In the news
■ Shawn Sommers, Raymond Witkowski and David Pfindel, three Vermont state troopers, resigned after being accused of a scheme to make fake coronavirus vaccination cards in the nation’s most-vaccinated state, said state police Col. Matthew Birmingham, who called the situation “embarrassing.”
■ Rodney Taylor, chief of animal control in Prince George’s County, Md., is asking people not to chase or try to capture any of the five zebras that escaped more than a week ago from a private farm near Upper Marlboro as efforts are underway to corral the animals.
■ Chad Jacob, 54, of Saucier, Miss., a supply manager for the Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System in Mississippi who is accused of making more than $50,000 by stealing and selling equipment, including medical masks, pleaded guilty to theft.
■ Bryan Raymond of Fort Myers, Fla., fed up with the poor condition of the private road near his business, planted a banana tree in a pothole in the street, saying he wanted “something obvious” to warn motorists so they could avoid the hole.
■ Dominik Boerner, a judge in Chemnitz, Germany, handed down a oneyear suspended sentence to a 30-year-old German man, who wasn’t identified, after convicting him of an anti-Semitic attack on a Jewish restaurant in 2018.
■ Greta Brown Bully, 52, of Ridgeland, Miss., the former co-owner of a James Beard Award-winning restaurant, avoided prison time but will serve two years of house arrest after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the shooting of a man outside a liquor store she owns.
■ Rodrigo Duterte, 76, whose final term as president of the Philippines will end in June because of constitutional term limits, has been selected as his party’s vice-presidential candidate in a maneuver seen as a bid to keep him near the center of power.
■ Christopher Naples, 42, of Mattituck, N.Y., the information technology supervisor for Suffolk County, faces public corruption and other counts after being accused of hiding dozens of devices in government offices to use county computers to mine for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, prosecutors said.
■ Michael Kern, pastor of Hosanna Lutheran Church in Liberty, Mo., said his church won’t be able to continue its tradition of picking grapes and making communion wine after someone stole about 1,500 pounds of grapes from five rows of vines beside the church.