In the news
■ Kathy Brown, executive director of New York City Ballet, said that, after 30 performances, all remaining performances of “The Nutcracker” ballet, set to end Sunday, have been canceled because of positive coronavirus tests among cast members and crew.
■ Kevin Stitt, the Republican governor of Oklahoma who was the nation’s first governor to confirm that he got covid-19, said he has no plans to get a vaccine booster shot even though state health officials are encouraging vaccinated people to get one.
■ Patricia Cornwell, 51, a Los Angeles woman accused of slapping and spitting on a man on a flight from Tampa, Fla., to Atlanta as the two argued over his not wearing a mask, faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine after being charged with assault, prosecutors said.
■ Luis Romero-Moran, 46, of Doral, Fla., who walked into a Miami-Dade police station and announced: “I killed my wife and I’m here to turn myself in,” was charged with first-degree murder after police said they found her body at a house where she worked as a housekeeper.
■ Brandon Wiseman, 35, who evaded authorities after being identified as a suspect in a fatal shooting Sunday in Chatsworth, Ga., was arrested after he was found in an abandoned house in Helenwood, Tenn., authorities said.
■ Tammy Pierce, mother of Brooklyn, Ill., police officer Brian Pierce who died after being struck on a Mississippi River bridge by a motorist fleeing police, said a Dec. 23 fire gutted the family’s home in Makanda, destroying their belongings as well as keepsakes from Pierce’s career.
■ Preston Houston, 40, and Christopher Stevens, 42, both face kidnapping charges after being accused of taking another man at gunpoint in Moss Point, Miss., to a house where he was beaten before he later escaped from the trunk of a car when it stopped at a traffic light, authorities said.
■ James Skelton, 74, the owner of a gun store in Osage Beach, Mo., faces a 15-count federal indictment accusing him of bypassing background checks and illegally selling firearms to undercover federal agents.
■ Sayed H., 26, and Seyed H., 22, two Afghan brothers only identified by their first names in line with German privacy laws, both face murder charges in the killing in Bavaria of their 34-year-old sister, who prosecutors said was punished for adopting a “Western-oriented way of life.”