In the news
■ Christopher Ramirez, 3, who wandered off while playing with a dog in his yard near Plantersville, Texas, was found in the woods four days later, and Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said the boy was “drinking lots of water, but he’s good … laughing, cutting up, crying,” and that “His mom is crying.”
■ Paula Patrick, a common pleas judge in Philadelphia, approved an emergency order to remove the plywood box covering a disputed statue of Christopher Columbus in the city’s Marconi Plaza.
■ Robert DuBoise, 56, of Florida, who was freed from prison after 37 years when DNA evidence proved he was innocent of a rape and murder, is now suing the city of Tampa, four police investigators and a forensic dentist who misidentified a bite mark on the victim’s cheek.
■ Clifton McHale, a Boston police sergeant who bragged about striking people with his car during protests over George Floyd’s killing, got an unpaid suspension of at least eight days after an investigation determined his statements were “unbecoming of a police officer” even though he didn’t actually hit anyone.
■ Desmond Meade, 54, who served prison time for drug and firearms offenses and who now heads the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, announced that he can run for office, serve on a jury and take the bar exam as more of his civil rights were restored under a new state clemency program.
■ Lynn Spruill, mayor of Starkville, Miss., said the goal is “offering programs that are much more robust” as aldermen voted 5-2 to approve a $15,000-a-month deal for a private contractor to manage the city’s parks.
■ Nick Palumbo, an alderman in Savannah, Ga., counted “50,000 pieces of plastic out of the waste stream, out of our environment” as the city and bars and restaurants toasted their trial run at serving to-go orders of beer and cocktails in reusable, recyclable aluminum cups.
■ Jerry Starnes, City Council president in Prattville, Ala., conceded “I don’t like not being able to tell the public what we are doing,” but “sometimes when you are dealing with a seller, you have to play by their rules,” as he endorsed a $1.3 million property purchase without identifying what was bought or why.
■ Pope Francis met privately with Nancy Pelosi in what she called “a spiritual, personal and official honor” amid criticism of the House speaker by the San Francisco archbishop and conservative Catholics over her support of abortion rights.