In the news
■ Mark Michaelson of Houston, Texas, who in 1979 bought a rare copy of the Superman #1 comic book that sold on newsstands for a dime in 1939, sold the comic book for $2.6 million to an unnamed buyer, said Stephen Fishler, CEO of Comic-Connect, an online auction and consignment company.
■ Gary Kelly, the CEO of Southwest Airlines, who, with other airline executives, told a U.S. Senate committee that masks aren’t needed on airplanes because of their filtration systems, tested positive for the coronavirus and has “mild” symptoms two days after the hearing, despite being fully vaccinated.
■ Kendall Gordon, convicted in a 2009 fatal shooting during a home invasion robbery in New Orleans, walked out of a courthouse a free man days after prosecutors asked a judge to void his conviction because new DNA evidence was linked to someone else and a key witness recanted her testimony.
■ Eugene Conrad, 52, of Michigan City, Miss., faces up to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to pointing a green laser beam into the cockpit and cabin of dozens of FedEx airplanes flying into Memphis International Airport, prosecutors said.
■ Paul Irwin, police chief of Leeds, Ala., said officers investigating a hit-and-run crash followed a mile-long trail of antifreeze as they searched for a vehicle with severe front-end damage that struck and killed a bicyclist on U.S. 78 in Birmingham.
■ Paul Rafanoharana was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Philippe Francois was given a 10-year prison sentence after the two French citizens were convicted of plotting a failed coup against Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina.
■ Joshua Garcia, 42, of Biloxi, Miss., faces life in prison after pleading guilty to shooting and killing three people during a robbery at a rural Hinds County coin and jewelry business in 2016, federal prosecutors said.
■ Sylvester Turner, the mayor of Houston, Texas, who is fully vaccinated and received a booster shot, canceled his daily schedule after testing positive for covid-19, saying he initially thought allergies or a sinus infection were what was producing his mild symptoms.
■ Nicole Brown, a police spokesman in Farmington, N.M., called it “a pretty Grinch-like thing to do” after a Salvation Army van loaded with $6,000 in toys meant to be passed out to hundreds of children was stolen from a store parking lot.