In the news
■ Chet Pollert, the Republican majority leader in the North Dakota House, said that in these tense legislative times “popcorn cheers people up for some reason,” but a popcorn machine had to be removed from a Capitol break room after it triggered fire alarms twice in one week.
■ Alyson Pring of Groveland, Fla., called a repairman when her clothes dryer began blowing lint through the vent filter, leading to the discovery of a snake that had crawled into the vent and died, blocking the line.
■ Edith Riddle, 34, of Jacksonville, Fla., accused of wearing a boxing glove and attacking a student who was fighting with her daughter outside a middle school cafeteria, was charged with child abuse, police said.
■ Zara Tindall, 39, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s granddaughters, and her husband, Mike, are celebrating the birth of their third child, Lucas, who was born on the bathroom floor of their home in Gloucestershire after the couple was unable to get to a hospital in time.
■ Christopher Casamento, 42, the University of Pittsburgh’s former emergency management director, has been indicted in the theft of 13,600 masks intended for school employees and students in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic and selling them online, federal prosecutors said.
■ Peter Koenig, owner of a brewery in Duesseldorf, Germany, saying it would have been “such a shame to just toss out” beer that was left unsold when restaurants and bars closed because of pandemic restrictions, struck a deal with craft bakers who used it to produce loaves of “Treberbrot,” or “Spent Grain Bread.”
■ Loren Senna, 37, facing charges related to the shooting of an AR-15-style rifle that struck several homes in two neighborhoods in Burlington, Vt., also is facing a federal drug charge after officers reported finding about 8 ounces of crack cocaine in his vehicle.
■ Lee Ray Boykin Jr., 32, a former Texas state trooper, is facing several federal charges after being accused of sexually assaulting two women during traffic stops in the Houston area while he was on duty, prosecutors said.
■ Rico Marley, 22, was charged with reckless conduct after he walked into an Atlanta grocery store with two long guns and three pistols, all concealed, and body armor just days after a mass shooting at a Colorado supermarket left 10 people dead, authorities said.