In the news

■ Martin Andrews, fire chief in Columbus, Miss., is defending the use of a city fire truck and on-duty firefighters to spray pink water in the air at a private, gender-reveal party, calling it and similar events a lowcost way to increase the department’s visibility in the community.

■ Kenny Payne, police chief of Plaquemine, La., is seeking $400,000 to provide cameras, license plate monitors and audio technology to locate gunshots to monitor a neighborhood whose residents he says don’t help with investigations.

■ Georgia Zowacki of West Newton, Pa., faces aggravated assault and other charges after being accused of slashing her boyfriend’s arm with a box cutter and ransacking his bedroom, because no one got her a card, cake or gift on her 55th birthday, police said.

■ Shailyn Ryan, 9, of Northborough, Mass., is being hailed as a hero for her quick thinking when she used the Heimlich maneuver — which she had just learned the day before — to dislodge a bit of hot dog that became stuck in a friend’s throat as the two ate in the school’s cafeteria.

■ Sue Cadilla was proclaimed the new mayor of Araceli in the Philippines’ Palawan province after she won a coin flip by picking tails to determine the winner of an election that ended in a tie when she and her rival, incumbent Noel Beronio, each received 3,495 votes.

■ Adam Housley, 35, of Mountain Grove, Mo., a tractor-trailer driver who told authorities, “God told me to do it” after he rear-ended another vehicle in 2017, killing two people, was sentenced to five years of probation after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

■ Matt Basgall, police chief of Clovis, Calif., said two 10-year-old girls having a sleepover fought back against a naked 26-year-old man who broke into their home and began fondling them, causing the assailant, who was later arrested, to flee.

■ Shana Swenson, 33, who lost her teaching job at an elementary school in Falmouth, Maine, filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the district claiming that her contract wasn’t renewed because she took three breaks a day to pump breast milk for her baby.

■ David Landis, a former Nebraska state senator, resigned from his city job and said he regrets what he described as an irresponsible act after being ticketed for urinating in public as he stood next to his car near the County-City Building in Lincoln.