In the news

■ Curtis Combs, 36, of Somerset, Ky., told police he expected to be arrested but went ahead and jumped a barrier on the outer perimeter of the White House dressed as the Pokemon character Pikachu in hopes of becoming famous in a YouTube video.

■ Johnny Jennings, police chief in Pearl River, La., called it an etiquette lesson to “Pay your bill and tip your waitress” after police uncovered a sophisticated Los Angeles-based identity-theft ring when two men were tracked down and arrested after skipping out on a $7.41 Waffle House bill.

■ George H.W. Bush, the nation’s 41st president, donated the red, white and blue socks he wore while performing the ceremonial coin toss during Super Bowl LI for an auction being held to raise money for the Roman Catholic Diocese in Maine.

■ Ebony Smith, crowned homecoming queen by the North Shore Senior High School near Houston, got an apology from the Galena Park Independent School District after it doctored photos posted on social media to change her purple-colored hair to brown.

■ Virginia Mabhiza, spokesman for the Zimbabwe Justice Ministry, said there has been a “flood” of people who want to be the country’s next hangman, with more than 50 applicants seeking to be the executioner in a country where jobs are hard to find.

■ Nick Meyer, 39, an elevator mechanic in Parma, Ohio, said he spent about $1,500 and 10 hours a weekend for about half a year to build a two-story replica of a Star Wars four-legged ATAT walker for Halloween that is attracting visitors from across the state.

■ Vladimir Lazarevic, a former Serb general sentenced to 14 years in prison for war crimes committed during a crackdown against Kosovo’s Albanians in the 1990s, has been invited to teach at the Serbian military academy, the country’s defense minister said.

■ Wade Gelinas, a senior at Bonny Eagle High School in Standish, Maine, said he was trying to honor his family’s hunting tradition after his submitted yearbook photo was rejected because it shows him holding a shotgun, which violated a school policy barring weapons in any yearbook photo.

■ Kato Mele decided to close her year-old coffeehouse in Lynn, Mass., because of the backlash created when her daughter, who was fired, wrote on her personal social media page that the store would never host a “Coffee with a Cop” event.