In the news
■ Brady Sloan, a middle school teacher in Abilene, Texas, rewarded about four dozen art students stressed over projects and grades by letting them put on wigs and blue shirts and hold palettes of paint to pay homage to Bob Ross, the late painter known for his soothing tone and “happy little trees.”
■ Neish Rivera, 25, and Melissa Dacier, 22, two dancers at a Providence, R.I., strip club, were arrested on theft charges after being accused of stealing an off-duty Boston officer’s handgun from his car’s glove box when the three went to a hotel room together, police said.
■ Richard Spencer, a cabdriver in Quincy, Mass., is being praised for taking an 87-year-old woman to the police when she told him she was on her way to buy thousands of dollars in gift cards after she got a phone call telling her that her grandson was in trouble and needed money to stay out of jail.
■ Aretha Cardinal of Texas City, Texas, used her granddaughter’s scooter as a weapon to fend off two machete-wielding men wearing clown masks who attempted to rob her and her husband, and then chased down the attackers, who were later arrested.
■ Isabelle Bjursten, a Swedish prosecutor, said a man was arrested for possessing stolen goods two days after royal funeral artifacts, including two crowns and an orb dating from 1611 and valued at more than $7 million, were recovered north of Stockholm.
■ Christopher VanHaight, a priest at a Catholic school in Durham, N.C., said classes were canceled out of concern for student safety when the school received threats for inviting a black lesbian graduate to speak at a Black History Month event.
■ Kathleen Sandt, spokesman for the Delaware Water Gap Recreation Center in Pennsylvania’s Poconos Mountains, said a 60-yearold hiker was attacked by a rabid raccoon and defended by his dog, a black Lab named Fasha, which pulled the varmint off the man.
■ Terrion Bryson, 26, a former Memphis police officer, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for accepting thousands of dollars from an undercover officer to escort a shipment of heroin to a storage facility. ■ Abigail Arias, a 6-yearold cancer patient, wore a custom-made uniform and stood on a step stool to be sworn in as an honorary police officer in Freeport, Texas, after Police Chief Ray Garivey learned of Abigail’s interest in law enforcement.