In the news

• President Barack Obama said, "I'm for it," when asked about the prospect of the District of Columbia becoming the 51st state, speaking at a town hall at a city school in Washington.

• Abigail Hernandez, 15, a New Hampshire girl who disappeared while on her way home from school nine months ago, is safely home with her family, state Attorney General Joseph Foster said, adding that the family has asked for privacy.

• Bill Clinton said in a CNN interview broadcast from Jakarta, Indonesia, that he doesn't know if his wife, Hillary, is going to run for president in 2016 and that he is "not going to try to jump the gun."

• William Federspiel, the sheriff of Saginaw County, Mich., said he's trading his inmates' orange jumpsuits for black-and-white stripes, in part because of pop culture, notably TV shows such as the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.

• Joe Biden, the vice president, told veterans gathered in St. Louis that President Barack Obama's administration won't rest until major problems at the Veterans Affairs Department get fixed.

• President Evo Morales of Bolivia was re-elected head of the country's largest union of coca growers and promised to expand crops if he wins a third term as the nation's leader.

• Raphael Golb, a New York City man convicted of criminally impersonating his father's academic rivals in a dispute over the Dead Sea Scrolls, will stay out of jail for the time being as he further appeals his remaining convictions.

• Adam Dandach, 20, of Orange, Calif., pleaded innocent to charges of lying on a passport application so he could reportedly travel to Syria to hook up with a terrorist group.

• Charles Black, 71, was found guilty in Maine of attempted murder and other felonies for bashing his wife, Lisa Zahn, 55, on the head with a rock and pushing her off a cliff in April 2011 because of a dispute over an affair and a $4 million inheritance.

• Lanice Clifton Bonds, 37, a former Dothan, Ala., police officer and a resource officer at a high school in town, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with a high school student in October 2012.

• Mahmoud Bazzi, who the Irish government says is a suspect in the abduction, torture and killing of two Irish soldiers serving as United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon 34 years ago, was arrested by federal agents at his home in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn.

A Section on 07/22/2014

Upcoming Events