In the news
Leslie Torres-Rodriguez, a school superintendent in Hartford, Conn., said the district is reworking its procedures after a 4-yearold preschooler waiting to be picked up early left school and walked alone about a half-mile home.
Darwin Barnes, 51, of Rochester, N.Y., didn’t have a valid driver’s license when he was stopped on Interstate 81 for driving 95 mph in a 65 mph zone, police said, resulting in a records check that revealed his license had been suspended 46 times for past convictions.
Jennifer Stone, a spokesman for the St. Mary County, Md., sheriff’s office, said a curious beaver that wandered into a Charlotte Hall store checked out the Christmas aisle before being captured and taken to a wildlife center.
Louis Guglielmetti of New York City’s Sanitation Department said an address on some junk mail led searchers going through 13 tons of trash to a bag containing a diamond-studded wedding band and engagement ring that had been accidentally tossed out by a woman as she fixed Thanksgiving dinner.
Lee Francis, a teacher in Fayetteville, N.C., lost his bid to overturn a 10-day unpaid suspension for stomping on an American flag during a lesson on the First Amendment when the Cumberland County Board of Education voted 5-2 to reject his appeal.
Bernie Klocko, police chief in Covington Township, Pa., said two masked men stole a truck from a nearby country club and then were caught on security video using it to rip an ATM from the side of a store using a cable and chain.
Jacob Davis, 27, and Tamara Bruce, 32, both of Manchester Center, Vt., reportedly drove to Lawrence, Mass., to buy drugs and now face child-endangerment charges after being found passed out in a car with their 23-month-old son and 9-month-old baby inside, police said.
Onasi Olio-Rojas, 20, of Pawtucket, R.I., was critically injured when he crashed his car into a garbage truck and then slammed into a concrete barrier while filming himself live on social media as he wove in and out of traffic at 114 mph, police said.
Timothy Jaccard of the AMT Children of Hope Foundation, which helps abandoned infants, said more than 500 people have called to express interest in caring for a newborn girl surrendered to Long Island firefighters on Thanksgiving Day under New York’s Safe Haven law.