bear “because he was going to eat me,” was sentenced to three years of probation for illegally transporting the claws.
■ Guyland Thompson, former mayor of Milton, Fla., was sentenced to more than four years in prison for embezzling more than $650,000 from a United Way chapter while he ran the organization.
■ John Couey, 44, of Greenville, Miss., a laboratory owner hired to ensure water quality for dozens of towns, agencies and businesses in the state, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to falsifying more than 1,000 lab reports.
■ Dave Christensen, 55, of Winamac, Ind., was cited by authorities after he had to be rescued in Yellowstone National Park because he had rappelled down a deep canyon but was unable to climb back out, court records show.
■ Rebecca Morgan, head of collector services at the Royal Mint, said she wasn’t surprised that “one of the rarest and most collectible coins in the world,” a gold piece bearing the image of Britain’s King Edward VIII before his 1936 abdication, sold for $1.3 million.
■ Chad Chronister, sheriff of Hillsborough County, Fla., praised a Walmart security guard for calling authorities and asking an off-duty wildlife officer who happened by for help detaining a woman who was trying to build an explosive in a Tampa store.