In the news

■ Wayne Bowen, 64, of Florida was sentenced to two years in federal prison and must pay $63,773 in restitution for obtaining veterans benefits for health care, housing and food by using his estranged twin brother’s stolen identity.

■ Helene Gayle, 66, an epidemiologist who spent decades fighting HIV-AIDS before becoming the leader of an international anti-poverty group, was named president of Spelman College in Atlanta, one of the nation’s two historically Black colleges for women.

■ Mitchell “Chad” Barrett, 55, a former Mississippi pharmacist, was sentenced to the maximum 10 years in prison in a $ 180 million health insurance fraud scheme involving unnecessary prescriptions for expensive pain creams and other medications.

■ Cheryl Helmer, a Kansas legislator, provoked anger when she said that as a former biology major she knows that no surgeon “can cut, remove, wop, add to change the biology” in response to a transgender woman opposing a proposal to make it a crime to perform gender-reassignment surgery on a minor.

■ Leila Green Little said her citizens group in Llano County, Texas, “pleaded with the county to stop the censorship and they never changed course,” leaving no option but to file a First Amendment lawsuit after officials removed some award-winning books from local libraries, including Maurice Sendak’s classic picture book “In the Night Kitchen.”

■ Alaa Mohd Abusaad, 26, a former University of Alabama student who told an undercover FBI employee how to send money to fighters engaged in terrorism and that money “is always needed,” was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison.

■ Thomas “Jay” Raynard James, 55, who prosecutors say was wrongfully convicted of a fatal shooting when he was 23 because of mistaken identity, said “I feel good; real good” after a judge in Miami vacated his life sentence.

■ Bob Johnson, sheriff of Santa Rosa County, Fla., suggested a homeowner who shot at a man who was ultimately arrested on charges of breaking into homes should attend a gun safety course to “learn to shoot a lot better” and “save the taxpayers money.”

■ Daniel Brown of the National Hurricane Center explained, “This one produced a swath of impacts over really a fairly large portion of the eastern U.S.” as “Ida” was consigned to the list of storms so deadly that their names won’t get used again.