Alabama prison official missing after escorting inmate to courthouse

FLORENCE, Ala. — A prison official from Alabama is missing after escorting an inmate to a courthouse for a hearing.

The Lauderdale County Sheriff ’s Office said in a Facebook post Saturday that Assistant Director of Corrections Vicky White disappeared while escorting an inmate being held on capital murder charges. The inmate is also missing.

On Saturday, Sheriff Rick Singleton confirmed the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, FBI and U.S. Marshals are assisting in the investigation.

White, 56, who’s been with the department for 16 years, left the detention center with inmate Casey White on Friday morning and neither has been seen since. The pair are not related. The vehicle they were traveling in was discovered at a nearby shopping center parking lot, according to the sheriff ’s office.

White, 38, was being held on capital murder charges in the 2015 death of Connie Ridgeway. He confessed to the slaying in 2020 while in state prison for other crimes, WHNT-TV reported.

At a news conference Friday, Singleton said Vicky White, armed with a 9mm, left the detention center with the inmate around 9:41 a.m. headed to the courthouse for what she said was a mental health evaluation for Casey. She was alone with the inmate, which the sheriff said was in direct violation of department policy.

Singleton said there was no mental health evaluation for the inmate scheduled at the courthouse.

White also told co-workers she had a doctor’s appointment scheduled, which was confirmed but the office said the deputy never showed.

Officials said no one realized the two were missing until 3:30 p.m. on Friday. Deputies tried to contact Vicky White but her phone repeatedly went to voicemail.

Singleton said his department was “aggressively investigating ” the incident and would be looking into previous interaction between the two.

Singleton said his department was “shocked” and that it was obviously a possibility that the corrections officer helped him escape. Singleton told news outlets that Vicky White had turned in her retirement papers the day before she went missing.

UK lawmaker resigns: A British l awmaker from the governing Conservative Party has resigned after admitting he watched pornography on his phone in the House of Commons chamber.

Neil Parish, a member of Parliament since 2010, announced his decision Saturday after pressure from members of his own party who sought to defuse sleaze allegations before Britain holds its local elections on Thursday.

Parish, 65, stepped down after what he described as a moment of “madness.’’ Parish, chairman of the house’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, said he was trying to look at a tractor website, but stumbled into a porn site with a similar name and watched it for “a bit.’’Reports that a lawmaker had watched porn amid the historic green benches of the House of Commons triggered a flood of complaints from women in Parliament about the misogyny and sexual harassment they have faced while doing their jobs.

Outbreak in China: Restaurants in Beijing have been ordered to close dine-in services over the May holidays as the Chinese capital grapples with a COVID-19 outbreak.

Authorities said Saturday that dining in restaurants has become an infection risk, citing virus transmissions between diners and staff.

Restaurants have been ordered to only provide takeout services from Sunday to Wednesday, during China’s Labor Day holidays.

Beijing began mass testing millions of residents last week as it scrambled to stamp out a growing COVID-19 outbreak.

Authorities have also ordered parks, scenic areas and entertainment venue to operate at half-capacity during the holiday period. Schools have also been ordered closed.

Teacher investigation:

School officials in Rochester, New York, are investigating allegations that a white teacher told his class of mostly Black students to pick seeds out of cotton and put on handcuffs during lessons on slavery in a seventh-grade social studies class.

The teacher has been put on leave while the school system investigates the allegations. They came to light after a parent posted on Facebook that her daughter was confronted with the cotton-picking lesson last Tuesday.

School officials haven’t identified the teacher. Teachers union President Adam Urbanski told WXXI-AM that “if someone departs from what they should be doing, they should suffer the consequences, but due process has to be allowed first.”

On another occasion, the teacher brought in handcuffs and shackles, according to the students. The parent said that when her daughter balked at putting them on, the teacher threatened to send her to the principal’s office or the school counselor.

The parents are calling for the teacher’s firing.

UN mission in Libya: The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously to extend the U.N. political mission in Libya for three months, with the United States and Britain accusing Russia of blocking a longer and more substantive mandate that would include promoting reconciliation of the country’s rival governments claiming power.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow insisted on a threemonth extension to pressure U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to appoint a new envoy to head the mission.

U.S. deputy ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis countered Friday that a short mandate “severely complicates” the U.N.’s ability to recruit a new head of for the mission.

The oil-rich African nation plunged into turmoil after a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. It then became divided between rival governments — one in the east, backed by military commander Khalifa Hifter, and a U.N.-supported administration in the capital Tripoli. Each side is supported by different militias and foreign powers.

Children killed: At least eight children between the ages of 12 and 15 died Saturday when a passenger tricycle overturned and sank in an irrigation channel in Egypt’s Nile Delta, authorities said.

The accident took place in the city of Itay el-Baroud. The children were workers at a factory in the city, some 90 miles north of Cairo, a police statement said.

The three-wheeled vehicle was carrying at least 13 people when it overturned and sank in the channel early Saturday.

JAIME GREEN/THE WICHITA EAGLE Tornado’s wrath: A home destroyed by a tornado is seen Saturday in Andover, Kansas. Officials said the twister hit southeast Wichita and Andover on Friday evening. They also said several people were injured and thousands were left without power. Andover Fire Chief Chad Russell said 50 to 100 buildings were damaged in Sedgwick County.