In the news
■ Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who wrote a children’s book about coping with grief after her husband’s death only to be accused of poisoning him, was ordered to remain in jail through the trial, with her sister-in-law telling the judge she is “desperate, greedy and extremely manipulative.”
■ Michael McLendon, a Mississippi state senator, was arrested on a highway near Foley, Ala., and charged with DUI combined with substance, though the sheriff’s office did not identify a second possible intoxicant.
■ John Cooper, Alabama transportation director, was released on $500 bond after being arrested on a harassment charge, with an attorney citing a land dispute with a neighbor “who is falsely claiming an easement on Mr. Cooper’s property.”
■ Daniel Allen Shannon, a South Carolina inmate serving life for murder, was handed a federal life sentence as well for orchestrating the killing of a man he thought robbed a worker for the drug ring he was running from behind bars.
■ Kristen Clarke of the U.S. Justice Department noted “grievous harm on young people” as Kentucky’s Madison County School District agreed to institutional changes after numerous cases of harassment in which Black and multiracial students were subjected to derogatory comments.
■ Keechant Sewell, the first woman to be New York City police commissioner, is stepping down after 18 months, with the mayor thanking her for “steadfast leadership” as she becomes the latest in a series of high-profile departures from his administration.
■ Dick Durbin, U.S. senator from Illinois, hailed “a major step in modernizing rail services” as Amtrak travel between Chicago and St. Louis gets 15 minutes quicker thanks to a highspeed rail project that also made safety improvements at 212 crossings.
■ Makale’a Ane of the Nature Conservancy said, “As a Native Hawaiian, I know the importance of coral reefs for us culturally, our genealogical connection to corals through our Kumulipo [creation chant],” as the group maintains a $2 million insurance policy on the state’s reefs amid hurricane season.
■ Herbert F., his identity obscured under Austrian law, who’s a far-right extremist and co-founder of a political party that was banned, is being held in Afghanistan after traveling there on the heels of publishing an article titled “Vacation with the Taliban.”