In the news
▪ Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., 42, a Russian journalist and opposition activist, has been transferred to IK-6 — a maximum security penal colony in the Siberian city of Omsk — and placed in a small “punishment cell,” his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said in a Facebook post.
▪ J.D. Stronko, assistant chief for the Jacksonville, Fla., sheriff’s office, said a 3-year-old and two adults in their 20s were fatally shot and another adult was injured during an argument over the sale of a dog.
▪ Jamarcus Bullard, of Largo, Fla., said he alerted authorities at a fire station after he saw an alligator pull a human body “on the lower part of the torso and pulled it under” a canal in Pinellas County, where it was extracted and killed.
▪ Greg Lawson, 63, who fled to Mexico during his 1991 trial for attempted murder, “is back in a Louisiana jail awaiting action by Bienville Parish authorities,” the FBI wrote on X, previously known as Twitter.
▪ Erin Dupree, the recently appointed director of Minnesota’s new marijuana regulatory agency, resigned amid reports that she sold cannabis products exceeding state limits on THC potency, owed money to former associates and accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in tax liens.
▪ April McLaughlin, 48, a Chandler, Ariz., woman who ran an animal rescue out of her now-condemned home, was arrested after 55 abused dogs were discovered and five dead puppies found in a freezer, according to police.
▪ Princess Kako, the second daughter of Japan’s Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, canceled her appearance at an event after testing positive for covid-19 during a visit to Tottori, the Imperial Household Agency announced.
▪ Joey Watkins, 43, who spent more than 20 years in prison, said he “cried like a baby” after a Floyd County, Ga., judge dismissed a 2000 murder charge against him at the request of the district attorney, who decided not to try him again after his initial conviction was vacated.
▪ Rene Elter, a French archaeologist, said ancient graves found in the Gaza Strip “have almost already been excavated and have revealed a huge amount of information about the cultural material and also about the state of health of the population and the pathologies from which this population may have suffered.”