• Donavan DeBoer, school superintendent in Parker, S.D., created "Mr. Hot Dog," complete with eyes, teeth, a bun and mustard, to announce on social media school closures because of subzero temperatures, with the character saying: "I'm a hot dog! I need some heat! I'm not a cold dog!"
• Matt Bevin, governor of Kentucky, is being criticized for saying that school districts canceling classes because of cold weather are being too "soft" on students, stating that it "sends messages to our young people that if life is hard, you can curl up in the fetal position somewhere."
• John Dell'Osso, spokesman for the Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco, said a colony of about 60 elephant seals and 35 newborn pups took over a park beach during the government shutdown when there were no workers to shoo them away.
• Tracy Davis, a high school principal in Eunice, N.M., said classes were delayed so janitors could clean up the hallways after security video recorded six people in black clothing with hoodies and gloves pouring vegetable oil on floors.
• Harold Gordon, 69, pleaded guilty to fraud after he converted a plain writing desk into the "Bingham Family Civil War Memorial Secretary," which he sold to a New York antique dealer for $64,500 and which a Connecticut museum later bought, prosecutors said.
• Mark Espinosa, an armored-truck guard accused of fleeing with "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in a truck while a co-worker was collecting a pickup in a mall in Louisville, Ky., in early December, was arrested on a federal warrant near Hartford, Conn., the FBI said.
• Victor Vargas, 40, who supervised workers at the federal courthouse in Jefferson City, Mo., has pleaded guilty to knowingly selling 16 firearms to two convicted felons in 2018 and buying weapons on behalf of a felon.
• Jeremy Kelly, sheriff of Glascock County, Ga., said 19-year-old Deputy Joshua Ryer Jr. of Gibson, who had been with the sheriff's office about six months, was on duty when he died in a two-car crash that left the other car's driver hospitalized.
• Curtis Johnson, a Navy sailor, is facing a court-martial, accused of setting a building on fire at the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia in a bid to destroy urine samples and prevent the test results from being used against him in a separate case, prosecutors said.
A Section on 01/31/2019