American Scene

CONNECTICUT

Best Buy settles overcharging claims

HARTFORD | Best Buy Co. Inc. has settled a Connecticut lawsuit that accused it of advertising lower prices on some items on its website than at in-store kiosks, then overcharging customers at the stores.

The consumer electronics retailer did not admit wrongdoing as part of the 2007 lawsuit’s settlement, filed Monday in Hartford Superior Court.

It agreed to pay $399,000 to Connecticut’s government general fund and reimburse affected customers for the difference between the online prices and the higher in-store kiosk prices they were charged.

The number of customers and amount to which they might be entitled was not known Tuesday, but the company agreed to post information on the doors of each Connecticut store for potential claimants.

FLORIDA

Official: Gunman killed at school meeting

PANAMA CITY | A gunman was fatally shot by a security guard at a school board meeting Tuesday after he walked up to a podium, spray-painted a red “V” with a circle around it and began firing, a school official said.

Bay District spokeswoman Karen Tucker said former police officer Mike Jones, the head of the school district’s security, shot the gunman as he confronted board members. Mr. Jones is also a former board member, she said.

There were no other injuries. The gunman’s name has not been released.

Reporter Daniel Carson of the Panama City News Herald was at the meeting and said the man didn’t appear agitated while sitting in the back of the room.

Mr. Carson and other reporters said the man came to the podium and began talking, perhaps cursing. He pulled out a can of red spray paint and painted the “V” with a circle around it on a wall.

The man then pulled out what appeared to be a handgun and told everyone to leave except the male members of the board, Mr. Carson said. School board member Ginger Littleton hit the gunman with her purse, and he appeared to push her to the ground, Mr. Carson and other reporters said. He then started firing randomly.

It appeared that Mr. Jones had entered through another door and shot the gunman in the head.

GEORGIA

Woman arrested for wearing hijab sues

DOUGLASVILLE | A Muslim woman who was arrested after she refused to remove her head scarf in a western Georgia courthouse filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Douglasville and the officers who arrested her, contending they violated her constitutional rights.

Lisa Valentine said authorities trampled on her First Amendment rights in December 2008 when she was ordered to serve 10 days in jail for contempt of court after she refused to remove her hijab at a courtroom. She was released in less than a day, but her arrest infuriated Muslim rights activists and prompted changes in Georgia’s courtroom policy.

Her lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Georgia chapter.

After Miss Valentine’s arrest, a Douglasville judge ordered “special provisions” to be made for those wearing religious headwear. More sweeping changes came in July 2009, when the Judicial Council of Georgia voted to allow religious and medical headgear in Georgia courtrooms.

PENNSYLVANIA

First female president elected by Union League

PHILADELPHIA | The glass ceiling at Philadelphia’s tony Union League has finally been shattered.

On Tuesday, the 148-year-old exclusive social club inducted Joan Carter as its first female president.

Ms. Carter said the league she is inheriting is a more vibrant and inviting place than the one she joined nearly 25 years ago.

The Union League is among the nation’s oldest private clubs. It was founded in 1862 to support the Union and the policies of President Lincoln.

Today it’s known as a hub for hobnobbing, power lunches, debutante balls and pricey political fundraisers.

Like many private clubs, it was a bastion of wealthy white males until it admitted its first black member in 1974.

Ms. Carter was among the first women admitted, in 1986.

VIRGINIA

Feds: Man makes Metro bomb threat online

An Arlington man is accused of making a threat on Facebook to blow up the D.C. subway system, federal authorities say.

A judge ordered a mental evaluation for Awais Younis on Tuesday. He was arrested last week on charges of communicating threats across state lines.

A sworn statement from an FBI agent says Mr. Younis told a friend on the social-networking site that he could use pipe bombs to kill people on the Metro system and in the District’s Georgetown neighborhood. The friend alerted the FBI.

Mr. Younis also made threats online against the friend.

• From wire dispatches and staff reports