In the news
■ Sean Lawrence, a seaman for 14 years on the icebreaker Aurora Australis, which was replaced after 30 years of supporting Australian bases in Antarctica, said he planned to toast the icebreaker with a beer from his house as he watched it leave the River Derwent for the last time.
■ Mike Esmond, 74, the owner of a construction company in Gulf Breeze, Fla., who paid off the overdue utility bills for dozens of people in the city, said he had experienced having his own utilities shut off during the holidays “so I know what it’s like to really be broke and in need.”
■ Rizieq Shihab, the leader of the Islamic Defenders Front, surrendered to authorities in Jakarta, Indonesia, after he was accused of holding events with large crowds, ignoring measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
■ Stephanie Levine, and the other school board members in Mendota Heights, Minn., voted to remove the name of the state’s first governor, Henry Sibley, from a high school in the district after receiving complaints from community members about his treatment of the state’s Dakota people.
■ Kent Lawrence, 61, the police chief of Eaton, Ga., was arrested and charged with three battery counts after an investigation into claims that he used excessive force during the arrest of a 58-year-old woman suspected of driving under the influence, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
■ William Garfield Bilbrough IV, 20, of Denton, Md., was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to charges stemming from an FBI investigation of a white supremacist group whose members had discussed “the planning of violence” according to prosecutors.
■ Jeremiah Searles, 39, of Denver, Mo., was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the killing of a woman who was scheduled to testify against him on charges of kidnapping, domestic assault and abuse/neglect of a child, according to court records.
■ Tadeusz Rydzyk, a Catholic priest in Warsaw, Poland, said he had not intended to hurt anyone or downplay the church’s role in the “sin and crime of pedophilia” after delivering a sermon in which he defended a bishop accused of covering up for pedophile priests.
■ Jacob Brown, a Louisiana state trooper, is facing battery and malfeasance charges in the assault of Aaron Bowman, who was struck with a flashlight 18 times in 24 seconds, according to arrest records.