• London Breed, 43, who grew up in public housing a few blocks from City Hall, was sworn in Wednesday as the first black female mayor of San Francisco, telling supporters, "I stand at this podium today because a community believed in me."
• Joseph Claps, 70, a circuit judge in Cook County, Ill., has been assigned to "nonjudicial duties" after being charged with carrying a concealed weapon in a prohibited area when he was caught on video dropping a handgun in a Chicago courthouse lobby.
• Joseph Goss, a Long Island, N.Y., police officer, jumped into the cab of a crane truck to bring it to a stop after the crane's intoxicated driver barreled through expressway traffic and smashed into four vehicles, injuring four drivers.
• Billie Sollie, sheriff of Lauderdale County, Miss., said a 30-year-old man was charged with kidnapping after a woman who saw her daughter being shoved into a car at gunpoint tailed the suspect's vehicle in her own car until deputies arrived to make the arrest.
• Megan Brainard of Anoka, Minn., said her 9-year-old English bulldog, Zsa Zsa, died in its sleep just weeks after the dog's floppy tongue, crooked teeth and pink manicure helped it win the 2018 Ugliest Dog Contest.
• Chad Carpenter, a police lieutenant in Draper, Utah, said investigators are searching for the person who left a loaded handgun on a baby-changing table in a women's restroom, saying it's not uncommon for people to leave their weapons behind in public toilets.
• Carol Fowler, 48, who has attended just one meeting since being elected to the Huron, Kan., Town Council, was arrested on assault charges, accused of kicking, hitting and scratching deputies who used a stun gun to subdue her as they served an arrest warrant for an unrelated charge.
• Bob Bruhy, a police detective in Kirkwood, Mo., said a Lamborghini Huracan Performante worth more than $275,000 was destroyed when a minivan driver pulled away from a gas pump with the nozzle still attached, spraying fuel on the sports car, which burst into flames.
• Jonathan Crenshaw, 46, an armless, homeless man known for painting using his feet in Florida's South Beach, was accused of holding scissors with his feet to stab a 22-year-old tourist who said he had approached Crenshaw, who was lying down, to ask for directions, police said.
A Section on 07/12/2018