In the news
■ Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat who serves as Senate minority leader, admitted that his political action committee spent nearly $9,000 on cheesecakes from a Brooklyn restaurant that were handed out as gifts to his supporters over nearly a decade, calling the dessert his “guilty pleasure.”
■ Constance Pritchett, 59, who had a contract to wash U.S. Postal Service vehicles and buildings in the Memphis area, faces up to a year in prison after pleading guilty to illegally dumping wastewater into the Mississippi River, prosecutors said.
■ Joe Osuch, owner of an off-road vehicle recovery service, called it a surreal experience when he used a winch cable to pull a family of five and their dog to safety after their SUV became partially submerged in a flooded creek near Phoenix.
■ Jessie LeBlanc, a white judge in Assumption Parish, La., has apologized for using racial slurs about parish employees in angry text messages that she admits she sent during an argument with her lover, the parish’s chief deputy, as their extramarital affair ended.
■ Kevin Turner, sheriff of Madison County, Ala., said his office is “aggressively investigating” after four jail inmates were hospitalized after overdosing on a synthetic substance that was sent to them through the mail.
■ Joseph Oldendorf, 26, a long-distance trail runner who broke his leg on a remote Olympic Peninsula trail in Washington state, said he crawled for seven hours in below-freezing temperatures to find cellphone service and kept crawling for several more hours until rescuers arrived.
■ Charles Wight, president of Salisbury University in Maryland, said authorities have identified a suspect connected to graffiti threatening black students with lynching, which was scrawled in academic buildings and prompted officials to cancel classes for a day.
■ Robert Latta, 53, a Jefferson County, Ala., sheriff’s deputy, was placed on leave after he was charged with driving under the influence after a fellow deputy spotted his patrol car moving erratically on a highway and followed him home, authorities said.
■ Tim DeSpain, an Alaska State Police spokesman, said a frostbite-suffering Italian man and four other tourists were rescued after they visited an abandoned bus in Denali National Park and Preserve that’s become a lure for adventurers since it was featured in the Into the Wild book and movie.