In the news

Jeff Lillie, the mayor of Earlham, Iowa, population 1,450, where the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in layoffs and furloughs, said an unidentified caller spent nearly $82,000 to send $150 in gift cards to every home in town to support the town’s grocery store and two restaurants.

Dennis Bailey, a Broward County, Fla., circuit judge, issued a call for proper courtroom attire during hearings held via Zoom video conferencing after seeing homebound attorneys dress down, including one shirtless male lawyer and a female attorney who “appeared still in bed, still under the covers.”

Ben Short, a police detective in Trussville, Ala., said a homeowner freed himself and fired more than a dozen shots at a fleeing SUV after several men broke into his house, tied up everyone inside, and made off with jewelry worth $20,000 and three firearms.

Wayne Boone, a truck driver whose tractor-trailer was nearly blown off an interstate bridge in Virginia, leaving his cab dangling 70 feet over the Elizabeth River, was pulled to safety by firefighters as thunderstorms rolled through the area.

Kelly Sapp, 53, who was suspended as a Kansas City, Mo., police officer after he reported in September being shot in the chest while working off-duty patrolling a shopping center, has been charged with filing a false report, prosecutors said.

Abdullah Baidas, who suffered multiple skull and spine fractures when he leaped from a Houston freeway overpass to avoid being hit by a truck during an Interstate 45 pileup, had to have both of his legs amputated, his family said.

Chanel Galle, 41, of Avondale, La., accused of fatally shooting her boyfriend in the neck during a domestic dispute, was charged with negligent homicide, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Capt. Jason Rivarde said.