California

Sniper shoots three before being killed

A camouflaged sniper opened fire Saturday at a rural Southern California recycling center, wounding a worker and a deputy, then fled before being killed hours later in a shootout with deputies who had spotted him from a helicopter.

The helicopter pilot was wounded in the leg, but all three victims were expected to survive, Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

The sniper, described only as a male, fled the business, and deputies searched for him for hours in the area east of Irvine Lake in eastern Orange County.

The gunman was spotted by the helicopter crew about 4 p.m. and shot at the deputies before he was killed, Amormino said.

Amormino said deputies hadn’t determined a motive for the attack.

Oklahoma

School district changes dress code over lawsuit

An Oklahoma school district has revised its dress code to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of a sixth-grader who wanted to wear her Muslim head scarf to class.

Nashala Hearn, now 12, was suspended twice last year by the Muskogee Public School District for wearing the hijab. School officials said her clothing violated a dress code banning hats, bandannas and other head coverings — a rule intended to curb gang-related activity.

In March, the Justice Department joined a lawsuit filed on her behalf by a Virginia-based civil rights group. A federal judge approved the settlement last month.

Starting this fall, students can wear religious head coverings to school if they apply and have their requests approved by the school board, officials said.

Under the settlement, the district also must pay an undisclosed amount of money, said Leah Farish, Hearn’s lawyer. The lawsuit had sought $80,000 in damages.

Muskogee is about 125 miles east of Oklahoma City.

Arkansas

Black artist to unveil portrait of Clinton

Simmie Knox, the first black artist to paint an official presidential portrait, is preparing to unveil his oil painting of former President Bill Clinton in a ceremony Monday at the White House.

“My mind hasn’t completely wrapped around it yet,” Knox said in a telephone interview from his Silver Spring, Md., home. “Just imagine: I was born in 1935 in Aliceville, Alabama, a sharecropper, and now I’m painting the president. Can you imagine that?”

The self-taught artist, best known for his portraits of black celebrities like baseball legend Hank Aaron and comedian Bill Cosby, also will unveil a painting of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

At the former president’s request, the oil painting is set in the Oval Office. It will be the first presidential portrait in the White House collection to include the American flag.