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Nation briefs

Michigan

Man sentenced in theft from casket

FLINT — A community advocate in Michigan has been ordered not to attend open casket funerals as part of a plea deal reached in a theft case.

Art Wenzlaff, 76, was accused of taking a Detroit Pistons hat, a Timex watch and two bowling alley rings from a casket during a funeral service for his coworker’s father in Mundy Township. He was sentenced Monday to one day in jail and five years’ probation.

Wenzlaff pleaded no contest in August while facing charges of larceny in a building and disrupting a funeral or memorial service.

The larceny charge, which can carry a prison sentence, will be dismissed if Wenzlaff completes the probationary period without further issues, according to his attorney, Michael Manley.

Wenzlaff reached the plea deal because he “did not want to put the family through the stress of a trial,” Manley said.

Mississippi

Goodbye, Confederacy. Hello, Obama

JACKSON — A Mississippi school is shedding the name of the Confederacy’s only president and will instead be named for the first African-American president of the United States.

Davis International Baccalaureate Elementary School in Jackson was named decades ago for Jefferson Davis.

The school with 98 percent African-American enrollment is set to be renamed for Barack Obama in the next academic year, in a move proposed by parents and approved by a majority of students, parents, faculty and staff members.

The PTA president, Janelle Jefferson, announced the planned change at a school board meeting Tuesday.

“The students had overwhelming support for President Obama,” Jefferson told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

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