Pizza unmasks cockfighting ring; bear hunt OK'd; pooping birds

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Four Confederate flags were taken down from the grounds of the Alabama Capitol on Wednesday as Gov. Robert Bentley became the first southern governor to order the removal of Confederate banners since last week's massacre at an African-American church.

The Republican governor, explaining his order, said the Confederate flag is part of the state's history, but said its presence on the Capitol grounds was a "distraction" in a state dealing with a multitude of issues.

"It has become a distraction all over the country right now," Bentley said. "Off and on, it has always been a distraction," Bentley told reporters Wednesday.

"In Alabama, this is part of our history and we need to honor that, but it's offensive to some people ... because unfortunately it's like the swastika. Some people have adopted that as part of their maybe hate-filled groups and that's a shame," Bentley said in a reference to the Confederate battle flag.

Four Confederate flags — the first three official flags of the Confederacy and the square-shaped Confederate battle flag — flew at each corner of an 88-foot-tall Alabama Confederate Monument beside the Alabama Capitol.

Bentley issued the order late Tuesday after ensuring he had the authority to have the flags removed.

State workers quietly and unceremoniously removed the four flags Wednesday morning by 10 a.m. and brought them inside the Capitol.

About a dozen people showed up afterward to either protest or praise their removal.

Mike Williams, state adjutant for the Alabama division of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, wore a Confederate T-shirt and carried a large Confederate battle flag to the Capitol grounds, standing by the monument where the flags once stood.

He said the flag "has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with heritage."

"My thoughts are if you don't change peoples' hearts, then changing flags won't make a hill of beans. You change hearts first. Removing peoples' heritage won't change peoples' hearts, except in the opposite direction," he said. Williams said a protest demonstration would be held later.

African-American legislators quickly praised Bentley's decision to remove the flags on his own accord, without a protracted legal or political fight.

"I am proud that the governor took the flag down from the Capitol grounds. That flag is a symbol of white supremacy," Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, said.

Sanders was one of 14 African-American legislators arrested for trespassing in 1988 when they tried to yank down a Confederate flag that, at that time, flew atop the Alabama Capitol dome.

Sanders said if people want to display the symbol on their own that is their choice, but, "it sends the wrong message" to have it on the Capitol grounds.

"Any flag that flies on the state Capitol should be a flag that unites us rather than divides us," Rep. Darrio Melton, D-Selma, said.

Calls to remove Confederate symbols that dot the Old South reignited after the massacre of nine people at a black church in South Carolina last week. The white suspect, Dylann Storm Roof, posed in photos displaying Confederate flags and burning or desecrating U.S. flags.

The Confederate flag used to fly over the Alabama Capitol, following a 1963 order from former Gov. George C. Wallace during a fight with the federal government over ending school segregation. It was removed in the early 1990s.

Bentley said he has not made a decision about what to do about a state specialty tag for the Sons of Confederate Veterans that has a likeness of the Confederate flag.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard on Wednesday said he also asked the House clerk to remove the Confederate flag from the historic House Chamber at the Alabama Capitol. The Legislature no longer meets in that room, but Hubbard said the flag would be a distraction in an upcoming special session on the state budget.

ATLANTA — Rapper Rick Ross is accused of forcing a man into a guesthouse at his suburban-Atlanta mansion and beating him in the head with a handgun, chipping his teeth and mangling his jaw so badly that he's unable to chew food, authorities say in court records.

Ross was taken into custody Wednesday by a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force and sheriff's deputies at the mansion in Fayette County, south of Atlanta.

Ross, 39 — whose real name is William Roberts — was jailed without bail on kidnapping, aggravated assault and aggravated battery charges, said Jim Joyner, a supervisor with the Marshals Service task force.

Ross' bodyguard, 42-year-old Nadrian James, faces kidnapping and aggravated battery charges stemming from the same incident, arrest warrants state.

The June 7 attack left the man with injuries that included two chipped teeth and a neck injury, authorities said.

"The victim lost use of his jaw and is restricted to soft foods and liquid diet only as a result of not being able to chew food," an arrest warrant states.

Ross and James are both accused of forcing the man into the guesthouse, down a hallway and into a bedroom, resulting in the kidnapping charges. Both are also accused of assaulting him.

Ross also faces an aggravated assault charge involving a Glock handgun. He's accused of using the gun to strike the man in the head and body, and also pointing the weapon at him.

"The victim was then questioned under duress and forced to answer questions at gunpoint," one of the arrest warrants states.

The court papers do not indicate what led to the attack, nor do they outline the relationship between Ross, the bodyguard and the man who was injured.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Ross and James have attorneys who could be contacted for comment. A message left at Maybach Music Group, Ross' record label, was not returned Wednesday morning.

When officers armed with the arrest warrants showed up at the mansion, once owned by boxer Evander Holyfield, someone inside refused to open the gate leading to the home, authorities said.

"They refused to open the gate, so we opened the gate for them," Joyner said.

Once officers got past the gate, someone inside opened the front door so they didn't have to break it down, Joyner said. Ross and the bodyguard were then taken into custody without incident, Joyner said.

"They didn't put up a struggle or anything," he said.

Ross made an initial appearance before a magistrate judge Wednesday morning and the judge denied bail, Fayette County sheriff's spokesman J. Allen Stevens said.

It was second time in the past two weeks Ross has been arrested in Fayette County. On June 10, Ross was booked into the county jail on a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession.

In that case, Ross and a passenger were pulled over because the windows of the Bentley in which they were riding violated tinting regulations, Stevens, the sheriff's spokesman, said at the time. The officer smelled marijuana and found some inside the car, Stevens said.

Of Ross' seven albums, five have debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200 chart and four have reached gold status.

He is particularly known for his 2010 single "Aston Martin Music."

A Florida Department of Corrections spokesman confirmed Wednesday — and Ross has previously said — that he worked as a correctional officer at a Miami prison in the mid-1990s.

The department supplied a record showing Ross worked at an institution called the South Florida Reception Center from Dec. 29, 1995, through June 16, 1997.

SARASOTA, Fla. — Florida wildlife officials have approved a new bear hunting season in the state.

After hours of impassioned public comment Wednesday, mostly in opposition to new hunting regulations, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved the first bear hunting in the state in 21 years.

Hunters applauded the decision, but critics like The Humane Society of the United States this week delivered petitions to Gov. Rick Scott bearing signatures of more than 90,000 people trying to stop the hunt of Florida's largest native land mammal.

The agency approved a "limited bear harvest," citing nuisance bear calls and an increase in bears killed by cars among the reasons for the need for a hunt.

Florida outlawed all bear hunting here in 1994.

JACKSON, Miss. — Both of Mississippi's Republican U.S. senators said Wednesday that the state should remove a Confederate battle emblem from its flag — part of a wave of officials across the Deep South reconsidering symbols since last week's massacre at a black church in South Carolina.

Sen. Thad Cochran said state symbols should reflect "unity and not divisiveness."

"As a proud citizen of Mississippi, it is my personal hope that the state government will consider changing the state flag," Cochran said. "The recent debate on the symbolism of our flag, which belongs to all of us, presents the people of our state an opportunity to consider a new banner that represents Mississippi."

Cochran's statement came hours after Sen. Roger Wicker said the flag used since Reconstruction "should be put in a museum and replaced by one that is more unifying to all Mississippians."

"As the descendant of several brave Americans who fought for the Confederacy, I have not viewed Mississippi's current state flag as offensive," Wicker said. "However, it is clearer and clearer to me that many of my fellow citizens feel differently and that our state flag increasingly portrays a false impression of our state to others."

The white man charged in the slayings of nine black worshippers, Dylann Storm Roof, had posed in with the Confederate battle flag in photos posted online before the attack in Charleston.

Mississippi's top officials are divided about the last state flag featuring the Confederate X. The state put the symbol on its flag in 1894, and voters reaffirmed the design in a 2001 statewide election.

Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, both Republicans, said this week that the design was settled 14 years ago. They said if it is to be reconsidered, it should be by another election rather than by the Legislature.

"It was put to a vote, and an overwhelming majority chose to keep the flag," Bryant said Tuesday. "Mississippians have the right to revisit that decision either through their elected representatives in the Legislature or through the initiative process."

The Republican state House speaker, Philip Gunn, and the Democratic attorney general, Jim Hood, said Christianity should compel the state to change the flag to remove a symbol many find offensive. State House Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden, a Republican, said Tuesday that the flag should be changed if it doesn't unify the state.

The state Legislature is out of session now and is scheduled to start meeting again in January. The governor could call a special session, but it's unclear if he will do that this year as he and other statewide officials and state lawmakers are seeking re-election.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat and the only black member of Mississippi's congressional delegation, said he does not display the Mississippi flag in his office because he does not want to offend constituents.

"This flag is not just some piece of cloth that bears no importance; it is the physical manifestation of a time of hate, oppression and slavery that split this country at its seams," Thompson said Tuesday. "It also serves as a barrier around the entire state of Mississippi telling everyone else in this country that progress is not welcomed here."

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee's plan to eliminate the Lady Volunteers nickname in all women's sports other than basketball remains off the agenda for Thursday's Board of Trustees meeting, after dozens of legislators asked the board to reconsider the school's decision.

Rep. Roger Kane sent a letter signed by 45 legislators asking trustees to discuss the matter. James Murphy, the board's vice chair, and University of Tennessee president Joe DiPietro replied Tuesday in an email that "we understand and respect your opinion and that of your colleagues, but we continue to hold that the decision in this matter rests with the Knoxville campus administration."

Kane's letter was first reported by the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Tennessee announced in November all its teams other than the women's basketball squad would be called the Volunteers starting July 1.

LENOIR, N.C. — Authorities say a woman typing an address into a maps application on her cellphone while driving caused a Caldwell County wreck that killed her father.

Multiple media outlets report North Carolina Highway Patrol says 61-year-old James Cherry was killed Tuesday when the vehicle he was in crossed the center line on Connelly Springs Road and hit a truck and a Jeep traveling in the opposite direction.

State trooper F.J. Beam says Cherry's daughter, 35-year-old Tequila Cherry, was looking at her phone using Google maps. Investigators say she caused the wreck.

Officials say six people were injured, but all had non-life-threatening injuries.

Beam says Tequila Cherry has been charged with driving with a revoked license. Beam says he will meet with prosecutors to consider if other charges will be filed.

BATON ROUGE, La. — The days of bird droppings raining down on LSU baseball fans are over.

The Advocate reports crews are attaching netting to the bottom side of the Alex Box Stadium grandstands overhang, a four monthlong project that's expected to keep the birds away.

Coach Paul Mainieri says construction began about two weeks ago and is scheduled to end just in time for fall practice in October.

The infield of Skip Bertman Field will be closed for the next 16 weeks as cranes and other construction equipment are used for the project. Crews will also replace the net protecting the grandstands from foul balls.

BRISTOL, Va. — The Birthplace of Country Music expects to use a new $1 million donation for programming, exhibits, improvements and as a cash reserve.

The Bristol Herald Courier reports the nonprofit organization's executive director Leah Ross made the announcement Tuesday. The Birthplace of Country Music is a music tourism promotional organization.

Three local foundations agreed to jointly provide the $1 million gift over the next three years to support and solidify operations of the organization.

Ross says the foundations, which include the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Foundation, the McGlothin Foundation and the United Company Charitable Foundation, represent the heart of the organization's mission of education, the arts and economic impact.

Ross also says the organization plans to use half of the unrestricted money for education and new equipment.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Governor Bentley has announced the creation of The Alabama Barbecue Hall of Fame by the Alabama Department of Tourism.

Multiple news outlets report Bentley announced Tuesday that 29 Alabama barbecue restaurants will be inducted into the group. Bentley says the hall of fame provides a way to celebrate the great restaurants that have made Alabama a tourist attraction.

Each of the inductees will receive a personalized plaque June 29 at a luncheon at Golden Rule Bar-B-Q restaurant in Irondale. Golden Rule, which opened in 1891, is considered the oldest barbecue establishment in Alabama.

The hall is a part of the Department of Tourism's "Year of Alabama Barbecue" promoting the heritage of Alabama barbecue. The promotion also includes a state barbecue website, a smartphone app, a photo exhibit, film and book.

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — Authorities say central Florida cockfighting ring has been brought down because some of the attendees ordered a pizza.

Polk County deputies went to the Winter Haven home Monday and reported finding 123 roosters and chickens, a fighting ring, "boxing gloves" for practice and ceramic spurs for the actual fights. Investigators say nine of the roosters were bred at the property and had been prepped to fight. The deputies learned about the operation from a pizza delivery driver who had taken an order to the home Friday night.

Eliut Juse Serrano Hernandez, who lives at the home, faces multiple charges, including nine counts of possession of animals for the purpose of fighting. Deputies say the 38-year-old admitted to owning the roosters and to holding fights there once or twice.

Two others at the home were arrested on unrelated drug charges.

ACWORTH, Ga. — An Acworth man has been arrested after police say he put weed killer in his co-worker's water bottle.

Multiple news outlets report Anthony Dunton was arrested Saturday and charged with four counts of aggravated assault after police say he put Roundup weed and grass killer in the victim's water. Acworth police say Dunton's co-worker realized his water tasted funny and foamed when shaken. Police say the co-worker set up a camera in his office and filmed two videos from two different days showing Dunton entering the office, removing the bottle and returning it moments later.

The employee alerted management, who alerted police.

Authorities arrested Anthony Dunton after an investigation.

Dunton's co-worker was not seriously injured, but sought treatment after experiencing kidney pain.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A light blue jumpsuit worn by Elvis Presley during concerts in 1973 is one of more than 170 items being auctioned at Graceland in August.

Graceland officials say the auction scheduled for Aug. 13 also will feature a jacket Presley wore in the film "Viva Las Vegas" and a diamond and gold necklace given to performer Sammy Davis Jr. by Presley.

The event will be the third auction of Presley artifacts at Graceland, Presley's longtime Memphis home that was turned into a museum after he died in August 1977.

Earlier this year, the acetate of "My Happiness," Presley's first ever recording, sold for $300,000.

Items in the upcoming auction will be offered from third-party collectors. None of the items will come from Graceland's own collection of Presley-related items.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — When Kentuckians erected statues honoring two of their state's most historic figures, they put former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in the center of the state's Capitol rotunda. They put his Confederate counterpart, Jefferson Davis, in the corner.

The two massive sculptures evoke Kentucky's complicated racial history as a state that never officially joined the Confederacy but did host a shadow Confederate government and supplied many soldiers for the South during the Civil War.

Now, nearly 80 years after then-Democratic Gov. Happy Chandler unveiled the statue of "patriot, hero, statesman" Davis, some prominent Kentucky officials are suggesting the Davis statue should be removed. The proposal — which has been raised before, without success — was revived by the shooting deaths of nine black people in a South Carolina church last week. A rambling, online diatribe professing allegiance to white supremacy and displaying the Confederate battle flag has been linked to the suspect in the killings, 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof. The shootings have also spurred new calls to remove Confederate flags that have official roles in South Carolina and Mississippi.

Republican Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers said Tuesday he now favors removing the statue. So does Matt Bevin, the GOP nominee for governor, and Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader of the U.S. Senate.

"It is important never to forget our history, but parts of our history are more appropriately displayed in museums, not on government property," Bevin said Tuesday.

Bevin has nine children, four of whom are black and were adopted. And Bevin's running mate, Jenean Hampton, is black — marking the first time an African-American has been nominated by a major political party for statewide office in Kentucky. But Bevin was one of several prominent Republican lawmakers who received campaign contributions from Earl Holt, president of the Council of Conservative Citizens that was mentioned in the manifesto linked to Roof.

Politico reported Bevin accepted a $500 donation from Holt in 2013 during his unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate against McConnell. Ben Hartman, Bevin's campaign manager, noted Bevin received more than 38,000 campaign contributions during his Senate campaign.

Hartman said Bevin and Hampton will each make a $500 contribution to the Warren County NAACP scholarship fund.

Democratic nominee Jack Conway said he supports South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's call for removing the Confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds there. But when asked about Kentucky's Jefferson Davis statue, he said: "I'll have to chew on that one a little bit."

"It's an important part of our history. I certainly think the flags ought to come down over South Carolina and Mississippi. Anything that a certain number of our people find offensive, I'd be willing to talk about, that's for sure," Conway said during a campaign event in Louisville.

A campaign spokesman later said Conway is open to the idea of moving the statue but first wants to talk with African-American leaders and members of "Kentucky's historical community."

Gov. Steve Beshear said Tuesday he asked the Historic Properties Advisory Commission, which by law determines what is displayed in the rotunda, to review the statues.

"While Davis' likeness hasn't been used in the same way as the Confederate flag, a broader discussion of the statue's position in the Capitol is due," Beshear said in a news release.

Momentum could be building slowly to remove Davis' statue.

Last year, a former Democratic state treasurer started a petition to remove it and replace it with a statue of Kentucky native Muhammad Ali.

Democratic state Rep. Reginald Meeks, chairman of the legislative black caucus, said lawmakers are discussing the statue's removal. He suggested a public referendum to let voters decide "because if you leave it to the political will of 138 legislators, I'm not sure that 'will' will be there."

Stivers told reporters on a conference call Tuesday that he decided the statue must come down after re-reading Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address, following the shootings in South Carolina.

"Think about what Jefferson Davis did, stood for. It was nothing that was contained within the Gettysburg Address," Stivers said. "And so you look at that and you really think about it and you have to wonder why we have that statue in the rotunda when that is not the philosophy of Abraham Lincoln or anyone else that tried to keep this nation together."

The Jefferson Davis statue was paid for with $5,000 in taxpayer money along with private donations, according to David Buchta, director of Kentucky's Division of Historic Properties. Davis is also memorialized with a 351-foot obelisk in Fairview, his birthplace. The state maintains the obelisk, museum and gift shop.

JACKSON, Miss. — A Hinds County judge ruled Tuesday that the state can proceed with a hearing that could revoke the license of a Clarksdale teacher over allegations that she cheated on state standardized tests.

Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas rejected arguments by Frances Smith-Kemp that she had to be convicted of a crime before the teacher licensure commission could hold an administrative hearing.

Thomas wrote in his ruling that Smith-Kemp's claim mashes together two separate laws, one that allows administrative hearings and a second that allows misdemeanor charges.

"Plaintiff misinterprets the plain language of both," Thomas wrote. "The two relevant statutes do not contradict one another; neither are the two statutes preclusive of one another."

The ruling dissolved a temporary restraining order that froze the commission's hearing after it had already begun on June 16. Patrice Guilfoyle, spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Education, said officials are determining when the hearing will restart. She declined further comment.

Thomas also wrote that it wasn't his role to step into an administrative hearing when Smith-Kemp has the option of a court appeal later.

"Plaintiff seeks to have this court prematurely interject itself into an administrative proceeding that both the Legislature and the courts have determined is within the exclusive purview of the agency," he wrote.

Smith-Kemp's lawyer had earlier filed suit in Hinds County Chancery Court and then appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Thomas only stepped in after a lawyer for the district tracked him down the morning that the hearing began. It's unclear why the district's lawyer intervened on Smith-Kemp's behalf.

The teacher worked at Clarksdale's Heidelberg Elementary School in 2012-13, when the department says she coached students during tests and altered or interfered with their answers. More recently, Smith-Kemp has worked at the city's Oakhurst Intermediate School.

Clarksdale Superintendent Dennis Dupree has maintained that the higher test scores are valid reflections of student progress.

The state started investigating the Clarksdale district in May 2014 after The Clarion-Ledger reported claims that test results were falsified at Heidelberg Elementary. The department said in August that testing security firm Caveon found "reasonable cause" to believe employees had broken security rules on state standardized tests, improperly inflating test scores at the school.

The state has yet to charge anyone else, but Smith-Kemp's lawyer said he believed others would face charges

BATON ROUGE, La. — Sticker-shocked lawmakers say they never intended to give away millions to Louisiana's solar power industry and its Wall Street investors.

Yet industry watchers say that's exactly what happened when a loophole was added to a tax credit program for home solar panel systems — metastasizing into a subsidy that has cost the state $147 million since 2009.

After five years, Gov. Bobby Jindal and lawmakers are reining in the program, which expires in 2017. During the recently adjourned legislative session, they capped solar spending at roughly $20 million next year and put in place tighter fraud controls as a part of their plan to close the state's $1.6 billion budget deficit.

The changes — estimated to save the state $19 million in the upcoming budget year — have the solar industry crying foul.

"They were trying to balance the budget and they picked on us disproportionately," said Tucker Crawford, CEO of South Coast Solar, whose company sells and installs panels, but does not lease solar equipment — the sector of the industry believed to cost the state the most. "Somehow out of the 400-odd tax credit programs, we got axed harder than most."

Lawmakers raised $559 million for next year's budget by scaling back a wide array of tax breaks, including for the solar industry.

Implemented in 2008, the solar tax credit program offered a generous benefit to those who bought solar panel systems: it covered as much as half the cost, paying out up to $12,500.

But in 2009, lawmakers also wanted poor people to enjoy the benefits of solar panels, which are expensive to purchase and install.

To do so, the Legislature opened the tax credit program to solar panel leasing companies. Lessors got the valuable tax credit, those who rented solar panels benefited from lower electricity bills.

That's when the costs of the program started to add up, said former Rep. Erich Ponti, R-Baton Rouge, who sponsored the loophole which he later tried to repeal without success.

"These leasing guys created a new industry," said Ponti, who resigned last week from the Legislature to take another job. "It ruined the solar industry for everybody."

Before long, Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs were investing in the lucrative business. Meanwhile, complaints of predatory leasing practices arose. Ponti said some consumers saw limited savings and shoddy work, while facing egregious contract opt-out provisions.

This fiscal year, solar panel lessors alone have applied for credits worth $45 million, according to state figures.

"If there's a hole, gap or loophole, there's people waiting to take advantage," Ponti said.

Just how much solar panel lessors have been paid by the state isn't clear. State solar tax credit data requested from the Louisiana Department of Revenue by The Associated Press was incomplete and inconclusive. The agency declined to provide more detailed figures.

Many lawmakers have resisted efforts to cut leasing companies out of the tax break because they felt it was unfair to poor people. Others were philosophically opposed to the state rewarding installers and sellers, while excluding leasing companies from the program.

Haywood Martin, chair of Sierra Club's Delta Chapter, says other energy industry lobbyists pushed for solar to bear the brunt of subsidy cuts — which lawmakers seemed happy to do.

"They didn't hardly touch the oil and gas industry," Martin said.

Former Democratic state Sen. Nick Gautreaux, who sponsored the initial 2007 bill that created the program, said it's unfortunate lawmakers targeted a tax break that helps homeowners and not just influential industries.

"This is for the taxpayer who wants to do something good," he said. "What about all these other tax credits that have been on the books for 50 years?"