National Roundup

California
Grumpy Cat snatches lump of cash in court
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — It still won't make her smile, but Grumpy Cat has won some scratch.

A California jury gave the furry frown queen more than $700,000 this week in a federal lawsuit over the use of her identity.

According to documents obtained by The Washington Post, owner Tabatha Bundesen of Morristown, Arizona, won the lawsuit first filed three years ago against the Grenade beverage company.

She signed on for the cat to endorse a "Grumpy Cat Grumpuccino," but the company subsequently used the cat's image to help sell other products, which an eight-person jury on Monday found was unauthorized.

Grumpy Cat, whose dwarfism and underbite give her the permanent frown she's famous for, became an online phenomenon-turned-merchandising-machine after Bundesen first posted pictures of her in 2012.

Alabama
Gay candidate barred from running for sheriff by GOP
ATHENS, Ala. (AP) — A gay businessman and one-time police officer who is married to another man says GOP leaders in a north Alabama county refused to let him run for sheriff after a review that included questions about his sexual orientation.

Jason White told the News-Courier of Athens that members of the Limestone County Republican Executive Committee voted Tuesday to deny his bid for sheriff in a decision he believes is linked to the fact he is gay. "I think it is obvious," he said.

White, 40, said he now plans to run for sheriff as an independent, and Republicans must find another candidate if they want an opponent for longtime incumbent Mike Blakely, a Democrat.

"I'm disappointed, but I'm not deterred," said White, who spent 22 years in law enforcement and co-owns a private security company in Huntsville.

Noah Wahl, chairman of the county GOP executive committee, declined comment on the committee's reason for denying White's candidacy, the newspaper reported.

A former Athens police officer, White qualified to run for Limestone County sheriff in 2002 but lost in the primary. White said all he had to do to qualify as a candidate then was complete qualifying papers and pay a qualifying fee.

White, who was married to a woman at the time, has since divorced and married former Navy SEAL Brett Jones in Indiana; the two men live in the county and have a teenage son. Jones has published a book about coming out as gay and leaving the military.

In qualifying to run this year, White had to fill out a form that includes questions about whether candidates have ever voted for a Democrat; if they believe "in the traditional definition of marriage;" and if they were "committed to protecting life at all ages."

About two weeks before the vote, White said a county Republican steering committee asked for an interview in which he was asked to name two weaknesses as a candidate.

"I said the fact I was fired and that I'm gay," White said. White said members then had a lengthy conversation that included remarks like, "We don't think we'd be able to raise any money for you," and "We're a small Southern town; how are we going to get around that?"

White said the committee spent more time talking about his sexual orientation than his dismissal by the Athens Police Department in 2012 over allegations he wrongly used a state crime database to look up information linked to his ex-wife.

Before the vote Tuesday, White said members of the county committee asked whether he voted for Donald Trump for president.

"I said, 'No, I voted for Gary Johnson (the Libertarian candidate),'" White said. "You'd think I had stabbed them."

Wahl called later to say about two-thirds of the 34-person committee had voted against letting him run, White said.

Republicans could still get someone in the race since prospective candidates have until Feb. 9 to file qualifying papers.

Louisiana
Man waits for shot at freedom 2 years after landmark ruling
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A landmark ruling by the nation's highest court gave Henry Montgomery his first chance at freedom after nearly a half-century behind bars. Two years later, the 71-year-old Louisiana man is still waiting for a parole hearing that could set him free.

Thursday is the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Montgomery's favor. The decision enabled roughly 2,000 inmates to argue for their release after receiving mandatory life-without-parole sentences as juveniles.

Louisiana's parole board was scheduled to hear Montgomery's case on Dec. 14 but postponed the hearing until Feb. 19.

Montgomery was 17 when he killed a sheriff's deputy in 1963.

The Supreme Court decided in 2012 that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional "cruel and unusual" punishment. The justices made their decision retroactive in Montgomery's case.

The decision ushered in a wave of new sentences and the release of inmates from Michigan to Pennsylvania, Arkansas and beyond. But other former teen offenders are still waiting for a chance at resentencing in states and counties that have been slow to address the court ruling, an Associated Press investigation found. In Michigan, for example, prosecutors are seeking new no-parole sentences for nearly two-thirds of 363 juvenile lifers.

Justice Anthony Kennedy said prisoners like Montgomery "must be given the opportunity to show their crime did not reflect irreparable corruption; and, if it did not, their hope for some years of life outside prison walls must be restored."

A state judge who resentenced Montgomery to life with the possibility of parole said in June that he's a "model prisoner" who appears to be rehabilitated.

Montgomery initially was sentenced to death after a jury convicted him of fatally shooting Charles Hurt, an East Baton Rouge sheriff's deputy.

After the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled he didn't get a fair trial and threw out his murder conviction in 1966, Montgomery was retried, found "guilty without capital punishment" and automatically sentenced to life without parole.