In the news

■ Andrea Steinebach said her family is “still haunted by the illegal middle-of-the-night invasion of our home by the very people that are supposed to protect us” as a judge ordered St. Louis County to pay $300,000 after police barged in with guns drawn searching for a suspect who had skipped out on cab fare.

■ Lesli Myers-Small, schools superintendent in Rochester, N.Y., said she was “horrified” as several teachers were put on leave and could be fired after exchanging text messages that made racist and demeaning references to students.

■ Shannon LaFargue, chief academic officer in Calcasieu Parish, La., was appointed superintendent on an 8-7 vote and said the mission is “trying to be flexible, give teachers real autonomy, give teachers the opportunity to say, ‘I can have fun today in this class.’”

■ Elsie Arntzen, schools superintendent in Montana, was ticketed and is heading to municipal court after being accused of passing a school bus in a pickup truck while it was stopped to pick up students in a residential subdivision.

■ Tracy Wolff, pastor of Pitts Chapel United Methodist Church in Springfield, Mo., said “this is not simply tagging … this was a hate crime” as police investigate the painting of a swastika on a historically Black church that’s becoming “one of the most diverse places in town.”

■ Marquetta Curry, a former Georgia state employee, was indicted on charges that she tried to steal $60,000 from two elderly women, instructing one to give her a blank check and trying to cash another check by telling the bank she was the victim’s’s grand-niece.

■ Curt Kemmerer, a wildlife biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, conceded that “perhaps three to five bears” live in the entire state as a “bear aware” news release was issued after a number of sightings in Dubuque.

■ Jacqueline Nunez, a Boston developer, said “it’s not a real estate development; it’s around my own beliefs” as her company paid $1.525 million for the 18th-century Rhode Island farmhouse that inspired the 2013 movie “The Conjuring,” saying she’ll keep it open as a paranormal business.

■ Diana Di Zoglio, a Massachusetts legislator, said at least the state “can set the record straight” as lawmakers exonerated Elizabeth Johnson Jr., clearing her name after she was convicted of witchcraft in 1693 at the height of the Salem Witch Trials, though she wasn’t executed.