In the news

■ Eleni Kounalakis, lieutenant governor of California, said it was “very humbling” as she became the first woman in state history to sign a bill into law, extending a pandemic pause on evictions, after the governor left on vacation.

■ Lori Lightfoot, mayor of Chicago, called it “one of the many tools in the city’s toolbox to eradicate poverty” as it doles out $12.5 million worth of $150 gas cards and $50 public-transit cards in the face of high gas prices, with as many as 150,000 people benefiting.

■ William Burns, a professional secret-keeper as director of the CIA, revealed that he tested positive for covid-19 soon after being with the president in a socially distanced meeting at which Burns wore an N-95 mask.

■ David Lidstone, 82, a New Hampshire hermit known as “River Dave,” failed to show up for a court hearing in his tug-ofwar with a landowner over a patch of forest near the Merrimack River and now faces a $500-a-day fine if he doesn’t leave.

■ Elouise McDaniel, 82, a retired schoolteacher, is being sued by Irvington, N.J., over her penchant for requesting information about the mayor, with the township alleging that her 75-plus public-records requests in three years is “voluminous” and “overly burdensome.”

■ Ademola Kayode Jr., 30, of Warwick, R.I., was sentenced to two years in prison for dealing in firearms without a license and lying on federal purchase forms, stating at least 16 times that he was not a user of controlled substances when he actually was, prosecutors said.

■ Carlos Allen of Mississippi was convicted of drug trafficking linked to at least one overdose death and was handed 124 years in prison, with the district attorney saying the stiff sentence was linked to Allen knowing fentanyl was killing people but selling it anyway.

■ Ricky Flynt of Mississippi’s wildlife department stressed that “these people will not be shooting alligators out across the water” near people’s homes as a hunt is proposed on the Ross Barnett Reservoir not for recreation but as a population reduction effort.

■ Lea Rodger, 32, a paralegal who works to end capital punishment, says she’s keenly aware of the reality, yet she decided anyway to marry Richard Glossip, 59, who’s on death row in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and has narrowly escaped execution three times, saying they’re committed to “really live in the moment.”