In the news

■ Patrick Foy of California’s wildlife department reported that a 5-year-old boy was released from the hospital after being attacked by a mountain lion when he raced ahead of his mother and grandfather on a trail in San Mateo County, with the boy fighting to free himself but the big cat not letting go until mom charged.

■ Kristi West of the University of Hawaii said a sperm whale that washed ashore and died had enough foreign objects in the opening of its intestinal tract to block food, while its stomach contained six hagfish traps, seven types of fishing net, two types of plastic bags, a light protector, fishing line and a net float.

■ Argyro Kaparou of Greece, a singer, said, “People have spent years on the job … and suddenly they do not know what their qualifications are worth,” as 2,000 performance artists and students gathered at parliament to drum, trumpet and voice their objections to changes in the system for setting wages and getting civil service jobs.

■ Joseph Morelli of New York faces up to five years in prison for making threatening phone calls to U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, including one in which he vowed to “pay someone 500 bucks to take a baseball bat and crack your skull.”

■ Julie Frye- Mueller , a suspended South Dakota state senator, was censured but reinstated after her colleagues concluded that she harassed a legislative staff member while telling her she’d harmed her child by getting him vaccinated.

■ Cynthia Hallett of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights hailed “a historic moment in the fight to protect the health of thousands of New Jersey workers” as state lawmakers consider a complete ban on smoking in Atlantic City casinos.

■ Bill Soules , a lawmaker in New Mexico, is pushing a bill to recognize roasted chile, already an official state vegetable, as the official aroma, saying he can’t think “of any other state that has a smell or aroma that is that distinctive.”

■ Jose Ruben Nava , who was replaced as zoo director in Chilpancingo, Mexico, after the death of a deer, is now accused of killing four of the zoo’s pygmy goats and serving them at a banquet.

■ Vance Olivier , police chief of Broussard, La., said his department is investigating after 12 squirrel monkeys disappeared from the local zoo, with their habitat “compromised.”