In the news

• Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Michael Kremer of Harvard University, the three winners of the Nobel Prize in economics, said they are donating their prize money, approximately $916,000, to fund grants that will support economic research for the next 15 years.

• Sanna Marin, 34, a lawmaker in Finland, was chosen by the ruling Social Democratic Party to become the nation's next prime minister, which will make her the country's third female government leader and the youngest person ever to fill the role.

• Angela Marsee, an investigator for the Oklahoma attorney general, said more than half of the overpayments that were made to Grady County elected officials, after a salary increase for employees was also granted to the officials despite advice against it, have been repaid and that agreements were made to recover the rest of the $727,343.

• Floyd Berry, 49, a deputy with the Bexar County, Texas, sheriff's office who was arrested after being accused of ordering illegal strip searches of six women, faces official-oppression charges and termination, authorities said.

• Brenda Webb, a department chair at the University of North Alabama in Florence, said the school is trying to encourage people to stop using plastic confetti as a prop for photo sessions held on campus, as the material poses a risk to wildlife and clogs fountain filters.

• Charles Edward Houston, 53, of Meridian, Miss., a former foreman for the Lauderdale County road department, faces an embezzlement charge, accused by authorities of using county fuel cards to buy more than $22,000 in fuel for himself.

• Alexus Lorraine Taylor, 17, and Laurie Ann Taylor, 43, both of Baltimore, face manslaughter and child-abuse charges in the death of a 9-month-old boy who police say overdosed on fentanyl and heroin.

• Courtney Paul Wilson, a rapper from Miami, was charged with aggravated battery, accused of punching a 50-year-old man in front of his young son during a confrontation at a family arcade that began when Wilson said the man took his game card when he left it in a machine, police said.

• Christopher Olekisk was arrested and faces drug and weapons charges after a drug investigation turned up a cache including a flamethrower, multiple assault rifles, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, and body armor at a home in Camarillo, Calif., authorities said.

A Section on 12/09/2019

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