• Jentezen Franklin, senior pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Ga., and a spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, has gone into quarantine after testing positive for covid-19 as the church announced it will hold its Christmas Eve candlelight service virtually.
• Richard Stringer, sheriff of Washington County, Ala., acknowledged that a family was "very dysfunctional" after James Coker, 60, discovering his dog had been shot, confronted his 32-year-old son, Kelvin Coker, in an argument that ended when the two men fatally shot each other.
• Stephanie Durbin, 35, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., faces abuse and neglect charges after a girl in her care, found unresponsive at Durbin's home, died of "acute fentanyl intoxication," authorities said.
• Stephan Balliet, 28, described by German prosecutors as a right-wing extremist, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of attacking a synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur, killing two people while broadcasting the attack live on social media.
• Jeremy Fairbanks, 44, a former property developer in St. Albans, Vt., convicted of bilking an investor out of more than $210,000 by promising to build a house and then using photos of other homes to show how the work was going, was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
• Keirra Clark and Patricia Sandifer, two detention officers at the Hinds County jail in Raymond, Miss., were placed on leave after they were charged with attempting to smuggle drugs and cellphones into the jail, sheriff's Capt. Tyree Jones said.
• Joshua Burks, 36, of Mobile, Ala., a Marine veteran first charged with reckless manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy during a turkey hunt organized for veterans, was indicted by a grand jury on a capital murder charge.
• Terri Yellow Hammer, 28, of Fort Yates, N.D., who pleaded guilty to driving impaired and causing a crash that killed Conan Magilke, 51, of Lampasas, Texas, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, drawing complaints from the victim's family who told a judge that the sentence wasn't harsh enough.
• Colleen Bousliman of Rio Linda, Calif., said a neighbor who was rescued while wearing a red Santa Claus suit when his powered-parachute aircraft became entangled in power lines as he dropped candy canes to neighborhood children, was trying to add "to the brightness of the holiday season."