In the news

Ajamu Obataiye, 48, of New York City, accused of randomly leaving a bag containing two decapitated chickens and a headless pigeon outside a home in Westport, Conn., was charged with breach of peace, animal cruelty and illegal dumping, police said.

Brook West, 32, faces public intoxication and endangering the welfare of a minor counts after authorities said she downed four shots of vodka while substitute teaching a class at a middle school in Georgetown, Ky.

Vitisak Payalaw said he and other workers on an oil rig in the Gulf of Thailand, about 135 miles from shore, rescued a dog suspected of having fallen off a passing fishing trawler, which swam up to the platform and clung to a support structure until workers pulled it to safety.

Tim Laboe, a priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit, said that muskrat "tastes great" and can't be compared "to anything else," as the archdiocese maintains its tradition of allowing Roman Catholics in the Detroit area to eat the marsh-dwelling rodent on Fridays during Lent.

Michael Keller, a police lieutenant in Vestavia Hills, Ala., said a 22-year-old man died after he was shot when a handgun kept in a diaper bag accidentally discharged as he searched the bag for a diaper to change his daughter in a car in a restaurant parking lot.

Diana Glaze, president of the Natchez, Miss., Music Festival, called it the largest donation her group has ever received after Neil Varnell, a psychologist and owner of a bed-and-breakfast inn, left $2 million in his will to 15 community arts, charity and historic preservation groups.

Cheryl Chen and Sean Kelly, faculty deans for Harvard's Dunster House, said the residence hall will end a decades-old tradition of skinning and barbecuing a goat in the courtyard, citing health concerns and student discomfort with the tradition.

Justin Ross, lead pastor at a church in Pataskala, Ohio, apologized, saying a lesson about Easter and the crucifixion of Jesus went too far when videos of an associate pastor, who encouraged middle and high school students to slap, cut and spit on him, were posted on social media.

Joel Benjamin, 71, of Gulfport, Fla., told police that he would "do it again" after he was arrested on a misdemeanor battery count, accused of filling a squirt gun with urine and spraying a woman who was walking her dog, authorities said.

A Section on 04/17/2019

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