In the news

■ Brian Gundy, who breeds and sells reptiles, said thieves likely thought they had made off with a duffel bag filled with swag after he gave a presentation at a library in San Jose, Calif., but instead the bag contained a lizard and three pythons, two of which were later found in a dumpster.

■ John Kastrenakes, a circuit judge in Palm Beach County, Fla., cleared the record of Deandre Somerville, 21, who spent 10 days in jail after he missed jury duty because he overslept, saying Somerville was apologetic, “totally rehabilitated” and no longer needed to be on probation.

■ Diane Stevenson, 73, of Ocean Springs, Miss., accused of harassing a city tree trimmer by screaming at him to stop cutting low-hanging limbs off live oaks in a city park, was charged with disorderly conduct, police said.

■ Robert Biedron, leader of Poland’s Spring Party, is being praised days before a national election for rescuing a 2-year-old boy and his father from a burning car after a crash in Tabor, south of Warsaw.

■ Chris Persic of Pittsburgh said he and wife have decided to get a quote to cut down a black walnut tree on their property after they took their SUV to a mechanic because it began to smell like it was burning and learned that squirrels had stashed grass and more than 200 nuts under the vehicle’s hood.

■ Brian Rand of Beaufort, S.C., a Vietnam War veteran, woke to the sound of barking, nudges and pushes from Curly, a 70-pound dog he got from an animal shelter three years ago, and found that the house was on fire, enabling them both to escape.

■ Logan Keathley of Sullivan, Ohio, who arrived home to find his German shepherd agitated and the house reeking, called the sheriff’s office for help when he found “Big Boy,” a billy goat that had escaped from a farm, napping in a bathroom after it had rammed through a sliding glass door.

■ Ricky Cooley, 51, and his wife, Priscilla, 48, both of DeRidder, La., face theft charges after state agriculture agents found 34 loads of timber that the couple hadn’t paid for and had hidden from a landowner who hired them to cut trees on his property.

■ Janine Varner, who resigned as a West Virginia county magistrate court judge after it was discovered that she never finished high school but instead completed a vocational program, has been reinstated after she passed a high school equivalency test.