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Associated Press
SEATTLE — A Seattle seventh grader has won the national math bee.
Edward Wan of Lakeside Middle School won the 2016 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition Monday, beating 224 other middle school students nationwide. More than 100,000 students participated in local and state competitions leading up to the event in Washington, D.C.
Competition officials said in a news release the 13-year-old won the final round by answering the question, "What is the remainder when 999,999,999 is divided by 32?"
Wan gave the correct answer of 31 In just under seven seconds.
As national champion, Wan receives a $20,000 college scholarship and a trip to U.S. Space Camp.
Sixth grader Luke Robitaille, of Euless, Texas, was the runner-up.
In team competition, the Texas state team netted first place; California took second and Washington state captured third place.
Associated Press
DOVER, Del. — Three teenage girls have been charged in a high school restroom assault in Delaware that left a 16-year-old girl dead, authorities said Monday.
The Delaware attorney general's office announced the charges after meeting earlier in the day with the mother and older brother of the victim, Amy Joyner-Francis.
Joyner-Francis, a sophomore at Wilmington's Howard High School of Technology, died April 21 after a fight broke out shortly before classes were to begin.
Authorities said a 16-year-old girl, the only person believed to have struck Joyner-Francis, is charged with criminally negligent homicide, which is punishable by up to eight years in prison. Prosecutors said they will seek permission from Family Court to have the girl tried as an adult in state Superior Court.
The other two suspects, also 16, are charged with third-degree criminal conspiracy, which is punishable by up to a year in prison, they added. They will be tried in Family Court.
The Associated Press is not naming any of the suspects because they are juveniles.
Authorities noted that while the evidence indicates that all three suspects were involved in planning a confrontation with Joyner-Francis, only one actually hit her. Authorities did not disclose a motive for the confrontation.
"The individuals responsible for Amy Joyner-Francis's death are minors, but they must be held accountable for their actions," the state Department of Justice said in a statement.
Authorities disclosed Monday that Joyner-Francis died of sudden cardiac death, with a contributing factor of physical and emotional stress because of the physical assault. An autopsy did not detect any internal injuries or significant blunt force injuries.
Associated Press
BALTIMORE — A police officer charged in the Freddie Gray case chose Tuesday to stand trial before a judge rather than a jury, eliminating a potential wild card in the divisive and emotionally charged case.
Officer Edward Nero was one of three officers who arrested Gray when he made eye contact with one of them and took off running in a high-crime area in April 2015. The officers took Gray, a 25-year-old black man, into custody and he was placed in the back of a police van, where he was critically injured during a 45-minute trip to a nearby police station.
He died a week later, sparking protests and fueling the Black Lives Matter movement, becoming a rallying cry in the growing national conversation about the treatment of black men by police. On the day of his funeral, rioting and looting broke out and a city-wide curfew was imposed as the National Guard rolled in to help restore order.
Nero, one of six officers charged, faces assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office charges. His trial is scheduled to begin Thursday and is expected to last about five days. The trial is seen as a bellwether case for the other two arresting officers who face the same charges. They have all pleaded not guilty.
Nero is the second officer to stand trial. Late last year, a jury couldn't reach a unanimous decision in the case against Officer William Porter, who checked on Gray several times after he was put in the police van.
While selecting the jury pool for Porter's trial, all potential jurors acknowledged that they were aware of the case and the $6.4 million settlement the city paid to Gray's family.
Nero's decision means that means Circuit Judge Barry Williams will hear the case. The trial will likely focus more on technical legal arguments than Porter's trial.
The trials for the officers have been on hold for about five months while attorneys argued about whether the officers should be forced to testify at one another's trials. Maryland's highest court ruled they did, and one of the officers is expected to take the stand in Nero's trial.