In the news

Friday, July 5, 2013

Paula Deen announced that she has cut business ties with New York agent Barry Weiner, who helped make her a Food Network star and launch a media and merchandising empire that has largely crumbled in the wake of her admission that she once used racial slurs.

Rob Morrison, 45, a former news anchor at WCBS TV in New York, pleaded guilty to charges of threatening and breach of peace stemming from accusations he choked his wife, TV reporter Ashley Morrison, in their Connecticut home and could have his record cleared if he completes family-violence programs.

Lt. Scott Swain, the police spokesman in the Southern California city of Hawthorne, said three officers were pulled from street duty for their safety after a widely circulated video showed an officer fatally shooting a Rottweiler and drew death threats.

Jon Venables, who was 11 years old when he was convicted along with another boy of abducting 2-year-old James Bulger and beating him to death by an isolated railway line in northern England in 1993, will be paroled a second time after he was sent back to prison for a child-pornography conviction.

Shane Bissett, director of commemorative coins at Britain’s Royal Mint, which has minted 2,013 “lucky” silver pennies to be given to British babies born the same day as Prince William and wife Kate’s first child, said the mint wanted to share the royal milestone.

Rachel Buttry and Jennifer Peters, both employees at a Dollar General in eastern Tennessee, filed a lawsuit against the retailer saying they were forced to work unpaid lunch periods in violation of federal law.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, quit France’s constitutional council after the body upheld a decision that his 2012 presidential campaign exceeded spending limits.

Mary Ellen Barbera, a former schoolteacher who went to law school at night and who has been on the Maryland Court of Appeals since 2008, was named by Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley to become the first woman to head the state’s highest court.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/05/2013