In the news
■ Carol Siemon, the prosecutor in Ingham County, Mich., dismissed a complaint by the county’s election clerk about a toilet in front of a home with a sign that read “Place mail in ballots here,” saying in a statement that the display did not violate state laws and “seemed to be an effort to make a humorous political statement.”
■ Albi Modise, a spokesman for South Africa’s Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, said the country’s coronavirus lockdown aided efforts to reduce rhino deaths caused by poaching, which dropped more than 50% from the previous year, to 166, according to the agency.
■ Lisa Hendy, the chief ranger at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, said park officials are working to identify who mounted a cardboard sign with a racist message and hung a black bear skin over an entrance sign to the park, and have offered a reward for information.
■ Nic Deka, the manager of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, said 25 of the estimated 270 pilot whales that became stranded on a beach off the Australian island state have been rescued, but a third of the whales have died.
■ Akbar Akram, 44, of Florida was sentenced in a Tampa court to 90 days of home detention and 288 hours of community service for his part in a trafficking scheme in which live lizards were smuggled from the Philippines to the United States.
■ Douglas Lane, 53, a registered sex offender in Duncan, S.C., was restrained by a group of parents at a Cracker Barrel and was later arrested after a 15-year-old girl using the women’s restroom at the restaurant noticed a man looking out from under the stall beside her, according to authorities.
■ Christina Mitchell of McComb, Miss., opened her front door after returning home from work and “felt this thump on my head,” which turned out to be a 10-inch snake that had been lodged on top of the door.
■ Joshua Carr, 30, a Tennessee man, pleaded innocent in a Sevier County court to first-degree murder and aggravated-assault charges after his mother was found stabbed “at least 70 times” and his grandmother was slashed with a knife, according to prosecutors.
■ Nayef Amjad Qashou, 26, of Auburn, Ala., was sentenced to 57 months in prison for lying to the FBI during a terrorism investigation involving the distribution of Islamic State propaganda videos, according to prosecutors.