In the news
■ David Tait of Laceys Creek in Queensland, Australia, said two male carpet pythons, one 9 feet long and the other 8 feet and weighing a combined 100 pounds, crashed through his ceiling before slithering away in what he believes was a mating fight over a female.
■ Thomas Callaway, 44, who pleaded guilty to slapping a female reporter’s rear on live TV as he ran past during a race in Savannah, Ga., was sentenced to a year’s probation, fined $1,000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.
■ Laura Eimiller, a spokesman for the FBI in Los Angeles, said agents are investigating after two airline pilots called the Los Angeles International Airport control tower to report seeing a man flying with a jet pack passing within several hundred yards of passenger jets.
■ Rodney Bennett, president of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, said the school’s marching band will rename its dance team, called the “Dixie Darlings,” and write a new song to replace “Are You From Dixie?” which was played when the team took the field at football games.
■ George Buss, 63, of Freeport, Ill., who has spent decades performing as an Abraham Lincoln impersonator at events around the country, including reenactments of the Gettysburg Address at Gettysburg, Pa., is facing child pornography charges, police said.
■ James Samuels, 54, a former Kansas City Fire Department captain accused of illegally buying and selling firearms — and allowing as many as 20 to be transferred to convicted felons — pleaded guilty to seven federal weapons charges, federal prosecutors said.
■ Julian Bear Runner, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, has been suspended and will face an impeachment hearing after being accused of inappropriate contact with a 17-year-old boy, tribal officials said.
■ Brian Pierce, coroner of Baldwin County, Ala., said a 53-year-old Tennessee woman died at a Fort Morgan beach after she and others attempting to form a human chain to rescue a 9-year-old who had been swept out to sea were swept out too.
■ Vincent Scavetta, 28, accused of pointing a gun at another shopper at a store in West Palm Beach, Fla., in a dispute over Scavetta not wearing a mask, no longer faces felony charges after prosecutors dropped the case, deciding there was insufficient evidence of a crime.