In the news

■ Patricia Quinn, executive director of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, said it is the understanding of the agency that “liquor sales … will not need to be suspended in New Hampshire,” when the Amtrak Downeaster, which runs 145 miles from Brunswick, Maine, to Boston, passes through the state.

■ Randy McNally, 79, the Republican lieutenant governor of Tennessee, who has overseen the state Senate as it has advanced and passed anti-LGBTQ legislation, has apologized after revelations that he interacted on social media with a nearly nude gay model and other LGBTQ personalities.

■ David Jungerman, 85, a suburban Kansas City, Mo., man convicted of killing an attorney, is not competent to move forward with sentencing, a judge has ruled, and instead will be committed to the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

■ Tate Reeves, Republican governor of Mississippi, signed a bill to designate the Mississippi opal as the state gemstone, saying in a statement, “the green Mississippi Opal is as beautiful as our state and it will be an excellent representation of our unique geological history.”

■ Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, said the state’s newly opened “Empower Hotline” to report classroom lessons that use critical race theory or emotional support curriculum “continues to politicize and disrespect educators and their profession and the relationships that they have with their families.”

■ James Keith “Jay” Steward, 34, a former police officer in Tuscumbia, Ala., has been indicted on a charge of reckless murder in connection with the roadside death of a pedestrian and accused of being under the influence of a controlled substance “and/ or speeding and/or driving on the wrong side of the road.”