In the news

■ Viktor Usov of Portland, Ore., whose pet cat, Sasha, disappeared five years ago, got a surprise call from an animal shelter 1,200 miles away in Santa Fe, N.M., seeking to return his cat after it was found wandering city streets and identified through a microchip.

■ Ward Calhoun, chief deputy in Lauderdale County, Miss., said a napping ambulance crew member jumped out of the vehicle when a man hopped in and drove off from a truck stop in Lost Gap, Miss., leading authorities on a high speed chase that ended with his arrest.

■ Lee Roupas, an Illinois prosecutor, said a 14-yearold faces hate crime and other charges after posting online a picture of a black classmate taken as the two sat at a school lunch table in Naperville with the caption, “Slave for sale.”

■ Tobias Ahlen, a police spokesman in Uppsala, Sweden, said a 25-year-old man wanted for an unspecified crime was charged with trespassing after the staff at an Ikea store reported finding him asleep in a bed that was on display.

■ Jermaine Brim, 39, of Sacramento, Calif., accused of wrestling a knife from a man and stabbing him to death when the man tried to stop Brim from stealing a sleeping passenger’s shoes on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train, was caught as he tried to escape by carjacking a van, police said.

■ David Sewell, an Alabama school superintendent, said he placed as many as six Ashford High School teachers on paid leave while he investigates complaints that the educators used a group chat to text comments about students’ sex lives and intelligence.

■ James Molinaro, 44, was sentenced to 78 months in prison and an accomplice, Chris Crookshanks, 43, was sentenced to 36 months of supervised release after both were convicted of using the U.S. Postal Service to ship 880 pounds of marijuana from California to West Virginia.

■ Elvis Mullins, 41, of Roanoke, Va., has reconciled with his girlfriend after being convicted of breaking into her home and spiking her tea with methamphetamine, causing her to feel “drugged,” when the couple went through what his defense attorney described as a bad breakup.

■ Pecola Duncan, 71, of Clinton, Tenn., accused of stabbing her napping husband in the chest, was “cheerful and unfazed” as she was arrested for attempted murder, at one point asking if he had died and adding, “I hope he did,” sheriff’s deputies said.