At a Glance

Charges dropped against 10-year-old boy in playground injury

CANTON TOWNSHIP (AP) — Prosecutors are dropping an assault charge against a 10-year-old boy who was accused of hitting a 9-year-old classmate in the face with a rubber ball similar to a dodge ball.

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy says there’s a “better way to go forward” than to take the child to juvenile court. She encouraged the families to find a solution.

Students at a Canton Township school were playing a game called “tips” on April 29 in which kids jump to catch a ball. Authorities say the older boy forcefully threw the ball, leaving his classmate with a concussion.

The older boy’s mother claimed race was a factor in the investigation. Her son is black. Worthy, who is black, calls that “categorically wrong.”

Facial recognition policy plan revised

DETROIT (AP) — Police in Detroit have revised a plan to use existing facial recognition software only to help identify suspects following violent crimes or home invasions.

The Detroit News reports that using the technology to scan faces in real time during credible terrorism threats has been scrapped from the initial plan. The revised policy could go before a civilian police oversight board this month.

The facial recognition software produces possible matches to still images from social media, criminal mugshots and driver’s license photos. Analysts then examine the possible matches.

The technology has its critics with some saying it’s racially biased and threatens privacy.

San Francisco and Oakland already have banned the use of facial recognition technology by municipal agencies.

Court asked to hear Sandy Hook appeal

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The maker of the rifle used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal of a ruling that reinstated a wrongful death lawsuit against the company.

In its request this week, Remington Arms cited a 2005 federal law that shields gunmakers in most cases from liability when their products are used in crimes.

The gunman used a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle to kill 20 first-graders and six educators at the school in 2012. A survivor and relatives of nine victims sued the Madison, North Carolina, gun maker.

Connecticut’s highest court ruled Remington could be sued under state law over how it marketed the rifle to the public.

Judge to reconsider jail sentence for woman who fed strays

GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) — A judge wants to take a second look at a jail sentence given to a 79-year-old woman for refusing to stop feeding stray cats in her suburban Cleveland neighborhood.

Cleveland.com reports that Garfield Heights Municipal Court Judge Jennifer Weiler wants to hear the case herself after a 10-day jail sentence handed down to Nancy Segula by a city magistrate last week was widely criticized.

Segula admits repeatedly violating a city ordinance making it illegal for people to feed dogs and cats that aren’t their own. She was sentenced to jail after her fourth appearance in court for the violations.

She says she lost her husband and her own cats in 2017 and she began feeding the cats because she’s lonely.

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