In the news
Elaine Brown, a former Black Panther leader injured in 2015 when she was pushed and punched by an Oakland, Calif., City Council member as they argued at a restaurant about a housing project, will receive $2.2 million to settle her claim against the city.
Earle Stevens Jr., 69, of Vero Beach, Fla., accused of driving while intoxicated, reportedly told the sheriff’s deputy who pulled him over that he hadn’t been drinking and driving because he took swigs of bourbon only while he was stopped at traffic lights and stop signs.
Douglas Ferrigno of Pelican Island, N.J., was reunited with his Sea-Doo personal watercraft — intact with its cover and key — six years after it was swept away by Hurricane Sandy, when a man clearing debris 6 miles away called police to check its registration number.
Carrie Watts, a nurse in Rabun County, Ga., left the windows of her minivan rolled down while visiting a patient and returned to find a black bear in the vehicle chowing down on her sandwich, chips and a cookie before it crawled out and scaled a tree.
Laura Mae Campbell, 47, a former Postal Service worker, was sentenced to five months in prison for her role in a scheme that involved stealing marijuana from packages at a mail sorting facility in Tulsa.
Guy Williams, 68, a district judge in Corpus Christi, Texas, was cleared of felony assault but still faces public-intoxication and resisting-arrest counts after prosecutors said he tried to run another vehicle off the road and pointed a gun at its occupants during a 2017 road-rage incident.
Danika Alexander, 27, a nurse from Whitehall, Pa., was sentenced to up to 23 months behind bars after pleading guilty to having sex with an inmate at the jail where she worked, a relationship a judge said endangered other female jail employees.
Susan Burton, a dentist in Lexington, Ky., will be able to keep her personalized license plate, PRAY4, after state transportation officials notified her that the workers who asked for its return had incorrectly decided that it violated state law because it promoted a specific religion.
Paul Mosley, an Arizona state lawmaker, pulled over for driving 97 mph in a 55 mph zone, was recorded on body camera video telling a sheriff’s deputy that he sometimes drives “130, 140, 120,” while trying to get home to surprise his wife.