■UNITES STATEd
Hybrids to make more noise
Electric and hybrid vehicles may be better for the environment, but the California Legislature says they’re bad for the blind. The State Senate passed a bill on Tuesday to ensure that the vehicles make enough noise to be heard by visually impaired people about to cross a street. The measure would establish a committee to study the issue and recommend ways the vehicles could make more noise. The state Department of Motor Vehicles says more than 300,000 of the vehicles are on state roads. Officials say they don’t keep statistics on pedestrian accidents involving those vehicles.
■BRAZIL
Gay adoption bill rejected
The lower house of Congress has rejected part of a pending adoption law that would have allowed gay couples to adopt children. A Wednesday statement from the Chamber of Deputies says a measure giving gay couples the right to adopt was withdrawn because federal law doesn’t recognize same-sex civil unions. A proposal granting same-sex couples the same rights as married heterosexuals has stalled in Congress for more than 10 years, prompting some states to take their own actions. Southern Rio Grande do Sul state has permitted same-sex civil unions since 2004, and a Sao Paulo state court allowed a gay couple to adopt a five-year-old girl in 2006.
■UNITED STATES
Teacher jailed for illicit sex
A former gym teacher will spend up to three years in prison for having sex with a 14-year-old freshman and sending the boy erotic text messages and nude photos of herself by cellphone. Twenty-seven-year-old Beth Ann Chester pleaded guilty to statutory sexual assault, corruption of a minor and criminal use of a cellphone. Moon Township police say the health and physical education teacher met the teenager last year at Moon Area High School, where she taught 9th grade and coached volleyball. Chester resigned in December and was arrested in early January after she confessed to having sex with the boy, including once in a school parking lot.
■PUERTO RICO
Man denies abuse charges
An animal control employee is denying charges that he abused animals when he helped round up some 80 pets from a housing project last year. Edgardo Santiago is one of three men accused of tossing the dogs and cats off a bridge to their deaths in the northern town of Barceloneta. Santiago testified on Tuesday that he stepped on a dog’s snout but only after it tried to bite him. He denied allegations that he dragged another dog across the floor. The killings received international condemnation and prompted calls for a tourist boycott of the US Caribbean territory.
■UNITED STATES
Elephant allowed to stay
Jenny the elephant isn’t going anywhere. The Dallas Zoo announced on Wednesday that the pachyderm that weighs around 4,535kg will remain at her home of 22 years following an intense controversy over plans to send the animal to a wildlife park in Mexico. The decision to keep the elephant in Dallas “serves Jenny’s best interests,” said the zoo’s executive director Greg Hutton. Dallas Zoo officials had planned to ship Jenny to Mexico after her companion died in May. African elephants become unhappy when left alone. But activists ripped the plan, saying 32-year-old Jenny is a nervous elephant who fears cars and would be miserable at the drive-through park in Mexico.
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