• Amy Carter, a school superintendent in Meridian, Miss., said the district has apologized and made clear that all students are welcome after parents complained that a teacher sent a letter home saying that students won't be allowed to eat at a class holiday party if they don't provide food.
• John Greenwood, 27, convicted of causing a two-hour security lockdown when he ran naked through an airport in Daytona, Fla., screaming about a bomb threat, was sentenced to 10 years of probation and must pay $15,000 in restitution.
• Virginia Saavedra, 37, who went to a man's house in Sophia, N.C., and said she had just escaped an attempted kidnapping, faces more than a dozen charges after deputies said she stole the homeowner's pickup as he called 911 and led authorities on a high-speed chase.
• Lea Fistein, a veterinarian in Galveston, Texas, stuck her fingers into a bag of horse manure saying, "It is really pretty much non-toxic," just before the City Council rejected a proposal to require horseback riders to pick up after their animals on the beach.
• Sully the camel, Gus the donkey and Rufus the cow became celebrities when officers posted on a police website that the animals roaming together in Goddard, Kan., had put the Police Department "halfway toward a live Nativity," and have been booked to appear in a Christmas scene at the wildlife park where their owner works.
• Jaron Coleman, 40, a truck driver from Oakville, Ga., who pleaded guilty to dumping about 3,000 gallons of fuel on land near a creek, causing a school evacuation and a costly cleanup, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
• Paul Blom, 94, a World War II Navy veteran, will graduate from the University of Cincinnati more than 70 years after he took night courses there for nine years while working in the family trucking business, and the university determined that he had earned an associate degree.
• James Walters, police chief of Dade City, Fla., and his staff provided more than $4,300 to pay off 26 layaway accounts at a city Walmart and then called the customers to share the good news.
• Julie Ruttinger of Tecumseh, Mich., whose great-great-grandmother Fidelia Ford baked a fruitcake in 1878 that turned into a family heirloom, called it a tradition and a legacy to pass the 141-year-old cake, kept in an antique glass dish, on to the next generation.
A Section on 12/14/2019