In the news
■ Eric Johnson, Democratic mayor of Dallas, announced in a Wall Street Journal editorial that he is switching to the Republican Party, writing that “the overwhelming majority of Americans who call our cities home deserve to have real choices — not ‘progressive’ echo chambers — at city hall.”
■ Kara Van Hoose, a spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, says it’s rut season for moose and attacks are on the rise after a woman walking her dog was butted and stomped in Boulder County’s third recent incident.
■ Deja Taylor, the Virginia mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher, will remain free on bond before her sentencing in a firearms case after a judge rejected prosecutors’ bid to revoke it over failed drug tests.
■ Mark Giannunzio, a Michigan State Police lieutenant, says a 2-year-old girl who wandered into the woods from her family’s farm on the state’s Upper Peninsula was found safe and asleep hours later, her head on one family dog while the other seemed to be protecting her.
■ Ralph Birch and Shawn Henning, who were convicted in 1985 in the slaying of a Connecticut man, will share $25.2 million pending General Assembly approval in a settlement approved by the state’s attorney general over their wrongful conviction based partly on evidence presented by forensic scientist Henry Lee that was later found to be fabricated.
■ Paul Kagame, 65, president of Rwanda since 2000, announced he will run for a fourth term next year, saying that “what the West thinks is not my problem,” after the United States and others criticized the earlier lifting of term limits to extend his rule.
■ Tommy Boyd , a 45-year-old man convicted of child sex crimes, was apprehended by a special response unit in Shrewsbury, Mo., after walking away from Mercy Hospital South in St. Louis, where he was transported from prison for medical treatment.
■ Lionel Parks, 35, of Chicago, was sentenced to life in prison by a Cook County, Ill., judge for fatally shooting five people during a December 2016 home invasion in the city’s Fernwood neighborhood.
■ Kim Reynolds, Republican governor of Iowa, said in a statement she and her husband “have every reason to be optimistic,” as her husband, Kevin Reynolds, 65, was diagnosed with lung cancer.