In the news
■ Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said “it’s all hands on deck” after torrential rain and a clogged storm drain combined to flood an atrium and back corridor at the state Capitol in Austin.
■ Nury Martinez, president of the Los Angeles City Council, said “we have to be able to have differences of opinions without resorting to violence,” as police reported that a man had been released from the hospital a day after being stabbed during a fight that broke out at an anti-vaccination rally in front of City Hall.
■ Nancy Thomas, the city attorney in Vicksburg, Miss., said the company that handles billing for ambulance services does not have a mechanism to address a backlog of pastdue bills, which prompted the city to hire a firm that aims to collect more than $1.8 million unpaid since 2013.
■ Jonathan Grantham, 45, a former teacher from Graniteville, S.C., pleaded guilty to coercion and enticement of a minor, admitting to contacting a Georgia girl in 2019 with the intention of engaging in sexual activity.
■ Mohamed Chagor, a judicial police official in Algeria, said authorities detained 36 people accused of being part of a mob that in a “collective hysteria” killed and burned a man whom they wrongly suspected of starting dozens of wildfires in the Kabyle region.
■ Brad Fiscus, the husband of Dr. Michelle Fiscus, a Tennessee Department of Health official who was fired after angering Republicans during her push to inoculate teenagers against covid-19, said the couple plan to move to Virginia to give Michelle Fiscus more career opportunities, noting that public health has become more political in Tennessee.
■ Tom West, chief advancement officer for the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, was chosen as the next executive director of the Atlanta Ballet, with board Chairwoman Nancy Field noting his track record of raising money for the arts.
■ Anthony Jones, a commissioner in Dougherty County, Ga., suggested a moratorium to address the growing number of discount retailers in the area, saying he’s concerned that dollar stores are taking up space that could go to markets that sell fresh food.
■ Nick Dunne, a St. Louis spokesman, said about a dozen inmates at the city jail attacked four others in a recreation area, marking the third disturbance at the downtown facility in the past month and the seventh in eight months.