In the news

■ David Ralston, Georgia’s House speaker, touted “the kind of measure that touches lives” as it was reported that 450 state and university employees have already used a law that took effect July 1 to grant new parents up to three weeks of paid leave.

■ Todd Schmidt of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival said its Montgomery theater has survived the pandemic in part because of the community’s support, and after a $1.6 million renovation it’ll open its 50th season with a production of “Cinderella.”

■ Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said DNA testing confirmed that a juvenile cougar killed by state agents was the animal responsible for an attack on a 5-year-old boy whose mother fought it off in their front yard.

■ Brandon Theesfeld, 24, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and got life in prison, taking the death penalty off the table, in the 2019 killing of a 21-year-old University of Mississippi student whom he had dated.

■ Jenson Wayne Faught, 33, pleaded innocent to 12 felony counts after authorities near Ozark, Mo., said Faught hid in a shed and fired at them as they responded to a man’s report that someone had pointed a gun at him and tried to steal his truck before running into the woods.

■ Derron D. Nevels, 20, of Kansas City, Mo., pleaded guilty to robbery and discharging a firearm, admitting that he shot a taxi driver 26 times, with the woman surviving but continuing to suffer from serious injuries.

■ Sven Spichiger, an entomologist for the Washington state Department of Agriculture, hailed public reporting and said that “we hope to find them before they can produce new queens,” after officials destroyed the season’s first nest of Asian giant hornets, sometimes called murder hornets, in a dead alder tree near the Canadian border.

■ Willie Demps, 63, former deputy court clerk in Muscogee County, Ga., is among eight people accused of stealing more than $467,000 — and “there is much, much more,” said an assistant U.S. attorney, with an FBI agent telling a judge that just $210 was deposited during years in which the court office received $5.9 million.

■ Jim Luke, mayor of Picayune, Miss., cited mold, mildew, crumbling walls, disintegrating sewer pipes and caved-in flooring, adding that “the smell is terrible,” as he begged residents to visit the Police Department and see for themselves as he seeks a tax millage increase.