In the news
■ Joshua Punt, 39, of Ridgefield, Wash., who pleaded guilty to posing as a teenager online to blackmail eight girls as young as 12 across the country to send him sexually explicit photos and videos, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
■ Jens Haaning, 56, a Danish artist who was lent $84,000 by the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art to re-create two of his older pieces that were made using cash, instead sent the museum two empty frames and a new title for the artwork: “Take the Money and Run.”
■ Larry Tate, police chief in Brighton, Ala., said a horse-drawn carriage and a trailer, stolen from a church parking lot ahead of a funeral, were found behind a house about 20 miles away and that “multiple” people were in custody in the theft.
■ Brett Blomme, 39, a former juvenile court judge in Milwaukee County, Wis., accused of uploading child pornography through a messaging app 27 times, pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of distributing child pornography, prosecutors said.
■ Chuck McPhilamy, a Marietta, Ga., police spokesman, said officers shot and wounded 29-year-old Andrew Emory of Canton, accused of using a compound bow and arrow to carjack a woman in Atlanta, after he crashed the car and pointed the weapon at police.
■ Anthony Cassani, 22, of Detroit, convicted of snapping a photo of a gang chart while cleaning an FBI office and posting it on social media, was sentenced to probation but got a stern lecture from the judge who told him: “What you do in real life has real consequences.”
■ David Engelman, 56, of Sandia Park, N.M.; and Ronald Engelman II, 54, and Steve Thomas, 30, both of King Salmon, Alaska, were charged with creating a hazardous condition and entering a restricted area in Katmai National Park and Preserve in 2018 to get close to a group of brown bears while they were eating, prosecutors said.
■ Rebecca Brown of Court Watch L.A., a project aimed at increasing transparency in the Los Angeles County court system, said she is frustrated that it took six weeks before it became public that a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy accidentally fired his weapon inside a Van Nuys courtroom.
■ Barbara Bush, the 39-year-old daughter of former President George W. Bush, and her husband, screenwriter Craig Coyne, have announced the birth of their first child, Cora Georgia Coyne, in Maine.