BARTOW, Fla. (AP) — The mother of a 13-year-old girl who authorities say jumped to her death because she was bullied is suing the Polk County School Board, a construction materials company and a teenager accused of stalking her daughter.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in Polk County.

Rebecca Sedwick was 12 when she leaped to her death at an abandoned concrete plant in September 2013. A month later, the sheriff’s office arrested two of her classmates, ages 12 and 14, on charges of aggravated stalking. The charges were later dropped because of insufficient evidence.

Sedwick’s mother, Tricia Norman, is seeking more than $15,000. She alleges, among other things, that the School Board didn’t properly supervise the girl accused of stalking her daughter, and she accuses the construction company of negligent maintenance.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “American Idol” contestant Michael Johns, who appeared in season 7 of the hit Fox singing competition and was voted off in an eighth-round stunner, has died. He was 35.

The network and his family released statements Saturday confirming the Australian-born singer’s death.

His family says it appreciated the support streaming in from around the world but said the loss of “a wonderful husband, son, brother, uncle, and friend” was devastating.

Fox called Johns “an incredible talent” and a part of the show’s family who would be missed.

Johns had never been in the show’s bottom three vote-getters when he was eliminated in April 2008. After “Idol,” he released an album, “Hold Back My Heart,” in 2009.

The Hollywood Reporter says Johns died Friday. A cause of death wasn’t immediately available.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the condition of the American doctor stricken with Ebola seems to have improved from earlier reports.

Dr. Thomas Frieden tells NBC it was encouraging to see Dr. Kent Brantly walk out of the ambulance unassisted when he arrived at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital from Africa on Saturday.

Frieden said he understands the public’s concerns about Ebola, and the public health role is to ensure that the infection is not spread.

The CDC chief said old-fashioned practices are required to stop the spread of Ebola in West Africa. That means finding the patients and their contacts, making sure they’re treated, educating the public and doing rigorous infection control in hospitals. Ebola is only spread through direct contact of bodily fluids.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh police say a drunken woman tried to drive away in an unmarked police car — with two officers still inside.

According to a criminal complaint, 32-year-old Ria Buford got into the car at about 2:15 a.m. Saturday outside a nightclub that was hosting a party after the Wiz Khalifa concert.

Police say she sat in the driver’s seat and told the two plainclothes officers in the back that she intended to drive the vehicle to where her own was parked.

Police say Buford was arrested before she could drive anywhere. A man who intervened in her arrest was also charged.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for Buford. She faces a preliminary hearing Thursday on charges of robbery of a motor vehicle, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.

NEW YORK (AP) — When two U.S. aid workers sick with Ebola arrive in Atlanta from Africa, they will be whisked into one of the most sophisticated hospital isolation units in the country.

One of the Americans is due to arrive at the unit at Emory University Hospital on Saturday. The second is expected to arrive a few days later for treatment.

Both worked in a Liberian hospital that treated Ebola patients until they too were diagnosed with the disease.

It will be the first time anyone infected with Ebola is brought into the country. U.S. officials are confident they can be treated without putting the public in any danger.

Liberia is one of the three West Africa countries coping with the largest Ebola outbreak in history.

A former Miami Beach cop has been reinstated after arbitrators successfully argued a positive hit for cocaine on a drug test was caused by a homemade sexual enhancement cream.

Homicide Detective Reinaldo Casas tested positive for cocaine during the random test, despite his insistence he’s never done the drug.

The Miami Herald reports Casas blamed the positive hit on a cream concocted by “an old Cuban guy.” The homemade Vaseline-like cream was packaged in an unmarked purple container. The cop said of the substance he rubbed on his genitals, “it worked” — though he didn’t know what was in it.

The cop will not only be allowed back on the force, he’ll be given back pay for the time he was unable to work after his termination.

CHUBBUCK, Idaho (AP) — A 5-year-old girl is dead after police say another 5-year-old accidentally shot her at an eastern Idaho home.

Lt. Bill Guiberson of the Chubbuck Police Department says emergency workers responded to a Chubbuck home at about 3 p.m. Wednesday and took the victim to Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello. The hospital confirmed later in the evening the girl had died.

In a statement Thursday, police said adults were in the home at the time of the shooting but were in a different room.

It’s unclear whether the victim lived at the residence; the statement said only that she was there “visiting with friends” when the shooting happened. Police didn’t return a call Thursday from The Associated Press.

Investigators have not released the type of gun involved or said how the children got access to it.

No names or other details have been released, and police continue to investigate.

OKEMAH, Okla. (AP) — A man accused of killing two girls along a rural Oklahoma road, but who wasn’t arrested until after being questioned in his fiancée’s death three years later, has pleaded guilty in both cases. Kevin Sweat pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts of first-degree murder. He’d been scheduled to go on trial Monday.

The mysterious deaths of 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker and 13-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker went cold shortly after their bodies were found in 2008. The girls were fatally shot as they walked down a road near Weleetka.

Sweat wasn’t arrested in the case until after he was questioned in the 2011 death of his fiancée, Ashley Taylor.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty against Sweat but dropped plans after he agreed to waive his right to a jury trial.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A man on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in connection with a 2008 rape and homicide has been captured and brought to Louisiana, where the crime took place.

The FBI reports on its website that Jose Manuel Garcia Guevara surrendered to authorities in Mexico and was returned to Lake Charles, Louisiana, Wednesday morning.

Guevara is accused of breaking into 26-year-old Wanda Barton’s home in Lake Charles on Feb. 19, 2008, raping her and then stabbing her to death in the presence of her then-4-year-old stepson.

Guevara was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list last year. His was the 499th name to be added to the list, which was started in 1950.

State authorities in 2008 charged Guevara with second-degree murder, aggravated rape, and aggravated burglary.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge imposed a $1.3 billion civil penalty against Bank of America on Wednesday for its role in selling risky mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that were advertised as safe investments.

The fine was against Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America purchased in 2008 as the financial crisis was unfolding. It is the latest legal ruling against Wall Street.

A jury found in October 2013 that BofA was liable for Countrywide’s role in selling risky loans to the government housing agencies through a program nicknamed the “Hustle” from August 2007 to May 2008. The jury found that Countrywide executives deliberately misrepresented the quality of mortgages being sold.

In his blunt ruling, Judge Jed Rakoff said the program was “driven by a hunger for profits and oblivious to the harms thereby visited, not just on the immediate victims but also on the financial system as a whole.”

This is the first time a bank or its executives have been found liable under federal law for mortgage fraud leading up to the financial crisis, said Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement. It is also the first time civil penalties have been imposed on a bank or its executives for mortgage fraud.

“(It is) clear that mortgage fraud cannot be viewed as simply another cost of doing business in the financial world,” Bharara said.

A spokesman for Bank of America, which is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, said the bank is exploring its legal options following Rakoff’s decision, including an appeal.

“We believe (the penalty) simply bares no relation to a limited Countrywide program that lasted several months and ended before Bank of America’s acquisition of the company,” BofA spokesman Larry Grayson said.

Countrywide was one of many mortgage companies that sold risky mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac leading up to the housing bubble popping and subsequent financial crisis.

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and other big Wall Street banks have paid out billions of dollars in legal settlements for their roles in the financial crisis. For JPMorgan, the settlements mostly stemmed from its purchases of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers; in Bank of America’s case, it was mainly from its acquisitions of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch.

Rakoff imposed a separate $1 million penalty against Rebecca Mairone, a former Countrywide executive, for her role in the program. Lawyers representing Mairone did not immediately respond to a request for comment.