Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
In the news
■ Jim Mattis, 68, the retired Marine general who resigned as secretary of defense after a series of policy conflicts with President Donald Trump, is joining the Hoover Institution at Stanford University to research and write about domestic and international security policy.
■ Jacob Rogge, 28, wore a pink-and-white unicorn costume to rob a Baldwin, Md., convenience store and was arrested when he and his getaway car driver crashed into a tree as they fled with cash and cigarettes, police said.
■ Larry Johnson, a parent accompanying about 40 Columbia, S.C., kindergarten students on a field trip, said fast action by the bus driver and teachers got everyone out safely when the bus began smoking and shortly after burst into flames.
■ Abdullah Sharaf, a Palestinian man living in the blockaded Gaza Strip whose African gray parrot drank some bleach and injured its throat, appealed for help on social media, prompting an Israeli animal-rights group to send a mobile surgery unit to a border crossing to treat the bird.
■ Marilyn Hartman, 67, caught a half-dozen times sneaking onto planes, was sentenced to 18 months of probation after she apologized and pleaded guilty to bypassing Chicago airport security to board a plane and fly to London without a ticket.
■ Therese Okoumou, convicted of illegally climbing the base of the Statue of Liberty to protest the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexican border, covered her face in tape for her sentencing, irritating the judge who ordered it removed and then sentenced her to community service and probation.
■ Travis Davis, 30, a kidnapping suspect who escaped March 9 from a Missouri jail, was captured in Oklahoma, then escaped in an Oklahoma patrol car while handcuffed, is back in jail after he was found hiding in the attic space of a garage in Sedalia, Mo., police said. ■ Moana Patterson, a teacher in Bountiful, Utah, is back in the classroom after being placed on leave for making a 9-year-old student wipe an ash cross off his forehead on Ash Wednesday, saying at the time she didn’t know it was a religious symbol.
■ Dewayne Jones, 47, a Detroit police officer, faces up to 93 days in jail after being convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery in the beating of a naked, unarmed and mentally ill woman who became belligerent in an emergency room triage unit.