In the news
■ CQ Brown Jr., an Air Force general, is expected to be President Joe Biden’s pick for the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing Army Gen. Mark Milley, whose term ends in October, a senior administration official said.
■ Lane Mugleston, owner of Leap Ahead Daycare in Spanish Fork, Utah, said a 2-year-old boy was wounded in the head after a stray pellet shot from an air rifle in a nearby field penetrated the vinyl wrap around the facility’s outdoor play area.
■ Omri Bronstein, a marine biologist at Tel Aviv University, said sea urchins in Israel’s Gulf of Eilat have been dying off at an alarming rate, explaining, “it’s a fast and violent death: Within just two days a healthy sea urchin becomes a skeleton with massive tissue loss.”
■ Jabari Wamble, a federal prosecutor selected by President Joe Biden to become a U.S. district judge in Kansas, has withdrawn from consideration, citing the nearly two-year wait for action on his nomination.
■ John Diehl, former speaker of the House in Missouri, was fined $47,000 for breaking campaign finance laws after the Missouri Ethics Commission said it uncovered misconduct during an audit of his campaign last year.
■ Ron Magill, communications director of Zoo Miami, said zoo officials had been in contact with New Zealand’s Department of Conservation to apologize after reports surfaced about the possible mistreatment of a nocturnal kiwi bird, whose head was stroked by handlers and guests in a fully lit room.
■ Ioannis Sarmas, 66, was named caretaker prime minister in Greece and will lead the government until a new election is held in June, government officials said.
■ Valdas Benkunskas, mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, noted in a Facebook post that no permit had been issued for the removal of a healthy century-old oak tree, saying the case would be referred to prosecutors.
■ Mike Shannon, interim executive vice president for administration and finance at Georgia Tech University, was selected by the University of North Georgia board of regents to become the next president of the 18,000-student university.
■ Clifton Williams of Louisville, Ky., was arrested on assault charges after he attacked and shot his roommate in the buttocks while accusing him of eating the duo’s last Hot Pocket.