In the news

■ David Grudzinski was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to repay $2.4 million after pleading guilty to using special software to make about 450 pay phones that he owned in the Houston area robotically dial toll-free numbers, for which he was paid 49 cents per call over a 10-year period.

■ Miguel Glorioso, 20, who is serving prison time for drug charges in Rapides Parish, La., was arrested on obscenity counts and had his trusty status revoked after he reportedly was seen having sex in a stairwell at the parish courthouse, where he was on cleaning detail.

■ Roy Eckerdt, the police chief in Powell, Wyo., attributed it to “somebody’s sense of humor,” after city officials discovered that parks workers had inadvertently been caring for marijuana plants in cityowned flowerpots.

■ Joel Hamilton, a vice president at New Orleans’ Audubon Zoo, said a 3-yearold jaguar named Valerio was “doing what jaguars do” when it attacked six other animals after escaping its enclosure.

■ Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island and members of her office of constituent services will be holding office hours at state beaches this summer, with the first set for Scarborough State Beach in Narragansett, to hear directly from residents and help connect them with services.

■ Dustin Theobald, 30, was sitting in shallow water and watching his son play at the beach when he was bitten on the foot by a shark, and a 17-year-old boy was bitten about five minutes later, leading authorities in Fernandina Beach, Fla., to close the beaches.

■ Dick Vogt, a Brazilian turtle researcher, had his award from the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists rescinded after his presentation at the group’s conference in Rochester, N.Y., drew complaints that slides of scantily clad female students doing field research were sexist and exploitative.

■ Vedoutie Hoobraj was sentenced to two years in federal prison for wire fraud after claiming to have cancer and collecting $51,000 through a GoFundMe account and a fundraising dinner at her son’s school in White Plains, N.Y.

■ Fred Krueger completed construction of a 2-footlong ceremonial boat to be set afloat on an Iowa pond in tribute to his dead grandson Garrett Matthias as part of an Asgardian burial ceremony that was requested by the 5-year-old fan of the movie Thor: The Dark World.