Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
In the news
■ Bill Citty, Oklahoma City’s police chief, wants the city to reduce its penalty for possessing less than 3 ounces of marijuana from a $1,200 fine and six months in jail to a $400 fine with no time behind bars in a bid to ease chronic jail overcrowding.
■ Yanny Bruere, a critic of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, has won approval to fly a giant balloon over London that depicts Khan dressed in a bikini to protest Khan’s decision to allow a balloon caricaturing President Donald Trump as an angry baby to float above the city while Trump visited England.
■ Alisa Haushalter of the health department in Shelby County, Tenn., said a decision to cancel classes at Kirby High School in Memphis to allow exterminators to deal with pests that include cockroaches, rodents and snakes is a first for the school as officials track down the source of the infestations.
■ Richard Hagerty, 35, a former police officer in Lee’s Summit, Mo., faces charges after being accused of robbing a bank of about $7,000 and leading police on a chase that ended with his capture in a neighboring city.
■ Sabrina Hancock, 24, arrested on a probation violation, is accused of stealing items from several vehicles as their owners attended a funeral in Canonsburg, Pa., and now faces multiple theft charges.
■ Michaela Pearson and Candice Little, arrested on charges of child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of minors, are accused of helping three young children featured in a social media video smoke what police in Winston-Salem, N.C., described as a drug-laced cigar.
■ Kevin Wallin, a Roman Catholic priest dubbed “Monsignor Meth” for his 2015 conviction for running a methamphetamine ring in Bridgeport, Conn., was sent back to prison for nine months after failing a drug test while on supervised release.
■ Kaitlin Bennett, who posted photos of herself walking around Kent State University in Ohio with an assault-style rifle on her shoulder, has been told to stop advertising an open-carry gun rally on campus because she doesn’t have permission to hold the event.
■ LaShonda Carter, 37, a Chicago high school teacher, assisted a former student who had given birth just three weeks earlier and needed help getting to a job fair, dropping the woman off at the event and baby-sitting the newborn, saying a teacher’s job sometimes “goes beyond the classroom.”