In the news
■ Joshua Colon, 31, a paramedic in Polk County, Fla., resigned after being arrested, and authorities said one of his supervisors is expected to face criminal charges as well, in the theft of three doses of coronavirus vaccine less than two weeks after Colon was recognized as the county’s “paramedic of the year.”
■ Collin Arnold, emergency preparedness director for New Orleans, will be allowed to return to his job, without the privilege of driving city vehicles, after a 60-day suspension for a driving-while-intoxicated charge.
■ Chantelle Davis, 35, a New Orleans police detective, and officer Lynea Sanders, 41, were given administrative reassignments before they and five members of the U.S. Army Reserve were indicted in a conspiracy that officials say netted $101,858 in reimbursements claimed for service at military funerals that never happened.
■ Peter Leary, an acting U.S. attorney in Georgia, denounced dogfighting as “brutal and illegal” and “particularly troubling when combined with drug trafficking” as he vowed that 10 state residents and one person from Alabama will face justice after being indicted on federal charges.
■ Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the autocratic leader of Turkmenistan, established a national holiday honoring the Alabai, a Central Asian shepherd dog, to be celebrated on the last Sunday of April, which already honors the local horse breed.
■ Loren McCutcheon, 54, of Dunnellon, Fla., faces 10 counts of animal cruelty after animal-welfare workers rescued 26 dehydrated and stressed animals, including an alpaca, a lemur, mini horses, dogs, cats, horses and donkeys, all riding inside a single trailer, authorities said.
■ Isabella Pollok, 29, of Staten Island, N.Y., was charged with conspiring with a 61-year-old ex-convict to manipulate and extort women he met while living in his daughter’s campus housing at Sarah Lawrence College, forcing as many as seven into labor or prostitution.
■ Shuronica Walker, 37, a former Dublin, Ga., police officer, is in custody and faces charges, accused of giving CashApp funds and unspecified contraband to an inmate serving a life sentence for murder.
■ Arturo Gonzalez Cruz, 66, a real estate executive and the mayor of Tijuana, Mexico, just south of California, said he’s stepping down for a second time, citing “personal reasons,” after he stepped away from the job in October and then abruptly returned less than a month later.