Gabe Morgan, sheriff of Newport News, Va., said it "reinforces what we always say, 'See something, say something,'" after two jail inmates escaped by fashioning primitive tools and burrowing out of their cell, only to be turned in hours later by fellow diners at a nearby IHOP.
Joseph Harding, the former Florida lawmaker who sponsored the law tagged "Don't Say Gay," pleaded guilty to committing $150,000 in covid-19 relief fraud and faces up to 35 years in prison.
Stavros "Steve" Papantoniadis, a Boston pizza shop owner accused of abusing employees not legally in the U.S., was ordered held without bail by a magistrate judge who cited his "history of violence and threats."
Carlos Ferrufino, a Broward County, Fla., sheriff's deputy, was suspended without pay and turned himself in on charges of misdemeanor battery, tampering with evidence and petty theft after authorities say he used a Taser on a man and took his cellphone when he tried to record a family member's arrest.
Dan Purdy, an 86-year-old defense attorney in Missouri, had his license suspended for at least a year but escaped disbarment by the state Supreme Court after he was caught on video groping clients in a jail interview room, in a courthouse and while behind the wheel.
Cody Smith, chairman of Missouri's House Budget Committee, angered by a lawsuit seeking to overturn a new law banning sexually explicit material in school libraries, proposed to cut all $4.5 million in funding that public libraries were scheduled to get.
Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said "freedom of expression is going extinct" in Cambodia and two activists are likely to face a lengthy detention, "followed by a kangaroo-court trial on fabricated, politically motivated charges," after being accused of insulting the king via social media comments.
Elise Bennett of the Center for Biological Diversity said "urban sprawl will keep driving them ever closer to extinction" without Endangered Species Act protection as environmental groups prepare to sue the federal government over human displacement of the gopher tortoise.
Jon Rold of the Houston Zoo said there was a lot of luck involved as a 90-year-old radiated tortoise named Mr. Pickles became a parent along with Mrs. Pickles, 53, welcoming the hatchlings Dill, Gherkin and Jalapeno.