Teacher suspended for stomping on flag

Teacher suspended for stomping on flag

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.

A North Carolina high school teacher says he has been placed on leave after students say he stepped on an American flag as part of a history lesson.

The Fayetteville Observer reported that Massey Hill Classical High School teacher Lee Francis said he was informed of his status by the Cumberland County Schools human-resources department. Francis said he’s scheduled to meet with system officials to discuss the incident stemming from a lesson in his history class.

News media outlets quote students as saying Francis asked students for a lighter or scissors, and when no one produced them, he put the flag on the floor and stomped on it. Reports quote Francis as saying on his Facebook page that he was discussing a court case involving flag desecration.

Senators criticize CEO of Wells Fargo

WASHINGTON

The CEO of Wells Fargo faced accusations of fraud and calls for his resignation Tuesday from harshly critical senators at a hearing over allegations that bank employees opened millions of accounts customers didn’t know about to meet sales quotas.

Members of the Senate Banking Committee showed bipartisan outrage over the long-running conduct, unsatisfied by Chief Executive John Stumpf’s show of contrition.

Stumpf said he was “deeply sorry” that the bank failed to meet its responsibility to customers and didn’t act sooner to stem “this unacceptable activity.” He promised to assist affected customers.

1 Air Force pilot dead, 1 hurt after ejecting

SUTTER, CALIF.

One American pilot was killed and another injured when they ejected from a U-2 spy plane shortly before it crashed in Northern California on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Air Force said.

The plane crashed shortly after taking off from Beale Air Force Base on a training mission around 9 a.m., military officials said. They did not release the pilots’ names or any information about the condition of the surviving airman.

Pipeline to reopen

ATLANTA

Gasoline should begin flowing again Wednesday – through a temporary bypass on a critical pipeline – after a major leak in Alabama forced a shutdown that led to surging fuel prices and scattered gas shortages across the South, a company official said Tuesday.

The roughly 500-foot section of pipe serving as the bypass is complete, but supply disruptions may continue for days, Colonial Pipeline spokesman Steve Baker told The Associated Press.

Report says staffing shortages hamper US wildlife refuges

PORTLAND, ORE.

Hundreds of national wildlife refuges that provide critical habitat for migratory birds and other species are crippled by a staffing shortage that has curtailed educational programs, hampered the fight against invasive species and weakened security at facilities that attract nearly 50 million visitors annually, a group of public employees and law enforcement said Wednesday.

Staffing at the nation’s 565 wildlife refuges and related properties shrank nearly 15 percent in the past decade, and more than one-third of those locations don’t have any staff on site, the Washington, D.C.-based Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said. More than half of the refuges no longer have their own manager and have been combined into massive “complexes” that are overseen by someone who might be hundreds of miles away, said Jeff Ruch, executive director of the nonprofit alliance.

Associated Press