Nation briefs

MARYLAND

City reaches homicide record

Baltimore reached a grim milestone yesterday, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 45 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years. Police reported three deaths -- two men shot Thursday and one yesterday. The men died at local hospitals. With their deaths, this year's homicides reached 189, far outpacing the 119 killings by July's end in 2014. Nonfatal shootings have soared to 366, compared with 200 by the same date last year. July's total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun.

FLORIDA

Probation for killing puppy

A Florida woman has been given 2 years' probation for drowning a 3-week-old puppy in a Nebraska airport toilet. Cynthia Anderson, of Edgewater, Florida, was sentenced Thursday in Hall County District Court in Grand Island. She pleaded no contest in May to cruelly neglecting an animal, resulting in its death. A no-contest plea isn't an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing. During Thursday's hearing, Anderson, 57, apologized for her actions and pleaded for mercy and probation. Anderson was barred from boarding a Jan. 23 flight at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport because the puppy was so young and wasn't properly contained. Authorities say she then was seen entering the restroom. Another woman soon reported finding the Doberman puppy dead in a toilet.

HAWAII

7 protesters arrested

Seven men have been arrested for camping on Mauna Kea, where there's a new emergency rule restricting overnight access to the mountain because of protests against building a giant telescope there. The arrests early yesterday are the first enforcement efforts since the land board approved the rule July 10. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources says officers also issued six citations to those who voluntarily left.