In the news
■ Amanda Eicher , a church pastor in Sturgis, Mich., called it a good reason to laugh, “Especially with the hard seasons from the past two years,” after a 10-point buck wandered inside her church on the opening day of hunting season before leaping through a window and back into the wild.
■ Christina Purdue, the mother of Laney, an 11-yearold girl who suffered broken bones but survived a plane crash on Michigan’s Beaver Island that killed her father and three others, believes her husband, Mike, the pilot, protected the child from more serious injuries by holding her tightly as the plane went down.
■ Selina Steinfeld, 86, who survived roundups and massacres of Jews as a child in Romania, was crowned Israel’s “Miss Holocaust Survivor,” in a special pageant meant to bring members of Israel’s rapidly dwindling population of Holocaust survivors some joy and recognition.
■ Diane Winn, executive director of a bird rehabilitation center in Maine, said a roadrunner is on the mend as the center looks for ways to send it home after the bird survived four days in a moving van that carried it from Las Vegas to Westbrook, Maine.
■ Kenneth Hubert, 63, of Marionville, Mo., who pleaded guilty to threatening two Democratic U.S. congressmen, including telling one he would put a noose around his neck and drag him behind a pickup, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison.
■ Stephen Shipps, 68, a retired University of Michigan at Ann Arbor violin professor, faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to transporting an underage girl across states lines for sex back in 2002, prosecutors said.
■ Roy Turner, an Elvis Presley enthusiast who has helped promote the late singer’s ties to Tupelo, Miss., has been named executive director of the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation, which oversees the Presley birthplace site in Tupelo.
■ Agus Arianto, an Indonesian wildlife official, said that despite efforts to amputate and treat her wounds, a baby Sumatran elephant died after losing half of her trunk in a trap set by poachers who prey on the endangered species.
■ Ryan Guillen, a longtime Democratic lawmaker from south Texas, announced that he has switched parties and will join the GOP after his rural border district was redrawn to favor Republicans under new maps approved by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.