In the news
■ Joe Maxey, winner of the 2019 Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest in Key West, Fla., asks “And what would Papa say?” and hears five regular contestants respond “Wear your mask!” in a new video encouraging residents and visitors to wear masks to protect against covid-19.
■ Dayna Polehanki, a state senator from Livonia, Mich., said she is still taking precautions despite a new ban on the open carry of firearms in the state Capitol by keeping a helmet, gas mask and pepper spray along with a bullet-resistant vest at her desk in the Senate chamber.
■ Jason Williams, the new district attorney for New Orleans, said he was unaware that trombonist and singer Glen David Andrews, who performed at his inauguration, had criminal cases pending, including child endangerment, armed robbery, and drug possession.
■ Aurelia Skipwith, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, reminded people that West Indian manatees are protected by federal law after a manatee in a river north of Tampa, Fla., was spotted with the word “Trump” etched into the algae on its back.
■ Michelle McBride, former secretary/treasurer of the Pearl River County, Miss., Crimestoppers group, was arrested after she was indicted on charges that she used her position to embezzle more than $52,000 to pay for personal expenses, state auditors said.
■ John Powell was fired from his job as police chief of Glynn County, Ga., 10 months after he was placed on leave after his indictment in what prosecutors called an effort to cover up a narcotics officer’s affair with a confidential informant.
■ Kyle Davey, 35, of Shawnee, Kan., faces felony theft and other charges after police, acting on a tip, searched his property and discovered stolen equipment, including trailers and tools, as well as firearms, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
■ Marc Garneau, 71, the first Canadian astronaut to soar into space and the country’s transport minister, will become Canada’s foreign minister as part of a Cabinet shuffle ordered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
■ Norm Borgatello, whose partner, Josie Gower, died in 2018 when heavy rains sent a debris-laden torrent through neighborhoods in Montecito, Calif., killing 23 people, was reunited with Patches, Gower’s cat, who was thought to have died with her owner, after the cat was found as a stray and identified with a microchip.