National Roundup

 Georgia

Police: Man dead after shooting on school’s campus
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — Police at Georgia's Columbus State University fatally shot a man over the weekend after officers responded to a report of someone with a gun, authorities said. A lawyer for the man's family said Monday that the man was unarmed and a visitor on campus.
Zikarious Jaquan Flint, 20, died Sunday after receiving two gunshot wounds, Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan said Monday.
University Police Chief Rus Drew said officers were called at 2:35 p.m. Sunday and arrived three minutes later to an area near some campus apartments and began pursuing a man on foot.
"There was a short foot chase and at some point the suspect turned and faced the officers and shots were fired," Drew said.
Stacey Jackson said he has been hired by Flint's family as a lawyer and spokesman. He told The Associated Press he went to the campus Sunday and spoke to three people who said they witnessed the shooting.
"All three witnesses were consistent in the fact that when Mr. Flint was shot, he did not have a weapon in his hand and, from what they witnessed, he was shot from behind," Jackson said by phone Monday. Drew told the Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus that a gun was recovered with the suspect.
 
Pennsylvania
Mom of slain girl, 10, now is facing cocaine charges
WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) — The mother of a 10-year-old southwestern Pennsylvania girl who was fatally shot in an apparent home invasion attempt is awaiting trial on charges she sold crack cocaine to an undercover informant.
But police in the city of Washington are stopping short of saying that's why the apartment was targeted by gunfire that killed Taniyah Thomas before dawn Monday.
Police say the girl was going from her bedroom to her mother's when a shot fired through their apartment door struck Taniyah in the head.
Police say Taniyah's mother was arrested on the drug charges in January. The mother's live-in boyfriend also has drug-related convictions in 2011 and 2013.
Police have questioned the couple but have yet to name or arrest any suspects in the shooting. 
 
New York
Student accepted by 8 Ivy League school programs
SHIRLEY, N.Y. (AP) — A 17-year-old Long Island student has applied to and was accepted at all eight Ivy League schools.
Kwasi Enin of Shirley began hearing from the schools on March 27.
The William Floyd High School senior tells Newsday that he couldn't believe it when "the yesses kept coming."
Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania all said yes.
He scored 2,250 out of 2,400 on the SAT. That places him in the 99th percentile for all students taking the exam.
Kwasi hasn't decided which college he'll attend. He's waiting to see what kind of financial aid he is offered. 
 
Connecticut
Woman charged with DUI in crash into storefront 
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut woman accused of plowing her car into a convenience store at a speed of up to 70 mph and injuring four people has been charged with drunken driving and other crimes.
Thirty-one-year-old Rosa Blanca Chavarria-Medina of Bridgeport was charged Monday with driving under the influence and reckless driving, among other things.
Police say Chavarria-Medina was exiting Interstate 95 in Fairfield on March 24 when her car smashed into five vehicles outside a Cumberland Farms store and crashed into the storefront. Four people were hospitalized. Police say it's lucky none of the injuries was life-threatening.
Authorities say Chavarria-Medina's blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit of .08.
Chavarria-Medina posted $5,000 bail. 
 
Kansas
Man is accused in guitar string decapitation
LYNDON, Kan. (AP) — A man accused of beheading a Topeka resident with a guitar string has pleaded innocent to premeditated first-degree murder.
Police say 29-year-old Paul Harris practiced voodoo and kept the head of 49-year-old James Gerety to talk to after the March or April 2011 killing.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Gerety's partial remains were found a year later in Carbondale, 18 miles south of Topeka.
Harris' former girlfriend testified in March that he told her he used a guitar string to sever Gerety's head. She said he disposed of the body but kept the head in a bag. A Topeka police officer said the ex-girlfriend told him Harris practiced voodoo and that he liked to talk to the head.
A judge on Monday set Harris' trial for June 23. 
 
Connecticut
Suspended priest charged with sex assault on minor
ENFIELD, Conn. (AP) — A suspended Connecticut priest charged in a federal firearms and explosives case has been arrested on allegations he sexually assaulted a minor.
The Rev. Paul Gotta was arrested Monday by East Windsor police on seven sexual assault charges. Police say the assaults took place over the span of a year beginning in January 2012.
Gotta is being held on $100,000 bail. His lawyer didn't immediately return an email or a voicemail left Tuesday seeking comment.
Gotta was administrator of St. Philip and St. Catherine churches in East Windsor when the Archdiocese of Hartford suspended him last year when the sexual assault allegations surfaced.
He also was arrested by federal authorities last year on charges including illegally transferring a gun, ammunition and explosive material to a juvenile. Jury selection will begin in May. 
 
New York
Report details racial gap among  nation’s children
NEW YORK (AP) — In every region of America, white and Asian children are far better positioned for success than black, Latino and American Indian children, according to a new report appealing for urgent action to bridge this racial gap.
Using a single composite score with a scale of one to 1,000, Asian children have the highest index score at 776, followed by white children at 704.
"Scores for Latino (404), American-Indian (387) and African-American (345) children are distressingly lower, and this pattern holds true in nearly every state," said the report.