In the news

■ Dennis Kratz, commissioner of LaGrange County, Ind., said the county has repealed what he called the “anti-hippie ordinance,” a 1971 law that was intended to block huge gatherings similar to the 1969 Woodstock music festival in New York state, as part of an effort to repeal ordinances that have no practical use but have been on the books for as long as 100 years.

■ Matt Lima, a police officer in Somerset, Mass., declined to charge two women accused of trying to steal groceries to provide a Christmas dinner for their young children, and he instead bought them $250 in grocery gift cards, saying the women’s children reminded him of his own kids.

■ Melinda Gates, 54, a Dallas native and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was named “Texan of the Year” by the editorial board of The Dallas Morning News, which cited her foundation’s $1.75 billion in donations to fight covid-19 in 2020.

■ Keybo Taylor, the new sheriff of Gwinnett County, Ga., announced the county has canceled its participation in a controversial program that allows for no-warrant detention of arrestees at the request of federal immigration authorities, arguing that the program is discriminatory.

■ Dylan Summers of Bourbon, Ill., was reunited with his dog, Athena, who had disappeared 10 months before, after his friend saw Athena’s photo on a pet rescue website while looking for a pet to adopt.

■ Frederick Luma of Lady’s Island, S.C., wanted in the June 2019 slaying of his girlfriend’s 8-monthold child, was captured in Clayton County, Ga., and charged with homicide by child abuse after being on the run for more than a year, authorities said.

■ Miriam Looker, 95, of Marysville, Ohio, estimates that she has sewn about 1,700 masks since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, saying the masks have gone to her stepson’s patients; residents at the assisted living facility where she resides; and churches, hospice groups and schools.

■ Jason Pugh, sheriff of Winston County, Miss., where indoor social gatherings are limited to 10 people because of covid-19, said a man was killed and another was wounded after shots were fired in a club where about 200 people had gathered for a birthday party.

■ Patrick Hugh Blanpied, 29, accused of killing his 62-year-old mother in Irondale, Ala., was charged with murder and was being held in lieu of $150,000 bond.