In the news

■ MacKenzie Scott, author and billionaire ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced that she is giving $640 million to 361 small nonprofit organizations that responded to an open call for applications, doubling what she initially pledged to donate.

■ Matthew Ornellas Jr., m who is imprisoned for promoting a dangerous drug, was hospitalized after being injured in a hit-and-run while escaping from Kauai Community Correctional Center, the Hawaii Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

■ Xu Yao, a former executive at Yoozoo Games, was sentenced to death in the 2020 fatal food poisoning of Lin Qi, the 39-yearold founder of the Chinese gaming company.

■ Tracy Cook, interim president and alumnus of Alcorn State University, was promoted to the post at the historically Black institution in Mississippi permanently and said he’s “honored to have the trust and support of the board of trustees, and excited to officially lead a university that has meant so much to me.”

■ Zachary Goff, 41, former police chief in Wakefield, Kan., lost his law enforcement certification after giving his 16-year-old daughter rum and then refusing to be interviewed for an investigation, according to a report.

■ George Santos, a former U.S. representative of New York, announced on X, formerly Twitter, that he “can no longer be part of the Republican Party,” and will run as an independent in a bid to return to Congress after being expelled.

■ Merrill Piepkorn, a broadcast production company president and Democratic state senator of Fargo, N.D., filed campaign finance paperwork for a gubernatorial candidate committee in the Republican-controlled state.