In the news

■ Anne Graham Lotz, 70, the North Carolina evangelist and author who is the daughter of Billy Graham, is asking people to pray for her as she fights breast cancer, saying online that while she was disheartened by the diagnosis, she has been encouraged by putting her faith in God.

■ Jason Harris, an artist who created a 24-foot-long, fully functional glass bong, featuring a bowl that can hold a quarter-pound of pot, and now sits on display in Las Vegas, called it his artistic opus to cannabis culture, saying he makes giant bongs because “they are my voice to make noise in the world.”

■ David Kennedy, police chief of Neosho, Mo., said kindergarten teacher Angel Hayes, 48, died while helping students get into vehicles after school when an SUV driven by an 88-yearold grandfather lurched forward as his foot got stuck between the brake and accelerator pedals, striking Hayes.

■ Rodney Gearing, 48, faces a homicide charge after Tennessee investigators and lab tests matched his shoes to bloody footprints left at a murder scene in a home in Ooltewah on July 23.

■ Nate Rancloes, 33, of Salisbury, N.H., was fined $124 for injuring a seagull at Hampton Beach when he kicked the federally protected bird as he shooed off another seagull trying to eat his hamburger and fries, police said.

■ Steven Morgan of the Fire Department in Laramie, Wyo., said the FBI has been called in to help investigate a fire, believed to be arson, that caused minor damage at the Albany County Republican Party headquarters in the city’s downtown.

■ Maryssa Boskoski, a school resource officer in Smithville, Ohio, was placed on unpaid leave after investigators said she used her electric stun gun to make a sparking sound to wake a sleeping student who wouldn’t be roused by a teacher or principal.

■ Betty Miller, 71, of Shelburne, Vt., convicted of manufacturing the deadly toxin ricin in her retirement community and testing it on fellow residents, was sentenced by a federal judge to time served, five years of probation and mentalhealth treatment.

■ Britni Wihebrink, 28, of Daleville, Ind., who told investigators she had at least five alcoholic drinks before taking an early afternoon nap, faces child-neglect charges in the death of her 2-year-old son who was found “very hot and stiff ” on the rear floorboard of her hot car.