newsmakers

newsmakers

Lohan ends probation, wins back freedom

LOS ANGELES

Lindsay Lohan’s days as a criminal defendant could be over — if she can behave herself.

A judge on Thursday ended the long-running probation of the problem-prone actress in a 2007 drunken-driving case after a string of violations, jail sentences and rehab stints.

The 25-year-old actress will remain on informal probation for taking a necklace without permission last year but no longer will have a probation officer or face travel restrictions and weekly shifts cleaning up at the morgue.

Lohan, wearing a powder-blue suit and black blouse, let out a sigh of relief as she left Judge Stephanie Sautner’s courtroom, possibly for the last time.

“I just want to say thank you for being fair,” Lohan told the judge. “It’s really opened a lot of doors for me.”

The judge said she wasn’t going to lecture the actress but gave her some parting advice.

“You need to live your life in a more mature way, stop the nightclubbing and focus on your work,” Judge Sautner said.

She reminded Lohan that she will remain on informal probation until May 2014 in the necklace case and could face up to 245 days in jail if she gets into trouble again.

Lohan now is free to focus on her career for the first time since May 2010, when she missed a court appearance and later was jailed for failing to complete the terms of her sentence.

Civil-rights museum exhibits lesbian photos

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.

An Alabama museum long focused on civil rights is introducing a new topic: Lesbian awareness in the South.

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute opens a new exhibit tonight featuring photographs of lesbian couples and families living in the Deep South.

Photographer Carolyn Sherer says her work is meant to encourage greater awareness and inclusion of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and people who are transgendered.

The museum director says the exhibit fits its overall mission of educating about civil and human rights. He says he’s gotten 125 emails in support of the exhibit and just one against.

Associated Press