NEWS OF THE DAY

From Across the Nation

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Felon voting rights: The Florida Supreme Court sided with Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday in a legal dispute over restoring voting rights to felons with unpaid fines. The court’s advisory opinion could influence federal judges weighing legal wranglings over the voterapproved ballot measure, which was ratified overwhelmingly by voters in 2018. The measure gave voting rights back to felons who have completed their sentences. Advocates for restoring the rights have argued that felons merely had to serve their prison sentences before becoming eligible, and not finish paying court imposed fines, restitution or other legal fees.

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Vomiting vultures: A Florida woman who fed vultures, alligators and other wildlife behind her gatedcommunity home has agreed to pay $53,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by an homeowners association. Palm Beach County Judge Scott Kerner permanently enjoined Irma Acosta Arya this week from feeding wildlife and ordered her to pay up by Feb. 14. Neighbors and the homeowners association said Acosta Arya’s nocturnal and daytime feedings attracted flocks of defecating and vomiting vultures, along with raccoons, alligators and bobcats. The golf community borders the wildlifefilled Grassy Waters Preserve. The vultures lingered afterward, neighbors said, adding that they smashed pool enclosures, destroyed outdoor furniture and grills and left the area with the stench of their bodily fluids.

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School stabbings: A recently suspended Texas high school student stabbed two of his male classmates Thursday before fleeing campus, officials said. Police arrested the student 30 minutes after the 8 a.m. attack at Abilene High School, police said. Medics took both victims to a hospital in ambulances. Their conditions were unknown. Police declined to identify the students because they are minors. The attack seems to have been targeted.

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NeoNazi arrests: The FBI arrested three men Thursday suspected of being members of a neoNazi hate group, including a former reservist in the Canadian army, who had weapons and discussed traveling to a progun rally next week in Richmond, Va., in anticipation of a possible race war. The men were taken into custody as part of a longrunning investigation into the group, known as The Base. The men were charged with various federal crimes. One of the men, Canadian Patrik Mathews, is considered an expert in explosives. He was dismissed from the Canadian Army after his ties to white supremacists surfaced. The Base has become a growing concern for the FBI as it has worked to recruit more people to its violent cause.

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No execution: Georgia’s parole board on Thursday spared the life of a man who was scheduled to be executed just hours later, commuting his sentence to life without the possibility of parole. Jimmy Fletcher Meders, 58, had been scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 7 p.m. Thursday at the state prison in Jackson. But the State Board of Pardons and Paroles granted him clemency around 1 p.m. Meders was sentenced to die for the 1987 killing of convenience store clerk Don Anderson, who was fatally shot in the chest and head in a robbery of $30.

Chronicle News Services