In the news

■ David Erath , owner of Santa’s Quarters, a shop that made it feel like Christmas year-round in New Orleans’ French Quarter, called it an “honor and a privilege to serve the community” in announcing he’s closing the store after 44 years.

■ Ryder Winegar , 34, of Amherst, N.H., who pleaded guilty to leaving six voicemails threatening unnamed members of Congress with hanging two days after the Electoral College affirmed President Joe Biden’s victory, was sentenced to 33 months in prison, prosecutors said.

■ Naftali Bennett , the prime minister of Israel, has come under fire from rivals and on social media after his wife and children flew abroad just days after the Israeli leader urged citizens to avoid international travel because of the new omicron coronavirus variant.

■ Nicholas Mitchell , 39, of Dover, N.H., who pleaded guilty to putting razor blades and screws in pizza dough at supermarkets in Maine and New Hampshire, was sentenced to four years and nine months in federal prison, prosecutors said.

■ Ashley M. Jones ,a creative writing teacher who delves into the difficulty of being Black in America, was honored by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey as the state’s first Black poet laureate during a ceremony in the state Capitol — the same building where delegates voted to form the Confederacy 160 years ago.

■ Bonmene Sibe , 43, of Jennings, Mo., pleaded guilty to helping Nigerian romance scammers defraud women in 25 states by finding people who would open post office boxes where cash and electronics could be sent, federal prosecutors said.

■ Peter Elmose , manager of an IKEA showroom in Aalborg, a community in northern Denmark, said six customers and about two dozen employees could “pick the bed they always have wanted to try” when a heavy snowstorm stranded them in the store overnight.

■ Lori Hajj , owner of a salon in Riverside, Calif., said she got “chills up my spine” after seeing security video of a man she called the “snake burglar” who wriggled along the floor after breaking in through a rooftop fire escape and got away with hair products, cash and a safe containing more than $8,000.

■ Major Wooten of Huntsville, Ala., a World War II veteran who survived covid-19 last year, will be honored on his 105th birthday today with the French Legion of Honor in recognition of his military service, the French consulate in Atlanta said.